MIDLAND The Rev. Eddy Elliott has a working man’s history and the church he pastors, Solid Rock Fellowship Out West, emphasizes reaching husbands and fathers with a similar background and encouraging them to be faithful to their familial responsibilities.
“I minister to the men, the heads of families, and maybe cut down on the divorce rate and broken homes,” Elliott said. “I realized years ago that Satan’s biggest target in America is our young husbands.
“If he can bust them up with all the temptations he throws at them, look at the collateral damage he can cause with messed up kids living without daddies and messed up wives doing things they wouldn’t ordinarily catch themselves doing where they say, ‘I got to do what I got to do to take care of the kids.’”
With a 50- by 100-foot youth center under construction, Elliott’s 4601 W. I-20 church averages 100-125 people at its 11 a.m. Sunday services, which are followed by lunch at the church.
Elliott is a 62-year-old Midland native who graduated from Midland High School and worked in the oilfield and in construction at Round Rock and South Padre Island. He returned to his hometown to become construction foreman at Midland Memorial Hospital and graduate from an extension course offered by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
Elliott was youth minister and associate pastor at West Kentucky Baptist Church in Midland and started Solid Rock Fellowship Out West 12 years ago. He and his wife Tina Kay have three children and six grandchildren.
“We’re not part of the cowboy church network, but we are a working man’s place,” Elliott said. “We have a hitching post out front, so if somebody wants to ride a horse up here, they can.”
There might not be many horses outside on a typical Sunday morning, but there are usually some motorcycles. “We have a motorcycle ministry called Misfits in Christ where we reach out to unchurched guys who ride bikes,’” the minister explained.
“I knew about God and Jesus in my early walk, but I wondered, how does this thing with God work in life, how am I going to be fortified? Then I read Philippians 4:13, which says, ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’”
Church Elder Jerry Cox said Elliott “preaches from the Bible and doesn’t leave any stone unturned.
“He tells you the way it is,” said Cox, adding that Elliott is an enthusiastic fisherman and deer hunter. “If it’s not in the Bible, Eddy doesn’t preach it. That’s what we like and that’s why he keeps us together. The whole congregation loves him and his wife. He is a good person and a super preacher.”
