April 16, 2001
Waco couple raises a tent to bring the unchurched to Jesus
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___WACO--When Thomas Dugat first got the vision of a church service in a tent, he thought God was telling him to lead a tent revival.
___But after months of running into one closed door after another, he finally realized he must have misunderstoodthe message from God.
THOMAS AND CAROL DUGAT stand on the Waco property where their new tent church meets. The tent remains up year-round, and so far weather hasn't keep the church from meeting.
___"The Lord finally explained it to me," he said. "He was trying to tell me he wanted a tent for a church."
___The change of direction made all the difference. "When I started working to start a church, the doors just opened up," he explained.
___But perhaps like Noah explaining to Mrs. Noah God's directive to build a boat on dry land, Dugat ran into a reality check from his wife, Carol.
___"Are you sure you heard from the Lord?" she asked him.
___"I was not for the idea of the tent, and when he said 'Port-a-Potties,' I certainly wasn't for it," she explained.
___But she agreed to pray about it. And as she did, God gave her the same vision.
___The reason for the tent, both she and her husband understood, was to create a place of worship where anyone could feel comfortable.
___Their mission field was to be the east side of Waco, on a major intersection in a low-income neighborhood. And not only were they to start a church in a tent there, they believed God was telling them to move into the neighborhood as well.
___The couple owned a rent house not far from the intersection of Waco Drive and Dallas Street, where the tent church was to be staked. So they left their home near Lake Waco and moved into their own rent house.
___The first weeks there were difficult. Prostitutes were picked up and dropped off on the corner where their house stood. Drugs were sold in front of their home. People rang their doorbell, offering to sell them goods that had just been stolen from other homes.
___Again, they began to pray.
____"We sat on our porch and claimed those who came by for the Lord," she recalled.
___Soon, the neighborhood atmosphere began to change. Not all illicit activity has been removed from the streets, but the neighborhood has cleaned up enough so that children now play safely in their yards and people stop to talk with each.
___Through the contacts they made sitting on their front porch and walking through their neighborhood, the Dugats rounded up their first church members.
___East Waco Missionary Baptist Church was launched Oct. 22 with about 15 people. Today, the church serves about 25 people weekly. Sunday School and worship are held year-round under a faded red and white tent.
___The dress code is come-as-you-are, which means some wear dress clothes and others wear shorts. Some wear the only clothes they own, clothes that might drawn strange looks at traditional churches.
___Waco's east side is home to 49 churches of all types, but all those brick-and-mortar churches appear daunting to people who feel estranged from the church or underdressed to go there, Dugat said.
___Mrs. Dugat had experienced this herself. When she wore pants to a weeknight Bible study at her own church in the past, the teacher had reprimanded in front of the group for not dressing appropriately.
___"In some churches, there's more forgiveness for adultery than for wearing pants to church," she said.
___If coping with such criticism was difficult for her, when she had grown up going to church and was a regular attender, how daunting must it be to someone who has nothing else to wear, she wondered.
___The relaxed atmosphere of the tent and the warm compassion of the Dugats have combined to create a place where the gospel connects with those who feel disconnected.
___"People keep asking us, 'Are you going to build?'" Mrs. Dugat explained. "The Lord has not put it on our hearts to build. ... He has put it on our hearts to build people."
___People like the unmarried couple with six children who began attending the tent church. In recent months, the family has overcome major addiction problems, the parents were married in a ceremony in the Dugats home, and all eight members of the family have become Christians.
___"You can see the change that has come into their lives," Mrs. Dugat reported.
___Or there's the man who had been laid off from his job right before Christmas but got it back after he became a Christian at the tent church. His newfound faith changed his once-negative attitude so profoundly that his employer was eager to hire him back.
___Perhaps one of the reasons Dugat has a passion for reaching those who are drawn to the tent church is because he knows what many of them are going through. Raised in the home of a Baptist preacher, he "left the Lord" at 17, he said. "I came back when I was 25, but I came back with a drug addiction."
___A few years later, he sensed God's call to preach, but he was certain God was mistaken, he said. "I told the Lord, 'You forgot one small thing: I'm still hooked on drugs."
___Eventually, he ended up in a drug recovery program and kicked his addiction. "Today I have 12 years sober."
___His own life story is an inspiration to some who come to the church, he admitted. "They've never known anyone who kicked it."
___Dugat started his own landscaping company in 1993, and it has grown and prospered. He also runs a handyman service. Mrs. Dugat is executive assistant to the president of the Dwyer Group, a business training and franchising firm in Waco.
___Their work through East Waco Missionary Baptist Church is supported by Community Baptist Church, a new congregation in nearby China Spring. The sponsoring church's pastor, Jay Swoveland, is bivocational as well.
___In addition to financial support, Community Baptist provides lunch for the tent church once a month, and Swoveland is a vocal supporter of the Dugats' ministry.
___The new church also received about $10,000 in start-up funds from the Baptist General Convention of Texas Church Starting Center.
___Although East Waco Missionary Baptist Church isn't the largest church in town, that's fine with Dugat, who says he doesn't want to build a kingdom for himself.
___"I'm always telling our people, 'Jesus really only had 12, and they turned the world upside down."
___The goal, Mrs. Dugat added, is to change people one life at a time.
___"When you go around this neighborhood, you see so much hopelessness," he said. "But you never know who's going to be the one to turn things around. You never know who's going to be the next Timothy or Paul."
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