Schools in Houston ISD are asking for church partners! Learn why Church at UH decided to partner with a local school and how they've made an amazing impact in just 3 years despite being a church of 40-50 people! You'll also hear about specific opportunities to serve in Houston ISD, which is especially valuable right now given the uncertainty of the state takeover for students and families, as well as several innovative ideas about mentoring!

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B.J. Ramon enjoys being married and raising three kids together. He has a heart for the city of Houston and to see the church work together. He has experience as a pastor, planter, interim, youth pastor, college minister, campus minister, starting a 501c2, leading a 501c3, kids ministry, board of directors, catalyst, and connector.

If you're building relationships with students or families living in poverty, you need to listen to this podcast! After attending a Loving Houston 101 Workshop several years ago, Pastor Parris started partnerships with two schools in Alief ISD. He then founded the Alief Coalition for the Homeless to ensure that homeless students in the district were being cared for effectively. Just recently, he came across Ruby Payne's Understanding Poverty materials which have profoundly transformed the way he and his volunteers relate to the students which has made a profound impact on the difference they are making. We've split the podcast into two separate podcasts because there were too many amazing insights to squeeze into one - get ready to take some notes!

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As early as eight years old, Pastor Parris started dreaming that he would become a pastor one day. That dream fueled a passion in him that fast became evident in his establishment of the Agape Community Bible Church in late June of 2009. In 2015, he founded and now serves as Executive Director of Alief Coalition for the Homeless, a non-profit organization that works to end homelessness amongst the children of Alief ISD. Today, they’re fundraising to build a youth shelter to house homeless children. Through the application of God’s Word, Pastor Parris shows love to the Body of Christ by reaching out to the community and evangelizing the city abroad. He is looking forward to seeing the phenomenal growth of his community.

After attending a Loving Houston 101 Workshop several years ago, Pastor Parris started partnerships with two schools in Alief ISD. As he got to know the district better, he started seeing how big of a problem homelessness was and founded the Alief Coalition for the Homeless to ensure these homeless students were being cared for effectively. More recently, he came across Ruby Payne's Understanding Poverty materials which have profoundly transformed the way he and his volunteers relate to the students which has made a profound impact on the difference they are making. We've split the podcast into two separate podcasts because there were too many amazing insights to squeeze into one - get ready to take some notes!

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As early as eight years old, Pastor Parris started dreaming that he would become a pastor one day. That dream fueled a passion in him that fast became evident in his establishment of the Agape Community Bible Church in late June of 2009. In 2015, he founded and now serves as Executive Director of Alief Coalition for the Homeless, a non-profit organization that works to end homelessness amongst the children of Alief ISD. Today, they’re fundraising to build a youth shelter to house homeless children. Through the application of God’s Word, Pastor Parris shows love to the Body of Christ by reaching out to the community and evangelizing the city abroad. He is looking forward to seeing the phenomenal growth of his community.

Sometimes when we ask a school if they'd like a church partner, they tell us they've been praying for a church partner for years! Willowridge football coach Richard Lazarou was even more proactive: he joined us for a Loving Houston workshop, reached out to churches in the area, and connected Willowridge HS with Second Baptist South. That partnership has been going on for 5 years, and has now expanded to McAuliffe Middle School and Blueridge Elementary! Hear Richard and Susan's story, and be encouraged by how God is already working in our schools! (P.S. Check out http://www.beundivided.com to hear the Be Undivided story Susan mentions, or contact us to purchase a video at [email protected].)

(Please note: We didn't set up correctly for this podcast, so Susan's audio is a bit quieter than the others'. We apologize for the inconvenience!)

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Richard has been the Head Football Coach and Campus Athletic Coordinator at Willowridge High School in Fort Bend ISD for the last seven years and has been teaching and coaching for the last twenty years. Richard is also a Deacon and Bible Study teacher at Second Baptist South Campus and has been extremely blessed by this Church/School partnership. He graduated from Kempner High School which is located in Fort Bend ISD and has a degree in History from the University of Houston. Richard was born in Schenectady, NY, on a dairy farm but has been living in the great city of Houston, TX, since 1984. He is married his to beautiful wife, Susan, who also works at Willowridge High School. They met while teaching at Fort Bend ISD's Austin High School in 2005, and they have been working together in schools ever since.

Susan is the Math Instructional Coach at Willowridge High School and has been in education since 2005. She is an Adult Bible Study teacher at Second Baptist Church’s South Campus, and has a BA in Mathematics from Texas A&M University (Gig ‘Em!). Raised in Lake Jackson, Texas, Susan has lived in the Houston area since 2005. She married her wonderful husband Richard in March of 2007, and enjoys spending time with him loving their community.

Whether you're a big picture, strategic thinker, or an on-the-ground, practical doer, this podcast is for you. You'll hear from Girien Salazar about ideas for addressing educational inequity at both the macro and micro levels, and about some of the specific challenges Hispanic families face when it comes to education. If you're in a church-school partnership, you'll hear some great ideas for your partnership. And if you're thinking about a church-school partnership, you'll hear some compelling reasons why you should go ahead and take that leap of faith! (P.S. Girien mentions the BeUndivided video in the podcast: http://www.beundivided.com. We have copies of the video if you'd like to purchase one at cost. Contact us at [email protected].)

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Rev. Girien (pronounced “Gideon”) Salazar serves as the Executive Director of the Faith and Education Coalition for the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC). Prior to serving in this capacity, Girien taught English in Mexico, served as a member of the Naval Reserves including two deployments, and worked as Associate Professor for Latin American Bible Institute in San Antonio, TX. He is a board member for the Latin American Heritage Society, an instructor at Instituto Bíblico Magdiel, and president of Super Neighborhood 34 in the city of Houston. He is a licensed minister with the Assemblies of God, teaches and preaches at El Tabernáculo Church in Houston, TX, and is a third-year PhD student in Leadership Studies at Dallas Baptist University. Girien holds a B.S. in Church Ministry and a M.A. in Theological Studies from Southwestern Assemblies of God University.

Why should churches that are committed to the Great Commission consider a church-school partnership? Josh answers that in this podcast! You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes understanding of the complexities of church leadership. It’s a helpful perspective to understand, especially if you’re a school that’s partnering with a church! P.S. This podcast required the least amount of editing of all the podcasts we’ve recorded so far. We’re grateful to Josh for communicating valuable insights concisely and effectively!

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Josh is the the Executive Director for the Union Baptist Association (UBA), the largest

association of Southern Baptist churches in the U.S. Josh has been a part of the UBA team

since 2005 in roles ranging from research contractor, volunteer, consultant, senior consultant,

and associate director. In addition to leading the association, Josh regularly coaches pastors

and church leaders through change management, strategic planning, leadership development,

and understanding demographics.

He has a dual Bachelor’s degree in Christianity and Sociology from Houston Baptist University,

a Master’s degree in Future Studies (Strategic Planning and Scenario Development) from

University of Houston in Clear Lake, and a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from Dallas Baptist

University.

Born and raised in Colorado Springs, CO, Josh has lived in the Houston area since 1996. He

married his college sweetheart Valerie in 2000 and they have two sons.

This podcast is FULL of great ideas - you might need to listen to it more than once! Melissa is creative and a go-getter, so if you’ve been frustrated about something in your church-school partnership, there’s a good chance that Melissa has gone through it and come up with a solution. Listen for ideas on recruiting volunteers even if you can’t get stage time, volunteer ideas for every age group in your congregation, and ideas for delegating responsibilities and transitioning leadership when appropriate. Get ready to be inspired, equipped, and challenged! (For those serving in Lamar CISD, Melissa will share specifically about priorities for the district during the last 10 minutes.)

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Melissa Toon spends her days as a wife, mom, non profit leader, and amateur farmer. When she’s not collecting eggs from her chickens or watching her two girls play softball, she is focusing on connecting people in ways that will impact their communities. Working with Loving Houston and leading her own organization Partners For Good give her the chance to focus on connecting resources to needs. Whether she’s doing that in the church space or the business space, it’s exactly where she wants to be!

In 2016, Rev. Gusta Booker III came to a Faith Fair that Loving Houston had helped to organize with Houston ISD's Lawrence Allen. Rev. Booker was interested to learn about how his church, Greater St Matthew Baptist Church, could develop a ministry relationship with a school near the church. There, he met Principal Hare of Bastian Elementary, and the rest is history! Be inspired by Rev. Booker's stories of impact and his compelling call to action!

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Gusta Booker III is the son of Pastor Emeritus Dr. Gusta Booker Jr. and the late Dr. Theola Booker. He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. He also received his Master’s in Ministry at Grace School of Theology. He is currently working on his Master’s of Biblical Studies. He currently serves at the Greater St. Matthew church where he serves as Community Development Director and an Associate Minister under the leadership of Senior Pastor Reverend Ronald Booker.

The two closest people in his life besides Christ, are his wife of 25 years Nicole Denise Booker, and daughter, the very talented Peyton Nicole Booker. He lives by his favorite scripture Philippians 4:7, which talks about the peace of God rest ruling in our hearts. That scripture also happened to be the title of his first sermon.

It's our very first full episode of Partner Up: Your Church-School Partnership Podcast! We're talking with our Board Chair, Tom Billings, about the history of Loving Houston and all things related to church-school partnerships. If you know Tom, you know he loves books and photography. Unfortunately, you won't get to see his amazing photography on display in this podcast, but you'll definitely notice his love of books throughout the interview! The first 15 minutes are about Loving Houston's history, and the rest of the interview covers a wide range of topics related to church-school partnerships that will be valuable for the church-school partnership novice and veteran alike.

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Tom served as the executive director of Union Baptist Association (UBA) for almost twenty years before his retirement. Prior to his role at UBA, Tom served as a pastor, a therapist and the director of the Center for Counseling. While serving with UBA, Tom initiated Loving Houston and currently serves as the ministry's board chairman. Tom received his BA from Belmont University, an M.Div. and D.Min. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and did post graduate study at the University of Houston/Clear Lake. Tom and his wife Sandra have two married sons and six grandchildren.

It’s our first episode! In case you haven't heard of us, Loving Houston connects churches and schools for the well-being of our kids and communities. We have helped start 100 new church-school partnerships (as of 9/25/19!), resulting in hundreds of new volunteers in public schools across Greater Houston.

Over the past 6 years of our existence, we have come across so many churches and nonprofits doing amazing things in our local schools – and we want you to know about them, too! Through this weekly podcast, you’ll be inspired by how God is working through local church-school partnerships. You’ll also learn about resources for your own church-school partnership so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If you’re part of a church-school partnership or are thinking about how your church can do local outreach better, this podcast is for you!

In this introductory episode, we share what this podcast is going to be about, why Marilyn is now passionate about church-school partnerships (she didn't used to be!), and our foundational definition of a church-school partnership. It’s a short episode but will set a good foundation for the rest of our podcasts!

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Loving Houston's Executive Director, Marilyn Lee, has education, corporate, nonprofit, and ministry experience, a BA from Rice University, and an MBA from the University of San Francisco with a focus on nonprofit management and development economics with the specific goal of mobilizing churches around community needs. She's married to fellow Rice graduate Andy Lee who is an electrical engineer for Lockheed Martin. Outside of work, they enjoy checking out all the delicious Houston-area restaurants, playing and watching sports together, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.