The FBC Durant Podcast

This is part 2 of the season 2 finale episode where we address some more of our submitted questions with Pastor Garry. You will also find a vlog tagged to the end of this episode of our recent staff field trip to the Texas State Fair. If you listen to the podcast, you may want to switch to watching that portion of the episode. It's been a great season of podcasting! We hope and pray that you have...

It’s time to tackle the questions that have been submitted for us to answer in our season 2 finale episode. This is part 1 and we will have Pastor Garry with us for part 2. We have some fun and insightful questions to answer along with some season 2 bloopers. Thank you everyone for submitting! Q&A: Submit Questions for Season Finale https://fbcdurant.org/q-amp-a-night-with-the-fbc-durant-podcast-t...

Dr. Todd Fisher serves as the Executive Director-Treasurer for Oklahoma Baptists. He is a former Pastor and has been involved in the Southern Baptist Convention on the association, state, and national levels throughout his career serving on committees and boards. With numerous degrees including: a BA in Pastoral Ministry, an MDivBL, a DMin in hermeneutics, a ThM in biblical spirituality, and a PhD...

Fellow church member Jason Ward joins us to share his story and talk about how to discover your purpose through life's divine moments. Jason is a creative director, photographer, and entrepreneur who has written a book about finding your Gold Thread, which represents the pure and true purpose and calling God has for your life. Not knowing or understanding the course of your life can be one of the...

Hey everyone! This year we had a new Wednesday evening Holy Week service to contemplate the events at the cross before we celebrate Easter Sunday. So this episode is a little different in the sense that it is the live audio recording from our 2026 Holy Week service where we spent time worshiping in song, prayer, communion, and scripture readings. This episode is a great option for you to worship o...

Today we are reflecting on the previous four episodes of this podcast, a series we're calling "Friends & Family", which guides us through a sequence of major life events that many of us go through — friendship, singleness/dating, parenting, and marriage. We've intentionally met with specific people for each of these chapters of life to gather insight and learn how to pursue these milestones in a w...

Lead Pastor Garry McNeill and his wife, Heather McNeill, join us to share their story together and have a conversation about marriage. "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hope...

Today we speak with Calvin Palmer on the topic of raising children. Calvin is a father to 12 kids in which many of them have grown up in our church over the years. Raising children is a blessing from the Lord that many of us get the responsibility of nurturing in life. Parenting is not an easy task but a beautiful model of faithfulness. Instructing, disciplining with love, and providing care (spir...

To continue through a series of friends and family related topics, we discuss navigating the waters of a dating relationship, along with being single. Will and Alisa Sandmann, who have recently gotten married, are here to share their experience and what things they have learned throughout their singleness and dating life. While the Bible doesn't explicitly mention "dating" as we know it in today's...

Today we have Sarah's friend Tonnie Scott, also known as Garret's wife, join the show to talk about friendship. Having good friends is important in life. Our relationships with others is a blessing from the Lord. Scripture speaks on the support, encourgement, conduct, and love we can share with one another. In this episode we share our own experiences and the things we've discovering about buildin...

Welcome to 2026! We just celebrated the many salvations and baptisms we had over the past year and reflect on what the Lord has done in our lives and in our church. Garrett, Sarah, and Cole discuss what entertainment they partaked in this year and discuss their annuall highs and lows. Looking into the new year, we are excited to press on towards the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14)....

Serve Durant is a multi-church outreach network in Durant, Oklahoma. We are not just churches IN a city, we are the Church FOR our city. It is the desire of our heart to see the body of Christ in our city come together to not just be churches in Durant, but FOR Durant. We do this by partnering with city government, civil services, and benevolent organizations to accomplish as many service projects...

The Pregnancy Center of Bryan County (PCBC) Director, Hannah Searles, and Client Advocate, Pattye Green, join us to share about the PCBC located at 308 N. 2nd Ave. in Durant, OK. The PCBC is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that provides evidence-based medical information and support to women and families navigating unexpected or unsupported pregnancies. Founded in 1999, the PCBC has been servin...

In this Thanksgiving special, Garrett, Cory, and Sarah sit down for a fun and meaningful holiday catch-up. The trio dives deeply into the role of gratitude in battling anxiety, the importance of living in the present, and the powerful impact of J Groups and authentic community. We share personal stories on finding connection and navigating seasons of hardship, reminding everyone that thankfulness...

Trey Hedrick is the BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry) Director at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. BCM is a ministry of Oklahoma Baptists in which ministers on local campuses encourage, mentor, disciple, equip, and coach students during their college years. Oklahoma Baptists is the organization we chose to cooperate and collaborate with for ministry impact. This partnership allows local chu...

In this episode we visit with Skylar Phillips who recently joined our church staff as the children's minister. Skylar shares her life with us and some details about our children's ministery, as well as insight into ministering kids. Chapters: 0:00 Intro. 0:44 First takes. 5:16 Skylar's testimony. 12:20 The significance of church for children. 17:43 Understanding children today. 28:50 Cory's curios...

Meet Will Sandmann. Will has recently joined our staff as the College Ministry Assistant. Will teaches the college ministry LIFE Group and helps lead the ministry at FBC Durant. Will has also spent several years working at Southeastern’s Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM). We discuss ministering to young people and what our college ministry consist of. If you’re a college student or you would like...

Pastor Garry and Dustin have a conversation with Dr. Tom Elliff and Dr. Elbert Smith of Oklahoma Baptist University's Tom Elliff Center for Missions. Dr. Tom Elliff served as the International Mission Board’s president from 2011–2014 and served two presidential terms with the Southern Baptist Convention. He's also spent time as a missionary in Zimbabwe as well as many years pastoring churches in A...

At FBC Durant, we long to see every person grow deeper in their understanding of the Scriptures and the Savior. To achieve this, we have what we call Journey groups (J-Groups). J-Groups are designed to move believers along the pathway of discipleship in very small, gender specific groups over a specific time frame with a specific course of study. This strategy derives from a collective known as Re...

LIFE Group stands for learn, intercede, fellowship, and engage. It's what we intend to do in our small group ministery at FBC Durant. We long to see every person connected to the people and ministries of our fellowship. We have Jace Williamson here to provide insight on this very important matter within church. Jace is the Executive Pastor and Elder at First Baptist Church in Van Alstyne, Texas. J...

As Christ followers, what we need to know about worship is that God calls us to do this (Psm. 95:1-6, Isa. 12:5, Heb. 13:15, Rom. 12:1). So how do we do this in a God-honoring way? Especially in the midst of the good, bad, and ugly that our lives hold. Worship is the opening pillar to our pathway as we long to see every person engage in the worship of the one true God (Col. 3:16). For this episode...

Welcome back to season 2 of The FBC Durant Podcast! It's been a great summer and we're excited to continue rolling out biweekly podcast episodes again. Stay tuned for things to come as we continue our journey at FBC Durant—to glorify God by making disciples of all nations. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:44 First takes 5:01 Summer recap 10:12 Season 2 preview 11:45 How to tune in 14:45 Outro Website: https...

Our final episode of season 1! We reflect on the season and answer the remaining questions from Q&A night. Thank you for joining us this season on the FBC Durant Podcast! If you like the show, we encourage everyone to subscribe to the FBC Durant YouTube channel where you can watch us and if you turn on your notification bell, you'll be notified when we release new episodes. You can also listen to...

To begin the wrap up of season 1, we hosted an event in the student worship center. This was a question and answer panel including our podcast host and Pastor Garry McNeill. People can submit any question and our panelist will provide an answer. The submission link is included below if anyone else would like to submit a question, we will attempt to answer the remaining questions in part 2 of the s...

Today we have our Light of Mine Special Needs Ministry Coordinator, Deedee Gallegos. Deedee is a devoted wife to Michael, mother to Tad, autism advocate, Mighty Moms Podcast Co-Host, and ministry leader whose mission is rooted in faith, family, and creating safe spaces for the special needs community. Inspired by her 17 year old son Tad, who lives with profound autism and epilepsy, Deedee has dedi...