In the Spring of 2001, a vision of “Hill Country Church at Fair Oaks Ranch” was engendered by God to a small group of Believers located in the surrounding area of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas. This group responded to God’s calling and partnered with The Southern Baptist Convention, The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, The Bluebonnet Baptist Association, Forest Hills Baptist Church and First Baptist Church Blanco, Texas who graciously extended arms of love by serving as our “Sponsoring Church” and initial support.

In September of 2006 Hill Country Church at Fair Oaks Ranch became an autonomous church and called Eric Hightower to become their Pastor.

In the Spring of 2019 Hill Country Church made the successful transition to our legal entity name of First Baptist Church of Fair Oaks Ranch.

First Baptist Church Fair Oaks Ranch strives to be a seeker friendly, discipleship driven, continually growing body of authentic and biblically grounded believers; accomplished through…
 

1. Leveraging our connections within the community to intentionally develop relationship, so our neighbors can observe firsthand a Christ centered difference in our lifestyles and priorities;
2. Empowering the family unit to be the primary means of evangelism and biblical education within their own home, while laboring to support and equip parents as they train up and prepare the next generation of committed believers;
3. Striving to meaningfully impact our community and church family with loving service in times and places of need;
4. Fighting apathy and spiritual complacency with family integrated passionate praise inspired worship, biblically focused teaching, and warm and loving fellowship.

This is a mission centric vision statement.  It adds more teeth and clarity to the mission statement with a plan to bring about the five purposes of the church as described in Acts 2:42-47 – Evangelism, Discipleship, Praise, Fellowship and Service
Much of the staff reorganization will focus on these priorities.  I will be maintaining an emphasis on Childrens ministry as a dedicated priority within the staff.  In addition, I will be looking to create or expand the following roles:

1. Praise and Worship ministries (congregational services, special events - Easter, Christmas Eve, etc.)
2. Connecting Ministries (hospitality, fellowship, service projects / benevolence, new members, day-school outreach )
3. Equipping Ministries (discipleship small groups, evangelism training, new believer classes, mentor groups)
4. Support Ministries (admin, business management, technical support)

Strategy:
 
Our strategy for reaching the community will focus our efforts on the “FIRST Family”.  Using relationship evangelism as our model and seeing our nearest neighbors as our low hanging fruit, we will become more intentional about encouraging each member of the church
 
The ‘First Family’ is:
F – family motivated
I – intellectually driven
R – relationally open
S – spiritually interested
T – traditionally valued
 
‘Family motivated’ simply implies that our target is usually part of a larger family unit.  Our day school will continue to be one of largest opportunities to reach the community. This is not to imply we do not strongly desire to reach and minister to single adults, however we recognize that our community is primarily families and we need to strive to connect with them.
 
‘Intellectually driven’ means that our audience has a higher-than-average education as many in the community are in the medical field. As a result, most are not ‘emotionally driven’ and are not moved by gimmicks and high energy pushes, but through clear and systematic teaching.  We will continue to be a disciple based / driven congregation as we work toward training believer to “observe ALL that Jesus commanded”
 
‘Relationally open’ concludes that our target is involved their neighborhoods and are typically open to hospitality and relationship / fellowship-based activities.  This is of critical importance for our evangelistic strategy of intentional relationship building to share the gospel.
             
‘Spiritually interested’ applies to our target audience who realize the accomplishments they have achieved fail to answer the deeper questions in life.  Many in the community have reached the pinnacle of success in their career field, but realize something is missing.  The strategic relationship model allows for speaking to the true needs of their hearts.
             
‘Traditionally valued’ states that we are a blended service.  People within our target want a church to ‘feel like a church’, not a night club or an amusement park.