By Carol Mowdy Bond
Contributing Writer
Senior pastor Wendell Lang retired Feb. 28 of this year. At the helm for just shy of 11 years, Lang was well-loved at Surrey Hills Baptist Church. Located on the southwest corner of Northwest Expressway and Mustang Road, the church has been at 12421 N. Mustang Road since 1981.
Doug Brown has been the Surrey Hills Baptist associate pastor for over 13 years. Brown said, “We have a search committee in place, and it was voted on by the church body. The chair of that committee is Mac Moser. But the committee has just started the process of finding a new senior pastor. They’ve not yet looked at any candidates.”
Brown said the church’s deacon chair is the leader in position when there is no senior pastor. He also said a rotating group of pastors is delivering the Sunday morning sermons for now.
One of the church founders, Vernon Banks, said the origins of the church began in his Surrey Hills home.
“In about 1977, we had a group of about two dozen people who came together and said they wanted to establish a church in Surrey Hills. That meeting took place in my living room,” Banks said.
“We got in touch with Northwest Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. They are a mission-minded church. And we got in touch with the Oklahoma City Baptist Convention office.
Those two groups worked with us. We started trying to find a place to meet, and we approached the Yukon school system. They agreed to rent us Surrey Hills Elementary School. We met on Sunday mornings in that building for about three years. On Wednesday nights, we met in various homes including mine,” Banks said.
The group built their current church building and occupied it in 1981. They’ve added onto the building three or four times. Within the last two years, the church completed its most recent building expansion, which is a children’s building.
Arthur Fray served as the first senior pastor for Surrey Hills Baptist, and he was there for 11 years, before moving to a church in Austin, Texas. Brett Selby served as the second senior pastor for 11 years, followed by Scott Tompkins who served as senior pastor. Then Wendell Lang took the senior pastor spot, and served for 11 years.
King’s Gate Christian School holds classes in the Surrey Hills Baptist Church building. The fully accredited school began holding classes in the building about four or five years ago.
Surrey Hills Baptist Church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. To connect with the church, go to the website www.surreyhillsbaptistchurch.org, or call (405) 373-2139.
