MID WEEK MOTIVATION - October 8, 2025 (Guest: Sam Henderson)

You're listening to the Midweek Motivation Podcast from DeSoto Hills Baptist Church in South Haven, Mississippi.

Here's your host, Mark Lewis, David Burgess, Laura Ulrich, and Pastor Grant Steagall.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for October the 8th here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis sitting here with Grant Steagall.

It is fall break week, and so we are not recording a full podcast this morning, but we did want to recast a message that Sam Henderson brought to our church a few weeks back.

Grant, mention Sam Henderson again, and just so that our listeners know who we're talking about.

Sam is the pastor at um Redemption Church Coldwater.

I always pause so I get that right.

Redemption Church Coldwater.

It's a church plant they've been meeting just over a year and services just over a year that he started before that.

But um great.

It was good to have Sam.

Once a month financially, and we're really looking into ways that we can be more kind of boots on the ground there to help them as well, which would be fantastic.

And so uh he's he's got a precious heart, and we certainly wanted you to hear his message if you weren't able to catch it when he brought it to us here uh back on Sunday night, September the 28th.

So uh we hope that you enjoy this recast.

We'll be back next week with a regular midweek motivation episode.

Good evening.

Seems like every time I come here, I find somebody from my past.

There's a handful of you who've known me at different stages in my life, all the way back to kindergarten.

Mark and I in high school, David and I at Life Way back in the day.

So it's really funny to come here because I almost feel at home every time I do, because I keep running into people I haven't seen in 10, 15, I'll be 39 next week, 20 years, which is weird to say, decades now, right?

So it's really nice to come here and feel at home.

But I should feel at home, right?

Because we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

Amen.

And as brothers and sisters in Christ, part of um our mission together is to take the gospel to the nations, right?

But it's also to take it to our neighbors and those across the street.

And that's what you guys are doing with me.

As a church planner in Coldwater, Mississippi, you know, that that town that's so, so far away, at least it feels like it's far away once you get to driving down there.

And you think, why do we need more churches in Mississippi, right?

There's about eight really good ones on this stretch of road.

Well, the statistics easily show us in a place like DeSoto County or Tate County that on Sunday mornings, if you took all the people in those counties and then tried to shove them in churches, uh, gospel preaching and non-gospel preaching, I'll put it that way, you'd still lack hundreds and hundreds of churches.

So even in a place like Tate County, smaller than DeSunty, you would need 200 more churches.

Now that's wild to think, right?

That's wild to think because we're in the buckle of the Bible belt, and it feels like why have another church?

Well, last time I checked, there's still lost people, amen.

And I think in the New Testament, one of the things we see that is the most uh uh effective way, and I think God's way of taking the gospel to the nations is through the local church.

I mean, we are all results of a local church being planted somewhere around here that was planted by someone over in Europe, let's say Great Britain or somewhere, right?

And you just keep going back, right?

That's how it's worked, that's how the gospel has spread.

It's spread through the local church.

And when you partner with people like me, you were on the front lines.

Now I'm not in Africa or India or anywhere exotic like that, but I'm right down the street in Coldwater.

And I can promise you there is brokenness and need there.

There's a need for the gospel in Cold Water and North Tate County as we try to reach that kind of northern corridor, I call it, of Highway 306.

So I just want to tell you guys just a few things about me, and then I'll tell you a few things about the ministry and where it's at for now.

Um, I grew up in Memphis, moved to Olive Branch like so many people in the late 90s, um, graduated high school in 2005 at Olive Branch, went off to Blue Mountain College for a little while, had already felt a call to ministry, but was trying to figure out what that was going to look like.

And I was about 19, I got involved at a church in Cenatobia called Life Point Church.

Now it was a church plant, and I didn't know what that meant.

I thought, did you put a seed in the ground and water it and then a church plant?

Like, is that what a church plant is?

Because growing up, churches just always existed, right?

Wow, that's not a new church.

That thing's been there for 150 years.

There's no, they've just always been.

And it was really the first moment where I went, oh, there are new works of the gospel still needed, even in our modern day.

And they need to be healthy reproductions and not divisions.

Amen.

That's that's how that's the old school Baptist way of church planning, right?

We don't like this color of carpet, we're moving down the street.

And so I kind of got my taste for it there, and and several years go by, and I'm in ministry in some different uh locations and different opportunities, and then uh Redemption, excuse me, Redeemer Baptist Church decides to plant an olive branch.

And I go and I'm an intern, church planting intern there while I'm at Mid-America Seminary, and that was where I really kind of found okay, I think this is what it's gonna look like.

I'd been a youth pastor, music minister, um, intern, this and that, but really I felt like church planting was gonna end up being uh the route the Lord sent me.

And so I ended up in North Memphis.

Yeah.

Because they need the gospel too, amen.

So I'd met a guy in our church planting network at that time who uh man, just I just became burdened, became burdened for for Memphis.

I mean, the the place of my birth and um some urban areas and and felt the Lord leading there.

So went and had some incredible experiences there and really grew, met my wife, got married, had a kid, and then decided through some counsel around me to take a step back from ministry.

I needed to learn what it meant to be a good husband and a good father, and just a man.

Just how do I be a faithful man of God?

And that was probably more training than anything seminaries ever given me.

That was more of a training period than any Sunday school or lecture or YouTube.

Okay, that was it was life training.

It was men pouring into me saying, Hey, let's let's uh carve off some of these rough edges, let's let's draw you into Jesus, let's see you repent in some of these areas.

And so I took a step back from ministry for several years.

And I didn't know what it was going to look like to go back into ministry.

And we end up back in Olive Branch from North Midtown at the same church I'd helped play in Olive Branch.

And after a year or two, I go to the pastors and say, Hey, I I think the Lord's still calling me to ministry.

But I haven't seen too many guys go back into ministry.

So can you help me figure that out?

And their answer was, we've just been waiting on you.

We saw the Lord's calling on your life still.

We're just we've just been waiting on you to realize it.

Man, that was comfort to my heart.

That was uh wind in my sails because the men that I love, the elders and pastors around me who have provided counsel and support for our family through some hard times, said, Hey, we we think you're ready.

Fast forward just six months later, they come to me and say, Hey, we want to send you out to plant a church.

Huh?

I didn't I didn't think, you know, I kind of even thought maybe that was on the back burner for a minute.

And here we are, probably three years later.

I got connected about a year and a half ago to Longview Point Baptist Church.

So Redeemer's pretty small, it's about 115 folks on our in our branch.

They're definitely like our main mother church.

But Longview Point has a church planting residency program.

And so they'll bring you in, and for two years they help support you.

Now it's not a full support, you still have to raise financial support.

But that plus, they had been given a building.

They'd been given a building that had been a church in Coldwater and Como.

And as we had prayed as a family, you know, Lord, where do you want to send us in this area?

Cold water had come up multiple times.

And here we have a ready-made former church building off Highway 306.

You can see 55 if you're standing in the parking lot.

So a great spot.

So we decide, hey, cold water's where we're gonna be.

And now that was two years ago.

Wow.

We actually just hit one year of Sunday morning services three weeks ago.

Um, it's been a ride.

Church planting is interesting.

You get people coming out of the woodworks, and you get people come who have their own ideas and uh a couple of wolves you gotta kind of smack off with a shepherd's crook and say, hey, get on out of here.

Like they're just they're not gonna be good for you.

But in that time, the Lord has uh brought about a group of about 25 people, 15 to 25.

We kind of church planted backwards, I tell people.

We we just started right off with some Bible studies and then bam, right into Sunday morning services and said, Hey, we're just gonna start doing church, quote unquote.

We're gonna start gathering as the church, and God, you're just gonna have to draw them.

And that's what he's done.

Slowly but surely, he is drawing folks into our midst.

About three weeks ago, about a month ago, we sent out 4,500 flyers to the area.

Now, you guys barely check your mail, correct?

Right?

You're like, other than a bill.

Like, I just don't even go to the mailbox.

Man, we had tried um Facebook ads, we had done block parties, knocked on doors, all kinds of stuff, very minimal connection with the community.

Coldwater's a place you live, and that's about it.

You know, you say that you want to find a place you can live, work, and play.

People live there, and then they go everywhere else to do everything else.

So intersecting with their lives has been a challenge.

It really has.

In a rural context, it is a special kind of situation.

Well, we've had 15 people show up in the last three weeks that have never darkened our door because they got a piece of mail.

Amen.

I mean, that's to me, that was like, okay, well, some of the old ways still work.

I'm about to throw a tent revival here soon.

We're gonna we're gonna go real old school.

Amen.

Decide, amen.

All right, you guys, y'all don't know you know what I'm talking about.

I'm I'm very thankful uh to the Lord to have such great partners.

Um, I have three on this street, I think, just off the top of my head, who not only financially send us you know money monthly or help us with some special gifts, but are calling me, texting me.

The pastors meet with me regularly for counsel.

We have gospel partnerships.

Uh in the process of getting financial support or building partnerships, it's such an awkward and icky thing to go ask people for money, essentially, is what you're doing.

Because you are having to raise your own support and you're much like a missionary.

But in that process, I started to realize I'm not looking for people who just want to write a check.

That's great, by the way.

Amen.

Okay.

I can give you our QR code and you can start giving today.

What I wanted though is people who'd say, Hey, the next time you do this event, we want to come help you share the gospel.

When you put on that VBS, we want to help come be a part of that.

We'll do a fall fest here soon, and I'm hoping to wrangle some of our partner churches to come help us with that.

I want partners who are ready to come and get their hands in the dirt of cold water.

We just put a bunch of new signs out front, and I am convinced the ground physically in cold water is the hardest around.

Okay.

I'm a big boy.

I know how to pile down a t-post, okay?

I know how to put a t-post in the ground.

I got enough on me to put one in the ground, okay?

Ten minutes.

I'm just, I'm killing myself.

We're putting water out there.

Like, what is going on?

And it, I mean, Holy Spirit drop it in my mailbox in my heart.

Spiritually, this is cold water.

It is hard, fallow ground that's legitimately going to have to be torn up, tilled up, and the gospel replanted.

Because, folks, and you know this, I'm not telling you anything new.

We are inoculated with the gospel, right?

We hear Jesus, we see it on our TVs.

Again, churches on every corner, we are inoculated with it to the point that everybody thinks they're a Christian.

Grant, I think one of the biggest things we have to push back is that southern religion that looks and smells like Christianity.

It says that if I drop a 20 in the plate, I can act however I want to Monday through Saturday.

You know, I'm you guys know what I'm talking about?

I can worship God in a tree stand, probably stepping on a few toes.

I don't need the church.

That's the kind of thing we're pushing back against.

It's yes, there is wickedness and evil, but there's also just this religiosity that we're just having to chip away at slowly but surely, and say, no, it's not about what you can do, it's about what Jesus has already done.

If you think you can do enough to get to him, you missed the whole thing.

Amen.

So my challenge for you guys would be hey, come be a part.

Listen for opportunities as Coldwater Redemption or Redemption Church Cold Water, I'm gonna name my own church.

Um uh comes up as David and Grant put that on on slides and stuff, and we have events.

Man, come be a part of what we're doing.

We would love, love, love to have you guys come be a part of some of our events.

And I get permission to do this, but um, we're gonna take up a love offering.

No, I'm just kidding.

No.

Um, let me steal some of your folks on a Sunday.

You guys just come visit us.

We've had several churches send a Sunday school every now and again.

I'm gonna tell you right now, 10, 15 folks walk in in a church of 15.

Woo, buddy, you're like, it's going on today.

Man, we have been so encouraged by our partner churches by just, you know, people just pop in, and it's not always 10 or 15, maybe it's just a couple here and there.

But you guys come visit us.

I think you would be just as encouraged as as we are by your presence.

So um, I don't have much more.

Is there anything else you would like me to tell or say?

Okay.

Um, I guess I'm handing it over to you then.

Okay.

Thank you guys for your time.

I appreciate it.

Continue to pray for us.

Thanks.

I want to pray for Sam uh before he goes, so let's all pray for him together.

God, I thank you for tonight.

I thank you for the opportunity to hear how you're working around us.

We we just talked about this morning in Acts.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the to the ends of the earth.

God, we talked about how you need to work in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth at the same time.

And we need to be witnesses.

God, one way that we can do that too is by supporting people who are there.

So we're thankful for the opportunity that we have to financially support uh Redemption Church.

But God, um help us to also get our hands dirty, as Sam says.

God, we do pray for Sam.

Uh it's church planning is um it can be tough.

Um, and it can be lonely sometimes.

And God, I just pray for him.

I lift him up and I pray that you will uh overwhelm him with your strength, with your power.

God help us to be faithful brothers and sisters to him.

We love you.

Jesus, it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

This has been your midweek motivation.

We'd love to have you join us in person on Sunday mornings.

Our services are at 9 and 10 30 a.m.