A Church planter was killed in Texas last week after being hit by a semi truck while helping a stranded motorist.
John Powell was a church planter and pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in New Caney, Texas.
According to television station KXII, a truck driving north on U.S. Highway 75 was struck by a car. The car caught fire and two men pulled over to assist. Powell was struck by a semi and was killed.
The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, through whom Powell planted Emmanuel Baptist, issued a statement saying: “Our church planting family and the entire SBTC family grieve the loss of an amazing man of God.”
Nathan Lino, one of Powell’s closest friends in the ministry and the pastor of Northeast Houston Baptist Church, which sponsors Powell’s church plant, told Baptist Press that “planting a church is extraordinarily difficult, and so I got to see John under enormous stress and at all times he wanted to know and do the will of Christ. He loved the local church. As much as John loved to preach, and he did, he had an equal passion for the personal wellbeing of his people. He cared about their physical wellbeing and their discipleship.”
Powell and his family had moved to New Caney, north of Houston, from Hamlin, Texas, in 2016. He had previously been director of admissions at Southern Seminary and discipleship pastor at Carlisle Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He is survived by his wife, Katherine, and four young children.