- May 6, 2026
The Hammock First Baptist Church may only be a congregation of 14 members, but that congregation is working on unwrapping several exciting new changes over the coming months.
In fact, those changes have already begun. Under the leadership of its new pastor, Steve Schmitz, this small-but-mighty group is looking to expand its community efforts and, hopefully, grow its congregation to include more people in need of faith and community.
“We want to be a comfort to people, and we want to show them truth,” Schmitz said.
Schmitz took over the leadership of the congregation as pastor just six weeks ago, but he has been a member of the Hammock First Baptist Church for two years. He said he never planned to actually become a pastor when he went to seminary school but that changed after he came to Hammock First Baptist and saw the need.
He prayed for a year and a half before he actually put his name in to be pastor. Schmitz said he feels God led him to do this.
“I told my brother, I don't know if I'm called to be a pastor. I just feel called to serve here as the pastor,” he said.
When he put his name in the hat, Schmitz included a plan to help rejuvenate the church.
That plan started with cleaning up the church itself, repainting and decluttering the spaces. It also includes updating its online presence, to include streaming the church services online and posting regular content.
But the community programs are where the Schmitz and the congregation are focused. Already the church hosts a weekly “Bread Ministry,” where the church hands out free bread every Friday at 7 a.m.
On May 3, the church launched its new youth Bible study meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays, with regular church services at 10:45 a.m. For now, the Bible study group will just be weekly but the idea is to grow the program to include a mid-week meeting and a summer vacation Bible study.
The youth Bible study is led by married couple and congregation members David and Stacy Jones.
The congregation will also be adding an alcohol and drug addiction recovery program, to be held every Sunday evening. Schmitz said he does not have a firm date on when that program will launch, but he hopes it will be within the next month.
There are plans to add more programs, too, but the church will need more members first to support them. In the fall, he said, they plan to host a fall festival that will reintroduce the Hammock First Baptist Church to The Hammock community.
There are other ways the congregation will be updating its services and ministry, too, but the key is going to be keeping true to God’s message, Schmitz said.
“We feel strongly that if we are faithful to preaching the gospel and faithful to studying scripture that God will grow this church,” Schmitz said.
Part of that, he said, includes being good stewards and keeping the church building maintained and being good neighbors, providing things the community needs. Schmitz said if the congregation is “living out our faith,” then “God will draw people in.”
And it isn’t just other First Baptists, or even Christians who are welcome, he said — Hammock First Baptist accepts everybody. Everyone is broken, Schmitz said, or has something in their lives that has caused them to doubt others or doubt faith.
Those are the people they’re trying to reach, he said.
Despite all their efforts to reach the community and rejuvenate interest in the church, Schmitz said they are not trying to grow for growth’s sake. Instead, it’s about helping the community through the gospel, regardless of where they are in life or what they are going through.
“We just want to see people get healed [from] the things that they’re struggling with,” Schmitz said. “And we believe God can do that.”
