MID WEEK MOTIVATION - October 14, 2026 "Why Multiplication Worked" (James Lewis)

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

Here's your hosts, Mark Lewis, David Burgess, Hunter Smith, and Pastor Grant Steegall.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for Wednesday, October the 14th, 2026.

Today's podcast is a little different from our normal format.

This month, DeSoto Hills is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

And as we approach that milestone, I decided to sit down with several people who played an influential role in the move and in helping shape the church that we know today.

We are here with the pastor emeritus, my dad, James Lewis.

Now, when did we end up moving to South Haven?

We moved March of 1998 during spring break.

Okay.

So according to Ben, this is that's very close to the time that the new property was purchased.

What walk me through what happened when you were interviewing?

You said they mentioned that property pretty pretty quickly.

It might have not been a done deal, but it was pretty much in their mind it was a done deal.

Right.

Right All right.

As you took on the reins of Carrich Hills Baptist Church, how did that property sitting out there like, was that always in the back of your mind, or at first was it, well, we just need to keep the ship rolling here?

Like tell people a little bit about what your thoughts were when we moved here.

I don't think there was a a deadline when we need to move.

I think they just were looking ahead and I understood that.

And I wasn't in a rush to do that.

I felt like I needed some time at Carriage Hills to uh help grow that church.

And uh frankly to get some uh identity with them that they could trust me so that when the time came that we need to move, uh it would be as smooth as possible.

That's really what happened.

What are some of your memories of Carriage Hills?

Uh sweet folks, tucked in that neighborhood, you kind of had to know where you're going to find Carriage Hills.

We began to grow.

I think word got out that w we were going to relocate over here, and I think it helped some people who were over here kind of start looking at us.

We began to grow with uh some young couples and uh eventually went to two services there.

Had Sunday school in between because we had enough Sunday school space, but we we had an early service and a later service.

And uh Blake Romales was there at the time leading music and uh so it was it was a good time.

I remember parking being one of the hardships over there.

Parking was an issue.

It it it was.

At what point did you start to think then about the move?

Because it was a it was a longer process.

It was.

We went there in 98 and did not make the move until uh uh 2006.

Maybe a couple of years out, we put a sign on this property that said future home of Carriage Hills.

And I laughingly told folks my goal was to get moved over here before that sign routed down.

And uh so then we began to to begin to look at it seriously and uh got some architects involved and went through several uh revisions of that, always having to keep uh the cost in mind.

And uh so I guess about uh before 2006, I guess it took a maybe a year and a half, two years in uh construction, but we we began to uh to move toward that.

But prior to that, we we took a vote to move at Carriage Hills.

It was 80 percent wanted to move, 20 percent uh did not, was not in favor of moving.

So I knew there was some issues there.

We could have come over here, I suppose, with the with the whole church, but I I began to have a burden that uh maybe we need to try to leave uh some folks there if they want to stay.

And so I went to the deacons, the leadership of the church, and proposed to them that we uh bring a church over here and leave a church over there, that it not be a division, but it be a multiplication.

They agreed on that, and I began to to kind of move us toward that.

In fact, I preached a message kind of challenging the folks to do that based upon the children of Israel crossing the Jordan, and two and a half of those tribes wanted to stay on the other side, and the others wanted to go, and so Moses said, Well, you can stay if you'll help us move.

And so that's basically what happened.

And uh so 350 people came over here in uh October 2006, and 150 stayed at the old site.

I remember that message.

I also remember there was a time in that process when y'all even considered a smaller facility over here where you would do maybe a service one over there, a service two here, and a service three over there.

Right.

We we we kind of considered all options.

Uh that wouldn't have been my first choice.

And I I I think in I I think we chose wisely.

I think just making two distinct churches uh made more sense instead of multiple campuses and uh and and Carriage Hills has done well and and uh still a lot of folks over there who who were part of that uh multiplication, and I think they're grateful for all the uh the Lord has done.

It's a pretty good distance from the old site to the new site, and so I understand a lot of those fixed folks lived in that neighborhood and want to keep that identity there, and so they've they've been able to do that.

Uh clearly it was a God thing that Ben was able to find this plot of land for us.

I find it amazing that we ended up with this location and the vision for this side of town because at the time there was very little over here.

Cows.

There were cows.

It it it was not uh so it it it was some vision.

I think Ben in his engineering and working with the city kind of knew that some growth was headed this way, and so uh he was instrumental in in helping them find this property and and uh secure it.

Uh so we're we're blessed.

This is a just a tremendous location.

I think it's just hard for people to understand who were not in DeSoto County at the time, what this side of town looked like.

The Snowden family still had their little house and their property.

Getwell was two lanes.

There was a four-way stop over here, and there was a little church where uh Walgreens is.

Right.

There were no Right.

Church Road was two-laned.

And and Church Road and Getwell, it was not a four-way stop.

It was you had to stop on Church Road.

It was a really dangerous intersection, as you well know.

Yeah.

I did have a wreck there.

Right.

Uh Wildwood Baptist Church, was that what the name of that church was?

And they relocated.

To Star Landing.

I think they're on Star Landing, somewhere on Star Landing, maybe.

And they sold that property to Walgreens.

Correct.

And they had relocated from somewhere to that property, but anyway.

Uh there were but it there was not it's it's funny today you look at church road with all the churches up and down it.

That was not the case even in 2006.

A lot of those churches were not there.

Maybe Boulevard might have been the only one at the time.

Perhaps.

I I'm not sure when Broadway moved over there.

Not sure, but certainly wasn't the complex it is now.

Right.

So it's it's um it was quite a different beast back in 2006.

For for people who just look at this side of town, you you just you would come over here now and you'd be like, well, yeah, of course, this is a great area.

But And the first Sunday we were here in that October 06, the the place was packed.

I mean, you just never know when you make that kind of move.

A lot of visitors because uh they understood we were coming here.

Um at that time we were doing uh two Sunday schools, but only one service.

And uh by by January 07 we had gone to two services, which we've been in ever since, and now two Sunday schools.

So Right.

And I had to do two Sunday schools because there were very few classrooms in this original building.

Correct.

Correct.

Um and that we knew that ahead of time, but like we said on several of the other podcasts before this one, we we built every last square inch we could afford to build.

We did.

We had to be good stewards of it.

And so uh we we knew that we would at some point want to expand, but uh we we had to be careful of that.

There was a phase, a possible phase where the offices would be built on the first level.

Um I'm trying to think where people would understand kind of a sidewalk that goes around to the playground, around that curved sidewalk where the dogwoods that have all died were.

That was supposed to eventually be an office complex down there.

Do you remember when it was just decided that that was going to be abandoned and then we moved to the the building that we have over here now?

No, I I I d that was not in the original plan, certainly.

It it came up later on, but uh we kind of put the offices on the second floor thinking that might be temporary, but it's worked, and uh I don't see in in the future of that changing much.

But uh it would have been nice to be on the first floor, and but people know where we are, and we pretty signage lets you know where the offices are if you're not aware of it.

Right.

All right.

I'm gonna ask you a question you weren't prepared for, so we may we may fall on dates on this one.

The second phase, which is hilarious because we all still call it the new building, and you remind me quite freak frequently that it's not new anymore.

It's probably 10 years old.

Is it what how did that come about where y'all just where you just pulled the trigger and said, hey, we've got a we we're out of space as far as Sunday school.

Well, DeSota Hills and and Carriage Hills, even going back there, were always a very shepherd-led church.

And I knew that when I asked them to pull the trigger uh on that second phase, they would they would try to do it.

But I also knew we needed to be good stewards of it.

So um I just continued to watch the growth here, and it became pretty obvious that we needed to uh expand, and people were excited about that.

And so um it looks really good.

I think it just really blended well within our existing building and uh has certainly given us a lot more options.

Probably the biggest plus is the preschool area is just really doubled and just a beautiful, secure area.

Our original preschool was just opened.

It wasn't a time when we were worrying about that so much.

But uh we did we did make the new preschool area uh a lot more secure.

And plus we got some dedicated space for children, which we desperately needed.

Desperately needed because there was no first of all, there was no open meeting space like we have up there now.

So we basically gained another venue.

Right.

Um And we had classes meeting in closets, literally.

Uh the chair closet had a class in it, and uh, you know, my my outer office had a class in it, and so w we were really in need of of some space, so it it really um really helped.

And that building gave me the space to put this podcast studio in here that we're currently in right now.

Correct.

Because this was a Sunday school as well.

Um we gained a we were able to certainly breathe.

It afforded us the space to do our security room, which we now have.

That was a Sunday school room.

Um And it's been paid for by beyond giving.

It's it's people give a separate line item.

And so we've been able to to to to pay for it uh that way.

Because at the time we're still paying on the original building and it was in the budget.

So I feel like for us to be able to do that, we need to see if people would step up and and they did.

Yeah.

And it was interesting.

I was talking to Jeffrey, I think, the other night, and that's that beyond measure my line is still in our giving portions today, and people still put in it, which from my understanding is still how this the new phase is being paid for, which is amazing.

You talked about the first Sunday we ever met in this building.

What are some of your memories, fond memories?

I remember people coming that Sunday who frankly had left Carriage Hills for whatever reason, and then they made their way back to this facility when we came over here, right, and just started coming to church again here.

Uh Mari and Randy sang Jerusalem.

I remember that, and I had requested that.

That was just a a major thing.

The choir was pumped and ready to go.

Brother Mark had really worked on that.

So it was just a great day.

I had great liberty to preach that day and just thinking about what what was to come was exciting because we dreamed about this and talked about it for so so long.

If you remember, we had trouble moving into the building right before because the elevator getting it uh certified.

So we we piled boxes in the for office stuff in the uh grand hall and and waited for the elevator to get certified, and once it did, we began to load stuff up and and move it up here.

Yeah, it was quite it was quite the week.

We kind of had an open house on Saturday night before the service started uh that next day, so it was it was a nice time too.

Yep, and there were some rehearsals.

I still remember Mark Manning was in here yelling with uh Memphis Audio, trying to get everything uh squared away before that Sunday morning.

To hear him tell it it was, oh, it was no big deal.

Boy, I remember some stressing happening.

Right.

Two things we knew we needed to get right in this new building the air and the sound.

And those are two big ticket items.

And and uh of course we went with the socks and we still have those, and uh that was a kind of a trend at the time, and uh they work okay, but you you gotta keep them, as you know, inflated all the time because they're like a freight train coming on.

So we we learned early on when it sounded like a freight train was overhead that we had to keep those running constantly.

Yeah.

I asked Mark Manning this when I asked you twenty years later when you drive on this property, what do you see?

What do you feel?

So grateful that we're here and that they're still growing and grateful for the time I was here and the investment I was able to make and um for such a time as this.

I I just believe m my heart, my gifts was probably what was needed to to get us here and to see what the Lord's continuing to do uh is is exciting.

But looking back now, what can you say you're thankful for?

I'm most thankful for how smooth the transition really was.

As you know, as anybody knows, a move of that magnitude could really blow up with folks because people have uh their opinions and and it went as smooth, I think, as it possibly could.

I'm not saying there weren't a few hiccups, but it it went as smooth as possible, you know.

Uh I hate to say textbook, but really.

And the folks that the folks that were staying at Carriage Hills kind of got together pretty quick even while this building was being built, while we were still over there together.

And uh and and the interesting thing is our first Sunday here, uh they had a prospective pastor come in for a trial sermon.

So they didn't miss a beat.

No, within weeks they had a new pastor already there.

I'm easy to replace.

So they they uh so that was good.

That was good.

Yeah.

Um amazing.

What do you hope for in the future for ministry in DeSoto County, period?

Um I just pray we'll continue to to be able to reach uh folks with the with the gospel that we'll be uh a lighthouse in this community, uh really showing people what Christianity is is all about.

Our world is is changing, not necessarily for the better, and so uh churches are having to uh seek our message stays the same, our methods for reaching folks uh is probably gonna have to change some.

And so I pray that uh I pray that when people pass by here the reputation of our church is is strong, and and uh if they think about church or need a church, they'll think about us.

Well, thank you so much for talking to us today.

You're welcome.

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 AM.