When an F1 tornado hit Williamson County, Texas, in March 2022, Jake Isbell used his influence as lead pastor of Wayfinders Church in Jarrell, Texas, to develop a quick and important emergency response.
“On that day, the church just activated,” Isbell says.
The work the church did not only included damage assessments and the coordination of a massive cleanup day but also emotional care such as praying with those who were affected. The congregation pitched in, and people from many organizations gave of their time and resources. As a result, a network was created called the Williamson County Recovery Group that is now ready at a moment’s notice for future catastrophic events.
“We don’t have an official program with a bunch of volunteers, but we do our best to unite multiple churches and nonprofits in any kind of disaster or critical incident,” Isbell says.
Now chair of the Williamson County Recovery Group, Isbell stresses the importance of involving as many people as possible as early as possible.
“We’re less about trying to do the work ourselves and more about trying to develop awesome networks of compassionate, kingdom-driven response,” he says. “It’s crucial we work on a team approach ahead of time.”
This hand-in-hand approach to ministry doesn’t stop at disaster relief. Wayfinders is currently coordinating with other organizations to offer community mental health, legal and immigration services. They also are working with a large nonprofit that wants to build a community center where all these services can have a home. The dream is that eventually the church’s pastoral staff becomes bivocational in order to invest more resources in the community.
“Our church is used to running to help out when something happens,” Isbell says, while emphasizing the work of the kingdom is larger than one church. “There’s a big congregation out there to pastor, and it’s not just your church. It’s your county and your city and these neighborhoods on the days emergencies come.”
