RENO, Nev. (BP) – A passion for missions brings growth. South Reno Baptist Church is proof.
Joe K. Taylor was called to the congregation in December 1993, when there were 42 people on roll. A Texas native who wanted to minister outside of the Bible Belt, Taylor brought a passion for missions that has since been at the center of the church’s growth to as many as 600 on Sundays.
“We give God all the glory,” he said. “I’m very humbled to be in the West, but feel like our church ministers all over the world.”
This year has been South Reno’s most active, with trips taken or planned for Peru, Uganda, Southeast Asia, Mexico and Canada as well as supporting a local church start.
Taylor was the student minister at Lamar Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, when he took his first mission trip. It was to Africa and opened up a new door to experiencing his faith.
“I loved Africa, and went there twice with the church,” he said. “When I came to South Reno, we were pretty small, behind on our building payments and stuff like that. We weren’t in a place to do missions like that.”
There was also a physical limitation. His second week as pastor, Taylor broke his back while on a tubing trip. He missed two months in the pulpit, then spent the next nine preaching from a chair.
Not long after that, however, the church took its first mission trip. That one was to Mexico, followed by another one to Canada and then Uganda.
Several individuals helped facilitate South Reno’s expansion into missions. Keith Brown, a doctor, moved into the area and brought with him experience facilitating mission trips for large churches.
“He was very strategic in getting our policies together,” Taylor said.
Joseph Savage was a veteran teacher of 18 years in the local school district when he began feeling a call to missions. At 44 years old and raising teenagers, though, it was unclear how that would look.
“I was saved at 14 and doing the things I was supposed to be doing – reading my Bible and going to church. I pursued the American dream and had a wife and kids and served in the church,” he said.
A mission trip to Southeast Asia shook that perspective. It wasn’t just the work of the local believers and churches, but that of Southern Baptist missionaries. A pivotal time came in January 2023 when he attended a Missions College held by the International Mission Board at its training center outside of Richmond, Va.
“My heart was to minister both to our field workers as well as our people back here at home into the field so that they can experience a call,” he said.
He resigned from education – turning down the offer of a one-year leave of absence in the process – at the end of the 2022-23 school year. Currently he is taking classes at Gateway Seminary while serving the church as youth and missions pastor.
Students have been part of the mission trips, such as a recent one to Lima, Peru. Those experiences can only help the next generation grow with a heart for missions and the Gospel, Savage said.
“It’s the same for them and adults. We can get stuck in our day-to-day life and not look outside of our own perspective,” he said. “It opens their eyes if we can get them to other places where they see people with a deeper need for the Gospel as well as those with a genuine faith that is tested in ways we don’t experience here.”
About five years ago the church paid off its building. Taylor had an idea to keep making payments, but to South Reno’s missions budget. That added $28,000 a month to the missions budget and is a major reason any member can go on a trip and pay no more than $500.
“We have about 75 people in our church going on these trips,” he said. “We have one or two who go on multiple trips, but want people to have the opportunity to go.”
Taylor has a neuromuscular disease called Myasthenia Gravis. The relationship with his doctor grew to the point where Taylor led him to the Lord. One day during a checkup Taylor said he needed some infusion therapy for an upcoming trip to Israel.
“He said, ‘Oh no, you’re not going to Israel,’” Taylor recalled. “I said, ‘I am going to Israel.’ Then he said, ‘Well, you’re not going without me, because I want you to baptize me in the Jordan River.’”
The doctor who had been accustomed to traveling first class with upgrades has since come to love the mission trips and can’t get enough of sharing Jesus, Taylor said. That spirit has spread to others in the church.
Preston Yoshioka moved from his native Hawaii to California and then on to Reno with his job as an instructional designer for one of the engineer groups at Google. He has managed several mission trips for the church but is focused on Lima.
“Last year to Peru was my first mission trip, and I came back completely changed,” he said. “I received a whole new perspective on the harvest being plentiful and the need for workers.”
He maintains consistent contact with the IMB missionary and others in Lima. They share prayer requests and how things are going at their respective churches. A chicken sale to help raise funds for a new building went well last weekend, Yoshioka learned on Sunday.
“When you see what churches look like and what they do in different parts of the world, you get a unique perspective on the impact and power of smaller churches,” he said.
“It changes everything about what it means to be a part of the body of Christ.”
