Pastor Ray Still has led the Oakwood Baptist Church in New Braunfels for 25 years. Under his leadership, church membership has grown from 400 to more than 5,800, and the church holds six services each Sunday.
He demonstrates his deep commitment to health through leadership of a charitable health clinic, service on hospital boards, personal health accomplishments, and his leadership at church and in the wider community. Still encourages the congregation to actively care for all aspects of their health, and he has led the church to create several ministries that specifically promote physical, mental, and spiritual health.
In 2008, Still led the effort to establish New Braunfels Christian Ministries and its Volunteers in Medicine clinic. The clinic – which partners with CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital New Braunfels and Resolute Health Hospital of the Baptist Health System – provides quality medical and dental care at no cost to local uninsured residents of New Braunfels and Comal County. Over the last 10 years, the clinic team has served more than 51,000 patient visits.
Still has also led efforts that resulted in healthy snacks and meals being provided daily to more than 250 under-resourced students from l2 elementary schools through the Kids’ Club program and he has championed the Kids’ Club garden, which provides fresh produce for Kids’ Club meals, students’ families, and Volunteers in Medicine patients. He also initiated the creation of NBCM’s Harvest Food Pantry to provide healthy groceries to families of school-aged children.
For his leadership on health-related ministries, Still has been named the Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio’s 2018 Spirit of Health Award recipient. Each year, BHFSA honors a person or organization that has contributed to improving community health. Still embodies that spirit and has helped thousands of people in the New Braunfels and greater Comal County community.
Still and his wife, Sandra, have been married for 37 years. They have one son, Mitchell, and daughter-in-law, Alicia.
This year’s event was held on Tuesday, December 11th, 4:30 p.m., at First Baptist Church of San Antonio.
Previous recipients of the Spirit of Health Award include the San Antonio Police Department Mental Health Unit; CentroMed Founder Dr. Ernesto Gomez; Lindsey Painter, a teacher in New Braunfels who donated a kidney to one of her students; Fernando Guerra, MD, former Director of Health for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District; George Gaston, PhD, retired Vice President of Mission and Ministry for Baptist Health System; and Jim Potyka, MD, a former Baptist Health System Emergency Department Physician.
(L-R: Cody Knowlton, BHFSA President and CEO, and Ray Still, Oakwood Baptist Church Senior Pastor)