MBF Scholarships: Connecting Education to Life Application
Scott Fortenberry is on mission for God. Living and serving in the Midtown district of Jackson, Scott and his family are actively reaching out to the community around them with the love of Christ through Soul City Church.
The mission of Soul City Church is simple, Scott says. “We go out and we love people. In the midst of their mud, and in the midst of their muck... we care for them right where they are, and... meet their needs.”
Officially launched in January 2018, Soul City is a new church start established in cooperation with the Church Planting Department of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board. Defining the foundational purpose of Soul City, Scott described a model of ministry that is “upside-down” compared to the format familiar to most people. “We serve our city first, by meeting very practical needs and caring for people and doing everything that we can to love them right where they are,” he explains. “As a result of doing that, we have the opportunity to intentionally invest our lives into them...to make disciples, by walking with them in life and caring for them.” The result of this ministry model, Scott says, is believers who live “bold lives of worship,” transformed by Christ. When individuals are transformed, the community is transformed, he continued. “As our community is transformed, what we recognize is that we are meeting people in our neighborhood who are different than us…who have different socio-economic backgrounds (and) different racial backgrounds. Yet, because of Jesus, we have unity in our diversity.”
Years before planting Soul City Church, Scott attended Mississippi College in his hometown of Clinton, MS. While preparing for vocational ministry at MC, Scott received encouragement in the form of scholarship assistance from the Mississippi Baptist Foundation. Just prior to graduation, Scott married Candiss Johnson who is also a Clinton native. Continuing to pursue God’s call upon his life, Scott enrolled at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. While seeking his Master of Divinity at NOBTS, Scott again received the financial blessing of Foundation scholarships made possible through the generosity of Mississippi Baptists.
Scott later received his Doctorate of Ministry from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served churches in Mississippi and Florida as youth pastor, as pastor, and as family pastor. In each city, through each church, and within each community, Scott and Candiss have ministered to individuals and families from all backgrounds, experiences, and walks of life. Whether ministering to those caught up in the drug culture or families with physical and financial challenges, the Fortenberrys have never wavered from their commitment to serve the Lord regardless of the situation or circumstance surrounding the need.
While serving as a family pastor in St. Petersburg, FL, God began to clarify some “next steps” for Scott and Candiss. They recognized that the Lord had broken their hearts for the inner city. Reading Luke 8:39 – “Go home and tell what God has done” – helped direct the focus of their ministry back to Mississippi.
Trusting God to direct his path, Scott pressed forward with a vision of planting a multi-cultural church in inner city Jackson. Insight from his grandmother further sharpened Scott’s perspective when she relayed the story of an African American church that began by meeting in the basement of First Baptist Church, Jackson, in 1835. Scott’s grandmother told him that when the decision was made for the African-American church to relocate, Thomas E. Helm (Scott’s great-great-grandfather) donated land and helped build a new facility in 1868. In appreciation for Thomas and Mary Helm and the couple’s generosity, the congregation honored the Helms by naming the church the Mount Helm Baptist Church. Against this historical backdrop, Scott is continuing a mission focus that God initiated through his family 150 years earlier.
For the past three years, Scott, Candiss and their five children have ministered in the neighborhood behind the Mississippi Baptist Medical Center known as Midtown. From what began with burgers, basketball, and the Bible in Livingston Park, the Fortenberry family and volunteers now gather every Sunday to encourage and love neighborhood residents and share God’s word.
According to census estimates and community survey data for 2018, over 75% of heads-of-households with children are single women in the area where the Fortenberrys now live. Additionally, income is below poverty level for more than one in six residents. “We’re having the opportunity to invest in teenagers and in kids, and we also have adults that we’re pouring into, and we’re praying that God is going to do great and mighty things,” Scott reports.
One of the people God has connected with Soul City is a man who says the new church is an answer to his prayers. “We’ve been praying for a church here, and Soul City came in,” Walter explains on one of the video blogs shared by Soul City. “I grew up around here, I was a man of the world, didn’t know Jesus,” Walter says. But all of that changed, as he tells it, when the Lord met him in prison. “He saved me there, and not only that but He gave me a job and cleaned me up.” Expressing his excitement about the ministry of Soul City, Walter declares, “we’ve been praying for this church, and this church is here. They’re going to stay here, and God is going to do great things here.”
A donated house that was renovated by mission teams served as the place of worship for a few months. Then, Soul City Church was granted access to a warehouse on the other side of the neighborhood which serves as the church’s current place of worship. More recently, the Rankin County Baptist Association provided Soul City Church with an available church building and fellowship hall, located in the heart of the neighborhood. Volunteers and mission teams from metroarea churches have been instrumental in renovating these facilities for use by the SCC congregation. The Mississippi Baptist Foundation has partnered with Soul City by providing a ministry grant for building materials to be used in the renovation. Scott firmly believes that when churches work together toward a common goal, a positive impact is made for God’s glory in individual lives and within entire communities. During the span of spring break 2019, Soul City Church will host six different mission teams.
Scott and others who minister through Soul City make a practice of regularly expressing thanks to Mississippi Baptists and others who support the church’s ministry and help make relationships like the one with Walter possible. “We are in a transition as the church in the twenty- first century in America, from going to a worship service to seeing service as worship,” Scott says. “Here at Soul City Church we believe that as we serve the city, intentionally invest in people, that the direct result will be bold lives of worship.”
One affirmation of the work God is doing in downtown Jackson came in the form of a letter from Midtown Charter School. Scott tells how the letter provided great encouragement. “Ultimately what it says is, ‘you’re making a difference. The way that you serve, the way that you care for people, is impacting this community.’” Scott sums up Soul City’s ministries in this way, “The name of Jesus is being proclaimed and making a difference in Midtown.”
At 3:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoons, the Fortenberry family can be found serving Midtown through Soul City Church in a variety of ways. Scott preaches, Candiss helps lead the children’s ministry, and the oldest two of the five Fortenberry children oversee the Facebook livestream and other media operations.
Through the faithful stewardship of Mississippi Baptists, scholarship endowments are made available through the Mississippi Baptist Foundation to bless hundreds of young men and women each year. Other endowments have been established to provide funding for planting new churches like Soul City Church. In a unique way, these scholarship awards and ministry grants help connect education to life application as folks like Scott Fortenberry make a Kingdom impact.
Please take a moment to pray for the students whose names are listed on the inside spread of this edition of Foundation News. Will you also pray about how you should frame a legacy of ministry and missions service through a current gift, or your Last Will and Testament? As “laborers together with God,” your friends at the Mississippi Baptist Foundation are ready and available to assist you in bringing Mississippi and the world to Jesus.
– Daniel C. Hall