When D.J. Horton decided to walk on as a linebacker at Auburn University, he was stretching the limits of his innate optimism. By his own admission, he “didn’t have a [college football] Division I body.”
D.J. Horton is typical of a generation of young Baptist leaders with a worldwide missions vision. The 29-year-old pastor of Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church, Spartanburg County, recently was elected vice chairman of the Executive Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.“I thought I was a pretty good athlete until I went to Auburn and realized what athletes were,” he said. Still, he discovered that “between the tackles, I could play with them,” even if he “couldn’t run with them or jump with them.”
His hard-nosed perseverance paid off, however, and Horton drew an assignment as a fullback on Auburn’s practice squad, where he jokes that he “learned how to get up – because I got knocked down so much.”
Today, just a few years removed from the practice field, the 29-year-old Horton is senior pastor – and team captain – of Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church in Spartanburg County, where a positive attitude continues to mark his life and calling.
“If you’re looking for the biggest optimist at Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church, it’s me,” said the Alabama native. “I believe we’re going to change the West Side of Spartanburg. If a pastor is not the biggest optimist at his church, his people are not going to be optimistic.”
Horton’s brimming confidence would seem to be well founded. In the three years since he was called (while still a student at New Orleans Seminary) as pastor of Anderson Mill Road, the church has gained 200 new members and is averaging more than 700 in worship. Also, in December, church members gave $45,000 for international missionary work through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, far surpassing the church’s previous high offering of $28,000.
For Horton, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and similar global missions initiatives are the “hook” that energizes his church and pulls together the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention in a defining, common purpose. “If our convention is going to maintain its prominence,” he said, “then we have to always blow the horn for missions and say that this is why we cooperate. We cooperate – more than any other reason – so that our dollars can go further in seeing the gospel communicated in every part of the world.”
Recently elected as vice chairman of the Executive Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, Horton is representative of a generation of young leaders whose energy and involvement will be vital in charting the work of Southern Baptists in the next half-century.
In 2004, former LifeWay Christian Resources president James T. Draper set out to explore the thinking of young ministers across the Southern Baptist Convention through a series of listening sessions. “Younger ministers are going where the action is, building relationships and bringing the wounded to the feet of Christ,” Draper said. “We need a healthy infusion of their passion to awaken in us the passion that drove the renegades who founded our denomination 160 years ago.”
Horton believes “a lot of young pastors” are seeking “clarity and focus” in a denomination too often beset by “endless issues that come up again and again,” although he does not know many young pastors who “have an agenda” to lead their churches away from the convention.
Horton said he welcomes the opportunity to learn from those who have gone before him, and he encourages young ministers to get involved in denominational life. “It’s important for guys my age to ask themselves, am I going to lead my church to walk away, or am I going to lead my church by getting involved and observing and listening and gaining wisdom from these guys who have been doing convention work for decades?
“There is an opportunity to be a part of something special, but also an opportunity to stand up and be a part of making it even more special.”
A fervent believer in missions, Horton recognizes that the Cooperative Program will need a fresh infusion of energy from young leaders if it is to flourish as a global gospel tool in the 21st century. He also knows it will be a challenge for pastors to balance the twin demands of local ministry and global missions.
“How do we as leaders equip and serve churches without draining resources that go to global missions?” he said. “If we want to change the culture, we’ve got to change the conversation. If guys in my generation don’t stand up and begin to ask such questions and don’t begin to lead their churches to be healthy and strong, then how can we expect to take a convention that’s going to be handed to us and make it even more of a tool of the kingdom?”
In the end, Horton said, the Southern Baptist Convention and its missions work lives and dies with the local church. “The same things that make churches effective are going to make the Cooperative Program effective,” he said. “We truly are a grassroots denomination.
“How do we ensure that pastors are doing what they need to do to lead their churches so that their churches are at a place financially so that giving 6, 7, 8 or even 15 percent is not a burden?”
The answer, he believes, lies with the messenger.
“When a pastor talks about the lost overseas and about how we’re helping through the Cooperative Program, that message can take root in the heart of an 8-year-old or a 78-year-old,” he said. “It’s not about packaging or marketing. If a pastor believes in the effectiveness of the Cooperative Program, then, over time, if he pastors his people, they will go with him. Where the pastor goes, the church goes.”
As for his own congregation, Horton boldly declares that Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church is “going to touch every continent with the love of Christ in some way.”
“If I ever stop believing that,” the former walk-on football player said, “I need to turn in my pads and go somewhere else.”