DR. CLAYTON CHISUM / LEAD PASTOR / CENTRAL BAPTIST CHURCH / OWASSO, OK
CENTRAL BAPTIST CHURCH OWASSO:
When your building starts fighting your mission, it’ s time to rebuild for real ministry
By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
By the time Dr. Clayton Chisum arrived at Central Baptist Church in Owasso, Okla., in early 2020, conversations about facilities had been happening for months. The church had good people. Ministry was happening. The campus itself had“ great bones,” as Chisum puts it.
But there was also a growing realization that the building and the ministry happening inside it didn’ t … match.
In fact, in some ways, the building was beginning to work against the church.
Clearly, changes were in order. But even if Chisum wanted to get the ball rolling right away, the timing for a renovation / building project was entirely off, with the pandemic in full effect.“ The very first thing that I did the very first day of work was to shut the church down for three months,” he recalls.“ I preached, I think, 15 sermons to nobody— just on a camera.” Chisum had spent 15 years in Texas serving as a student pastor before he became lead pastor at Central. He arrived in Owasso the same week COVID hit Oklahoma.“ It was a crazy, crazy first year,” he says, adding with a laugh:“ I do not recommend it.” Yet, in hindsight, that difficult season became clarifying.
Matching the facility to the mission COVID forced the church to reassess nearly everything— including the way its facility either supported ministry or hindered it. And for Chisum, who has now led multiple church construction projects throughout his ministry career, one thing became unmistakably clear:“ A facility has to match your mission,” he says.“ It’ s not just about making everything look amazing and cool and cutting edge. It actually needs to be functional. It needs to help ministry happen, because the church isn’ t a building— it’ s people.” That philosophy ultimately shaped Central’ s massive renovation and expansion project with Master’ s Plan Church Design & Construction— a multi-year process that transformed the church’ s physical campus and its culture, its hospitality, and its long-term ministry effectiveness.
A facility built for a different era Central Baptist Church was founded in 1963 in downtown Owasso, when the community was still a small bedroom town north of Tulsa. As Owasso grew, the church relocated in 2002 to its current property on the edge of town. Like many churches built during that era, the facility reflected the ministry philosophy of the 1990s and early 2000s. Lots of classrooms. Lots of hallways. Multiple entrances. Separate ministry zones. What made perfect sense at the time no longer worked 20 years later. The church had accumulated large amounts of small-group space that sat mostly unused throughout the week while occupying prime real estate near the worship center. Additionally, there was no central gathering space; no obvious front door; no natural place for community to happen. In the worship center, the fanned-out orientation unintentionally conveyed a sense of isolation. Different groups used different entrances— families through one door, senior adults through another. Other ministries had essentially adopted their own entrances, too.
10 CHURCH EXECUTIVE | MAY 2026