Links to previous stories

First Baptist Church Pastor Resigns
https://spiritofabilene.com/2024/04/07/first-baptist-church-pastor-resigns/
FBC Moving Forward After Pastor Resignation
https://spiritofabilene.com/2024/04/15/fbc-moving-forward-after-pastor-resignation
FBC Welcomes New Pastor
https://spiritofabilene.com/2023/01/26/fbc-welcomes-new-pastor
First Baptist Names New Pastor
https://spiritofabilene.com/2022/12/19/first-baptist-names-new-pastor

By Loretta Fulton

The congregation at First Baptist Church will vote Sunday, July 7, on whether to accept a proposal from the church’s personnel committee to ask Matt Cook to be the interim senior pastor.

A town hall discussion was held Sunday evening, June 30, and no further discussion will take place July 7 before the vote. Cook was present for the June 30 meeting to answer questions. Church members had been asked to submit questions online before the meeting, and those were addressed. 

“The tone was very positive,” said Allan Frizzell, chairman of the pastor search committee that eventually will recommend a candidate for senior pastor. In the meantime, pending a congregational vote, Cook will serve as interim. It’s a role he is very familiar with. Cook served in the same capacity while First Baptist was searching for a replacement for Phil Christopher, whose retirement was effective Sept. 26, 2021. Christopher had served as senior pastor since 1995. Based on the town hall discussion, Frizzell said, Cook is likely to fill that role again. 

“I expect the vote to go positively in his favor,” Frizzell said.

If that happens, Cook’s first Sunday in the pulpit will be July 28. Staff at First Baptist have filled in since the unexpected resignation in April of Brandon Hudson, who served as senior pastor for just over a year. Hudson resigned following a DUI arrest on March 23 while driving from Lubbock to Abilene on U.S. Highway 84. A resignation letter was read to the congregation on Sunday, April 7. 

The process for selecting a new senior pastor is the same process that the church followed when choosing Hudson. He was named pastor on Dec. 18, 2022, and his first Sunday at First Baptist was Feb. 5, 2023. 

Cook, the personnel committee’s recommended interim pastor, is director of the Center for Healthy Churches, which assists with transitions, pastor searches, consulting, and other congregational needs. The center was hired again, as it was during the previous search, to assist with the current transition, Frizzell said. 

The new senior pastor, when selected, will be the 21st to serve First Baptist Church. Located in the heart of downtown Abilene, First Baptist is one of the city’s oldest churches, having been founded on Dec. 17, 1881, just nine months after the city’s founding on March 15, 1881.

“Today the church is still as strong and vital to the downtown area as it was in 1881,” its website states. 

First Baptist is well known for its extensive outreach ministries to the city, including GLO (God’s Little Ones) childcare center, City Light Community Ministries, and a counseling center.

Loretta Fulton is creator and editor of Spirt of Abilene