The spring meeting of South Texas Presbytery coincided with Fiesta San Antonio, an 11-day celebration commemorating the Battle of the Alamo. A few elders were late arriving to the Saturday morning meeting due to parades and festival-related road closures and traffic. The city stops for these few days to remember and celebrate its history.

San Antonio is the largest city in South Texas Presbytery, the second-largest in Texas, and the seventh-largest city in the U.S. Yet, there are only five PCA congregations for San Antonio’s 1.4 million people. By comparison, San Antonio’s population is seven times larger than Birmingham, Alabama, which has twice as many PCA congregations. Though the presbytery has made progress in multiplying churches in South Texas, there is yet much work to be done. 

Austin, the presbytery’s other major metropolis and the fifth-largest city in the state, sits 75 miles northeast from San Antonio and is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country. Trying to keep up with the church planting needs in these two cities alone is difficult. But South Texas Presbytery stretches all the way to the Gulf and the Mexico border. Corpus Christi, Laredo, and College Station are also within the presbytery’s bounds. 

The population within the bounds of South Texas Presbytery is larger than most states.

The presbytery convened the last weekend in April in New Braunfels, a city with its own unique origin story as a settlement of German immigrants. Because of the geographical size of the presbytery — some churches are a six-hour drive from each other — committees meet on Friday afternoon to conduct their business before the formal meeting begins on Friday evening.

Christ Presbyterian Church in New Braunfels hosted the meetings. As part of its welcome, the church cooked and served dinner to the elders on Friday and led the opening worship service that followed. The host pastor, Nick Bullock, preached the sermon and invited everyone in attendance to join a time of fellowship afterward at the home of a church member. 

The meeting officially recessed after the worship service, and the business resumed on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. 

South Texas Presbytery came into existence 42 years ago when it was carved out of Texas Presbytery, which covered the entire state. When it started, South Texas Presbytery had seven churches. Today, the presbytery has 25 congregations with around 8,000 members. Originally, the presbytery also included the Houston Metro, but that region formed its own presbytery in 2003. 

About 75 people attended the meeting on Saturday, with Josh Keller, associate pastor at All Saints Presbyterian in Austin, serving as moderator. At the beginning of Saturday’s business, he invited the elders to huddle into small groups and pray for the presbytery’s church planting and revitalization efforts. Though the presbytery has been adding a new church every other year, he reminded the elders of the great need to add more church plants and develop more church planters. 

After a season of prayer, the presbytery heard and acted upon reports from its various committees. 

Background Checks

Led by its Administrative Committee, the presbytery heard a first reading of proposed changes to its standing rules to add a policy regarding background checks for candidates and ministers. The new policy requires the presbytery’s candidates and credentials committees to conduct background checks on all candidates seeking admission into the presbytery. 

The policy requires that the background check include the following:

• Confirmation of education and employment 
• Local criminal record check 
• State criminal record check 
• Federal district criminal record check 
• State central child/dependent adult abuse registry check 
• State sex offender registry check 
• An internet and social media search (conducted by the committee)

The committee also created a list of questions regarding a candidate’s character for the committee to consider when examining new ministers. The new policy also states that character exams, whether written or oral, must include “questions related to abuse” and “protecting the vulnerable.”

The expense for each background check will be covered by the presbytery. All screening results must be received and reviewed prior to the first presbytery meeting at which the candidate or transfer will be examined. 

Elders at the meeting raised the question about deacons and ruling elders. The committee recommended that local churches undertake the effort to conduct background checks on existing and new officers. The new rules must still be considered and voted on at the next meeting before they are officially approved. 

Church Planting

The presbytery also heard reports on its church planting efforts. Reach South Texas is the presbytery’s church planting and revitalization initiative, led by Luke Evans. Currently, the presbytery has three church plants in the works:

• Resurrection Presbyterian, led by Adam Radcliff, is a daughter church of All Saints Presbyterian in Austin. At this meeting, the mission was approved to particularize, which means it has matured to the point of electing its own officers. 
• Grace Mosaic Church is a church plant on the west side of San Antonio led by Adam Lopez. It began public worship services four months ago.
• The presbytery is launching a new church plant in East Austin led by Danny Morgan, who has just begun gathering a core group.

Even with this progress, elders emphasized the need to raise up more planters and multiply congregations throughout the region. While the South Texas Presbytery has several churches in the Rio Grande Valley, this growing region needs more church plants. Presbytery members emphasized the need for a focused effort to plant more churches in this part of the state. 

Ministry Reports

Texas’ two largest universities are located in South Texas Presbytery, and the presbytery heard a ministry update from Grant Carter, who is leading Reformed University Fellowship at Texas A&M. The campus holds the distinction of being the first RUF chapter west of the Mississippi River. Carter, a Texas native, reported on the spiritual awakening of a freshman who compared his experience to that of the men on the road to Emmaus. Now the young man is attending Westminster Presbyterian Church in Bryan. 

South Texas Presbytery was the site for one of the nation’s worst flash floods when more than 120 people died in flooding along the Guadalupe River in July 2025. Mark Becker, who leads the PCA’s disaster relief efforts in the region, gave a report to the presbytery. He emphasized that churches need to be better prepared in order to better respond in moments like last July’s flood. A number of churches have joined together to form a network to collaborate together in responding to disasters. 

With a significant immigrant population within its bounds, a number of congregations have been impacted by recent immigration policy changes. One church lost its pastor when his temporary protected status as a refugee was revoked. He and his family relocated abroad, and he is now without call while he seeks an opportunity to serve. 

As the presbytery reviewed and approved various changes in calls for ministers, the elders took time to celebrate the ministry of a teaching elder who was granted honorably retired status after serving over three decades in the presbytery.

The presbytery concluded its work and adjourned around 10:15 a.m. Many ministers had a three-to-five-hour drive before arriving home and preparing for Sunday worship. Hopefully, the parade routes were cleared for the return journey. 

Andy Jones serves as the editor of byFaith.