Boise church focuses on shepherding, college ministry

By Karen L. Willoughby

BOISE, Idaho – Table Rock Church near downtown Boise wants to “grow at the speed of relationships,” Pastor/Elder Don Straka told UI Connections.

“We want to be shepherds in people’s lives and care for them well,” Straka said. “This means we may not grow fast, but we want to welcome those God brings to Table Rock.”

The church started in 2018 and bought its building at below market price in 2022 from Christian Life Fellowship. What was about 75 members then has today become a congregation of about 250 attendees, 165 of whom are members.

“We don’t want to outgrow our capacity to care for people,” Pastor/Elder Ryan Patterson told UI Connections. “Our eye is less set on the institution. It’s on creating a place where people feel safe and brought to maturity in their walk with Christ. It’s slow, patient, gentle work of proclaiming Christ and walking people through their heartaches.”

Straka and Patterson are the two paid pastor/elders. Three other pastor/elders are self-funded or work outside the church. Andrew Knight doubles as campus director of the church’s college ministry. Luke Miller is a firefighter for the city of Boise. Jacob Shin works with Crossing Borders, a non-profit dedicated to helping North Korean refugees who cross the border into East Asia for food and medical assistance.

Table Rock Church is named after a cross 60 feet high that stands atop Table Rock, at the apex of a popular two-hour round-trip hike in the Boise foothills.

“That cross lights up at night and can be seen from all over Boise,” Straka said. “We chose the name because it is a local, iconic spot. We wanted to communicate that we are a church planted for the people of Boise.

“But the name isn’t just a ‘local spot,’” the pastor added. “It is also associated with the cross of Christ.”

The church’s nine small groups “open God’s word, open our lives and open our lips in prayer,” Straka said. “We always focus the first half of our time on studying the Bible. We rotate what we do with the second half: one week we focus on our lives; the next week we focus on prayer for our neighbors and the nations.”

While members are involved in many ministries in Boise, in Idaho, and globally, the church’s main focus is its college ministry, where three leaders and two interns all are self-funded. Andrew Knight is director. His wife Sara is women’s coordinator.

“College ministry in the Boise area is so vitally important because students from Oregon, Washington, and California – who previously may not have an opportunity to know Jesus at home – are coming to Boise and being introduced to Him for the first time,” Knight told UI Connections. “They came in thinking a fraternity or sorority would offer them the life they were after, only to realize that Jesus gives life in abundance. Decisions being made now, in Boise, will be reflected in eternity!”

The college ministry started in the fall of 2018 with Knight and his wife Sara, “trusting God to do something in the fraternity and sorority life on campus. You would think this would be the least interested group on campus, but they ended up being the one of the most thirsty!”

Sam Bibb, operations director for the collegiate ministry, over the last year requested and received $8,000 for several evangelism-related collegiate events. The money came from the North American Mission Board’s $135,000 evangelism and church planting grants for churches and ministries in the Utah Idaho Southern Baptist Convention. (Editor’s note: This means there’s a lot left for your church’s evangelistic outreaches.)

Greek Giving is an annual event for students involved in fraternities and sororities at Boise State University, informally known as BSU. It’s a free Thanksgiving-style meal “where we extend hospitality, share a gospel-centered devotional, and invite students to consider the generosity of God,” Bibb told UI Connections. “A student panel with seven students answered faith-related questions and shared their stories.”

That event resulted in 32 of the 200 students present requesting more information.

“These students voluntarily checked a box indicating they wanted to meet with a staff member or student leader to talk further about their faith,” Bibb said. “Our team has already begun following up with each of them.”

Table Rock’s collegiate ministry focuses on BSU’s “Greek” students because when leaders checked, they realized those students were not being reached by other Christian groups on campus, Bibb said. Today the ministry includes about 170 students and 20 trained student leaders.

About 135 students participated in a Dec. 7 candlelight service at Table Rock Church. “It’s hard to know the exact number of salvations that occurred as a result of this event, but we did have four students become Christians over Christmas break, which took place right after,” Bibb said. “This event [funded in part with a UISBC evangelism grant] definitely helped.”

A Winter Retreat is set for Feb. 20-22 in Albion, Idaho. “We’ll be bringing 70 college students for a two-night retreat featuring three talks focused on the Gospel, Christian community, and spiritual growth,” Bibb said. “These retreats are always a great mix of learning more about Jesus, building meaningful Christian community, and connecting with others on a deeper level.

“We’re hosting a Relationships Night for our ministry on February 10,” Bibb continued. “A newly married couple from our church will be our guest speakers and will share their story: how they met, dated, and viewed relationships as non-believers, and how that perspective changed after coming to faith. They’ll walk students through their engagement and what the early season of marriage has been like, emphasizing how Christ is at the center of their relationship. The night is to conclude with men’s and women’s breakout sessions followed by a Q&A.”

Two spring break mission trips, one to Monterrey, Mexico, also are on the campus ministry’s schedule.

“We’ve been doing this trip for four years,” Bibb said. “It provides a strong combination of discipleship training, evangelism, partnership with a local church, and service. We spend two days working alongside the local church to install water filters in homes that lack access to clean drinking water. After installing the filters, we share the gospel and use the water filter as an analogy: Jesus as the filter for our hearts.

“The second group will be traveling to Salt Lake City to explore expansion and evangelize on the campuses of the University of Utah and surrounding schools and then travel to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for the second half of the trip. 

“This trip is designed for older students who have previously participated in one of our trips and have experience sharing their faith,” Bibb said. “Throughout the trip, students will engage in daily Bible studies and training, and partner with local churches as together we evangelize on college campuses. This is primarily a vision trip, as we are exploring potential areas to plant a college ministry in the future.”

Next summer a “Summer Cruise Project” in San Diego is planned for about 30 BSU students to receive daily training and evangelism opportunities.

The term ‘project’ is a well-established model used by Campus Outreach, an international Christian non-profit that for more than 50 years has developed ministries to nurture leaders on college campuses.

“During the project, we partner with a local church and college ministry to create what we call a ‘spiritual greenhouse,’ where students can grow deeply in their faith,” Bibb said.

For each of these mission trips, students are to pay their share, but state convention evangelism grants help offset overall costs.

BSU is the largest of seven colleges and universities in the Metro Boise/Treasure Valley area of nearly 900,000 residents. Table Rock’s collegiate ministry plans to start work on other campuses as God opens doors and relationships are developed, Bibb said.

“The Southern Baptist Convention was instrumental in the planting of Table Rock,” Straka said. “The SBC continues to bless us, from grants they give to our college ministry and church, to helping assess two of our members who want to join the International Mission Board, to giving a discount to one of our members attending Southern Seminary online. It’s been a blessing to be a part of this denomination.”