Texas Church Community Mourns Death of Lead Pastor

By Eric Young, Christian Post Reporter Sunday, March 07, 2010

The founding pastor of Providence Church in Frisco, Texas, passed away Friday after being admitted into the Intensive Care Unit with liver and kidney damage.

A funeral for Barry Keldie has been scheduled for Tuesday at The Village Church in Highland Village, Texas, from where he was dispatched to plant Providence Church five years ago.

On Friday, Providence Church opened its doors for the community to mourn, pray, and talk about Keldie's life.

Keldie was 15 when he accepted Christ and had been preaching for over a dozen years. His church belongs to the Acts 29 Network, a peer-to-peer association of churches dedicated to planting local, missional, Christ-centered communities.

"We will be forever grateful for how God used him in the life of our body," the church expressed in a statement on its website following news of Keldie's death.

In lieu of flowers, the church is asking the donations be sent to a fund that has been set up to provide for the Keldie family.

"Grieve and pray for Charity, Will, & Layla," tweeted Scott Thomas, president of Acts 29 and church planting pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. "Yet we are not those who grieve w/o hope."

In addition to Acts 29, Providence Church also partners with the Denton Baptist Association (DBA) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and Compassion International.