Faith: Pastor saying good-bye to Texico's First Baptist

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Rob Hollis, longtime pastor at First Baptist Church of Texico, is about to become Muleshoe High School’s assistant principal.

Leading a church is no different than leading a high school — just ask Rob Hollis.

Hollis realized this quickly when he became pastor of First Baptist Church of Texico in June 2000 after serving for three years as the principal of Texico High School.

“The two are very similar,” Hollis said. “It’s dealing with people and the context of trying to see growth and organizing for the betterment of our society. It’s identical.”

Now 16 years and 825 recorded sermons later (although he says the actual number of his sermons is “countless”), Hollis will return to his roots in the education system to serve as assistant principal of Muleshoe High School and resign his role as the First Baptist Church pastor.

“It’s just time for me to go,” Hollis said. “I have no doubt it was good to me and my family; there’s no hard feelings. I believe God called me to First Baptist, and I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it.

“Preaching was just a call from God to do it. And I did it.”

While Hollis and his wife, Wendy, watched their three children grow up in the church, some of Hollis’ fondest memories of his ministry involve other people’s kids.

“I enjoyed watching people grow, seeing babies born into families and the way people rally around a newborn,” Hollis said. “And I looked forward to the beginning of marriages. It’s a great time of celebration and fun.”

In return for his service, Hollis will soon get a celebration of his own.

First Baptist Church members will hold a farewell fellowship for the Hollis family at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at 224 Turner St. in Texico.

According to First Baptist Church Office Manager Rhonda Hill, the brisket and pulled pork dinner will serve between 150 and 200 people.

“It’s a difficult time,” Hill said about Hollis leaving. “Because we have served together for over 16 years, we’ve become a family, and it’s always difficult when change occurs and we have to say goodbye.

“But it is comforting to know they won’t be far away in distance.”

In the meantime, elders of the church say they have no replacement for Hollis, so the duty falls on them to lead the church. Every couple of weeks, the elders rotate turns speaking from the pulpit.

Although the search for a new pastor is in progress, elders said there’s no telling when the right one will come along.

Glenn Keim, one of the church elders, described the process as “slow and not easy.”

“We’ve only had a couple of weeks to deal with this, so finding a replacement quickly just isn’t going to happen,” Keim said. “We’re going to look until we find someone.”

Whomever they find, Keim said that person must meet certain criteria.

“We don’t want somebody that’s going to sugarcoat everything,” he said. “Not someone that’s going to tell the members exactly what they want to hear rather than the truth. The only thing that counts, as far as I’m concerned, is the truth.”

Although Hollis officially delivered his final sermon at First Baptist Church on June 26, he said his ministerial journey doesn’t end there.

“I’m never going to stop pastoring, never going to stop preaching,” he said. “I pray I grow old doing that. You never quit ministry; it’s just a time to move on. It’s exciting to see what God’s going to do in the next chapter.”