OZARK – The Missouri Baptist Apologetics Network has welcomed Lacey Shelton of First Baptist Church in Ozark, Missouri as part of their team. As a Christian apologist, Shelton’s expertise includes feminism vs. biblical womanhood, Latter-day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and the history of the prosperity gospel.
Shelton expresses an enthusiastic desire to help women in the church become better equipped in “the training of the powers of their discernment,” and she is available for teaching and speaking for women’s events ranging in scale from personal conversations and Bible studies to workshops and conferences.
Lacey Shelton
No stranger to dedication, Shelton has belonged to the same church—FBC Ozark—for her entire life. She was saved at 14 years old and has been serving the Lord and His people ever since. Music ministry has been a huge part of her service, having played drums for the church orchestra for 25 years. When she was old enough, Shelton dove into student ministry, and that inspired her to get a degree in education.
History became a passion for Shelton, and after receiving her degree in social studies education, she taught in the public school system for a short time. Afterwards, she shifted into web development. While her career changed, Shelton remained faithful and consistent in her faith and service to the Lord at FBC Ozark. She remained heavily involved in teaching students, and later women, at her church.
“There’s something really special about getting to sojourn with people who have seen you in every stage of life,” Shelton says, “and you’ve gotten to go with them through their different stages of life. I couldn’t imagine doing it any differently. I’m very grateful for [that experience].”
Eventually, Shelton accepted the challenge of serving on the pastor search committee at her church, and it was that experience that launched her into a deeper study of church history and apologetics. In order to make informed decisions on applicants for the pastorate, Shelton educated herself more on the Southern Baptist Convention and what it meant to be a Southern Baptist. When a potential pastor included how much a previous church gave to the Cooperative Program or where he went to seminary, Shelton wanted to know exactly what that meant.
Her educational background and studious nature helped Shelton see how history and sociology “feed into” apologetics, which she recognizes as an important component of protecting the church from bad doctrine that may “creep in.” A passion developed for training Christian women to improve their “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb 5:14).
Shelton believes every Christian has a responsibility to engage with apologetics. “It’s all part of the broader scope of Christian training,” she says.
Over ten years of persistent self-study through seminary-level textbooks and guidance from mentors such as Philip Shuford, the Director of Missions in her association, and his wife, Elsy, culminated in Shelton’s current expertise. She has never stopped learning, and even as she passes along the knowledge she’s acquired through teaching, Shelton continues to grow. Currently, she is teaching a women’s Sunday School class on the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, and that experience has produced an even deeper appreciation for “the rich, biblical legacy” of the SBC.
It was Shuford who encouraged Shelton to get involved with the MBC Apologetics Network, and now that she’s joined as an apologist, she is “excited for any opportunity… in helping women within our state… better equip themselves in the practice of discernment and the practice of being able to evaluate, [as Charles Spurgeon put it], ‘right and almost right.’”
To learn more about how Shelton can provide apologetics training for the women in your church, contact her at laceyrshelton@gmail.com. You can find more about the Missouri Baptist Apologetics Network and all their apologists at mobaptist.org/apologetics/mban.