Lakeland Street Baptist Church and the Ashcraft ministry

Lakeland Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, holds a place in the history of the Ashcraft ministry that extends across two generations. It was the congregation in which L. H. Ashcraft was saved and baptized in 1944, and it later provided a setting for Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft’s work during their college years. Its financial contribution also helped secure land for the Bible institute in Mexico.[1]

These connections developed over several decades. They encompassed a conversion, the establishment of a church in Texas, practical preparation for missionary service, and support for an institution training Christian workers in Mexico.[1][2]

L. H. Ashcraft and the Fort Worth congregation

In 1944, L. H. Ashcraft received Christ and was baptized at Lakeland Street Baptist Church. The congregation subsequently sent him out to establish Bible Baptist Church in Waxahachie, Texas, in 1951.[1]

Those two dates locate Lakeland Street within the earlier period of Ashcraft’s ministry, before his family’s move to Monterrey in 1960. His association with the Fort Worth congregation therefore preceded the work in Mexico and formed part of the ministerial background from which it developed.[1][2]

The 1951 church-planting connection is distinct from the later missionary relationship. Lakeland Street’s place in the family’s history began with L. H.’s own conversion and service in Texas, rather than solely with support for an already established foreign ministry.[1]

Tommy and Brenda’s college years

A second generation worked within the same congregation. During their four years of Bible college, Tommy Ashcraft and Brenda Irby Ashcraft served with Pastor A. F. Jernigan at Lakeland Street.[1]

Tommy’s later retrospective places his enrollment at Bible Baptist Seminary in Arlington in 1965 and identifies his work at Lakeland Street as a staff position held during his four college years. He and Brenda married in August 1966, between his first and second years of study.[2]

The church work gave Tommy practical experience alongside his classroom preparation. In later assessments of Jernigan’s influence, he emphasized the leadership skills and pastoral practices he learned by observing the pastor’s dealings with his congregation. By 2017, he still identified methods learned under Jernigan as part of his own ministry.[1][2]

This period also connected the couple’s preparation in Texas with their subsequent work in Mexico. In August 1969, Tommy and Brenda joined L. H. Ashcraft in the Bible institute ministry he had begun in 1963.[2]

A contribution toward the institute property

Lakeland Street’s involvement included a specific financial contribution: the congregation paid the $2,000 down payment on five acres where the Bible institute’s facilities were built.[1]

The distinction between a down payment and the full purchase price matters. The surviving account credits Lakeland Street with the initial $2,000 payment; it does not establish that the church financed the entire acquisition or subsequent construction.[1]

The gift gave the congregation a material connection with the development of Monte Hebrón’s campus. Alongside its earlier influence on members of the Ashcraft family, Lakeland Street contributed to the physical setting in which the institute’s training work would take place.[1]

The seventy-fifth anniversary in 2017

In February 2017, Tommy returned to Lakeland Street for the church’s seventy-fifth anniversary. Jeff York was then pastor. The occasion reunited Tommy with people he had known for more than fifty years and prompted him to describe the congregation’s earlier connections with his father, his own preparation, and the institute property.[1]

Jernigan remained a significant figure in that recollection. Tommy’s account emphasized both the personal friendship and the lasting professional influence of their years working together.[1]

The anniversary offered a point from which several periods could be viewed together: L. H.’s conversion in 1944, his departure to establish the Waxahachie congregation in 1951, Tommy and Brenda’s college-era service, and the contribution toward the institute’s land.[1]

Continued missionary support

The relationship remained active beyond the anniversary. In November 2021, Tommy identified Lakeland Street, under Jeff York, as a church continuing to support his ministry.[2]

Taken together, these events place Lakeland Street within the Ashcraft story as more than a donor associated with a single project. The congregation was a setting for conversion and pastoral formation, a participant in church planting, and a contributor to missionary training in Mexico. Its historical significance lies in the continuity of those relationships across generations and changing fields of service.[1][2]