Pampa, Texas is a town of around 17,000 people, but the population fluctuates more than many towns our size due the oil and gas industries playing such a large role in the economy. Usually, when people think of oil and gas economy cities, they picture Midland and Odessa where the field is booming and people are moving in like crazy and making a ton of money. Pampa’s oil history is old, so there is definitely some old money and some successful businesses that are still profitable and well supported by the oil and gas industries, but the glory of a booming oilfield past has left Pampa staggered and searching for a thriving future. Pampa has a growing Spanish-speaking minority and a shrinking number of jobs which require any post-high school training and education. This demographic change, and how quickly it has happened, has caused the people of Pampa to struggle because the city no longer looks like what it once did. However, the West Texas spirit that caused people to settle in a near desert with very little water in the first place, is alive and well and the people of Pampa are creatively working to reinvent a sustainable economy.
The glory of a booming oilfield past has left Pampa staggered and searching for a thriving future.
Redeemer Pampa
Redeemer Pampa meets in a building on the old brick streets of our downtown area, which is experiencing a slow comeback at present. Our building was formerly a fabric store and will seat about 275 people and has two classrooms for kids and an upstairs office area. We currently use a coffee shop across the street from our building for additional kids’ space on Sunday mornings. Our average Sunday attendance right now is between 200 and 220. Like most church plants, we have a lot of families and a lot of kids, (around 50-60 from birth through elementary) but we are thankful to have grandparents and great grandparents, single and married young people, and a diverse range of socio-economic situations every Sunday. We are a simple church. We don’t start promptly at 11AM and it’s not unusual for people to show up in their camouflage after having been out hunting all morning. It feels a lot like a big, loud family with a lot of little kids running around!
Pray for Us:
- Building – with kids in for the first two songs, the room is FULL and due to the nature of our city and our fellowship, we feel strongly that going to multiple services would not serve our church body well over the long haul. We are praying for a space that will allow us to continue to operate on a lean budget but that would accommodate our growing family and keep our missional intensity high!
- Staffing – it’s not easy to move into a rural West Texas town to join the staff of a church plant. We need a full time staff person to help ease the pastoral care load that Jeremy and our 3 lay elders are carrying.
- Conversions – In West Texas, there is a plethora of religious traditionalism and not an abundance of gospel. Pray for the continued awakening of the people of Pampa to their need for the gospel in a city that’s been named one of the most conservative in Texas. People in Pampa walk in darkness thinking they are in broad daylight, finding themselves frustrated and not knowing what to do with the deep and hidden needs of their hearts.
