He said Houston Lake Presbyterian has a mix of young and older families, many of whom have ties to Robins Air Force Base. He said the majority of elders in the church are active or retired military and have brought in the Air Force idea of getting “re-blued” each year, or looking at and reaffirming who you are, what your mission is and whether you’re accomplishing it

Easter 2010, a church that began as a home Bible study started meeting in a new facility on 7.5 acres on Houston Lake Road.

Although its address is listed as O’Brien Drive, Houston Lake Presbyterian Church fronts the four-lane road running from north Houston County into the heart of Perry. The Rev. Paul Bankson said that from the start, the congregation has sought to proclaim and live in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“We started as a church plant in 2004 with the home Bible study for about a year,” he said. “After that, we met Sunday evenings at Coldwell Banker SSK on Watson Boulevard and spent time in a doctor’s waiting room and a rented building.”

Bankson said the church began with about five families. He said the Presbyterian Church in America regional presbytery encouraged a new church in fast-growing Houston County, as did the initial families, most of whom lived in Warner Robins, Kathleen and Bonaire but traveled to Macon and Perry to worship.

Bankson said Perry Presbyterian Church and First Presbyterian in Macon got behind the
effort. Bankson himself served as assistant pastor at First Presbyterian in Macon for five years prior to starting Houston Lake Presbyterian. He came to Macon as campus minister with Reformed University Fellowship at Mercer University.

“We started actual worship services when we had about 25 people,” Bankson said. “But we still emphasize small groups for discipleship and building community. Jesus’ model was to work with large groups, then have the smaller group of 12, then even smaller group of three — Peter, James and John — yet still minister one-on-one. We figure it’s not a bad idea to follow that example.”

It was one-on-one involvement — mentoring in modern jargon — that led Bankson into Christian work.