One of Snyder’s Baptist churches has a new pastor looking to make a difference in the congregation. Pastor Dalton Mathis, formerly of Stamford, is now on staff at Avenue D Baptist Church. “I’m originally from Stamford,” he said. “I grew up there and then went to Texas Tech in Lubbock. I majored in agriculture, and then my junior year at Tech, I just felt like the Lord was calling me into ministry. I finished school and moved back to Stamford. I took a youth pastor job there at the church that I grew up in. And then I started seminary.” Mathis said that he completed seminary online and at the same time, learned more about working in ministry through his job as youth pastor. He and his wife, Kelsey Mathis, stayed in Stamford for about two years, until Mathis finished seminary. “Once I finished school this past September, it just felt like the Lord was leading us and we were looking for places, and the Lord brought us here,” Mathis said. “The whole plan from the get-go was to be a pastor. I enjoyed my time as youth pastor. It was such a great experience, but going to seminary, the whole end goal of that was to be a pastor somewhere.” Mathis said that he and his wife still have family in Stamford, Lubbock and other area towns. “This has just been such a good place for us to start because it’s kind of a smaller congregation,” Mathis said. “When I first got called to ministry, I was thinking, ‘Man, I want 10,000 people to be in our church. I want to be on TV.’ But the Lord has really just shaped me and shown me my purpose in the ministry, and this is a very good spot to start.” Mathis said he actually prefers a smaller congregation, because it provides him the opportunity to create one-on-one bonds with members of the congregation. He said this new job requires more responsibility than being a youth pastor, but he knows that God will help him to be equal to his task.
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