SUWANEE, Ga. (BP) — Georgia preacher Levi Skipper will be heading west to serve as lead pastor of a Texas megachurch.
Sagemont Church, a Southern Baptist congregation with some 16,000 members in Houston, announced Sunday that Skipper had been called as lead pastor.
Skipper, with 17 years of experience as a senior pastor, has led the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s (GBMB) church strengthening and evangelism teams since 2019.
Skipper and his wife, Christa, announced the move Sunday on Facebook.
“We are looking forward to all that God has in store for our family and Sagemont,” they said.
A graduate of Shorter University, a Southern Baptist school in Georgia, Skipper received a Master of Divinity degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctorate from Luther Rice College & Seminary in Atlanta.
Skipper has been a regular speaker at evangelism conferences and revivals and has held numerous evangelistic crusades overseas. He also was instrumental in founding a theological school that has equipped more than 300 pastors in Ethiopia.
During nine years as senior pastor at Concord Baptist Church in Clermont, that congregation tripled in size and became known for its financial support of missions through the Cooperative Program.
After leaving Concord in 2019 to join the GBMB staff, Skipper helped establish a strategy of equipping local churches with effective tools for evangelism.
“Among those resources, he developed and wrote The Domino Effect: Building an Evangelistic Culture in the Life of Your Church, and No Sweat Evangelism,” the Sagemont search team said. “With these tools for personal evangelism, over 10,000 people have been trained across the state.”
After a year overseeing evangelism, Skipper was promoted to lead the Mission Board’s church strengthening team.
“In this role, Levi oversees the following statewide ministry teams: evangelism, missions, worship, discipleship, next gen ministry, Baptist Collegiate Ministry, young leader network, and the Hispanic ministry, along with continued opportunities to preach on a weekly basis to churches of all sizes throughout Georgia,” the search committee said. “Along with his resources on strategies for evangelism, Levi has also developed the following tools for training church leaders. These include: No Sweat Discipleship, Ride the Waves, Your Ministry Zone, and Time Management Training, as well as Marriage In the Red, a resource tool for married couples.”
The search team cited “such a plethora of experience in church growth and leadership strategies, coupled with his pastoral care for the local church and his heart for evangelism and missions” in recommending him as lead pastor.
Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director W. Thomas Hammond Jr. said Sagemont is getting one of the Southern Baptist Convention’s most gifted preachers, a loving pastor, and a strong administrator.
“His evangelistic zeal will lead Sagemont to new heights,” Hammond said.
The Skippers have four children, Garrison, 20; Mattie, 18; Gavin, 16; and Marlee, 14.
