Visionary, Pastor, Kingdom Pioneer
Born on January 28, 1959, Walter August Jr. was raised in Abbeville, Louisiana where he was later baptized at Mt. Triumph Missionary Baptist Church by Pastor Isaiah Matthew in 1972. Three years later, he joined Pleasant Green Baptist Church under the leadership of Pastor Isaiah Joiner.
In 1977, after graduating from high school, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps where he served through 1983. A year after serving, he joined First City Bank Corporate Security Group, attended the Professional Management Training School and then went on to obtain a Security Specialist position in 1991.
In 1992, he professed his calling to the ministry of the Gospel under Dr. E.L. Lott, Senior Pastor of True Light Missionary Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. He was also hired by LaSalle Partners Asset Management Company, where he served as Director of Security. In 1994, Pastor August organized and founded Bethel’s Family Baptist Church, with his wife, three sons, and six committed adults. Today, the church presently ministers to over 13,000 people.
Having served 7½ years at Sugar Creek Baptist Church as their missions pastor, Pastor August was led to launch seven churches and over 58 ministries through Bethel’s Family. In 2002, he founded Bethel’s Heavenly Hands, a food distribution pantry which has served over 500,000 pounds of food in the last year and has fed more than 50,000 people in the Houston area. In 2005, after attending Southwestern Theological Seminary in Houston, Pastor August received an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Saint Thomas Christian College.
In 2006, Bethel’s Place, Inc. was born. This community empowerment organization supports job training, job placement, GED prep and testing, after school programs, vocational training and more. In 2011, God made a way for Pastor August to move this organization into a new 56,000 square foot, two-story building, allowing more social service programs to impact the Greater Houston metropolitan area. In 2012, the partner entity, Bethel’s Blessed Again Resale Shop was established, providing low-cost clothing options for those in need.
While his hands were certainly full, Pastor August still made global missions a priority. He has traveled to Kenya, Africa, the Czech Republic and beyond, doing evangelism training, medical clinics, and developing church leadership teams. Pastor August is also a published author. Embracing Bootstrap Leadership, an in-depth guide on Christ-centered leadership, was released in 2014.
Pastor August is a former board member of the Baptist Church Loan Corporation of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and in 2016, he was inaugurated as President of the African American Pastor’s Fellowship of Houston, an organization uniting African American pastoral leadership.
Yet and still, Pastor August is a family man. He cherishes his wife, Ruby, of over 30 years and their three sons—Walter (III) his wife Tanecia , Patrick and his wife Katie, and Alex and his wife Marcia—along with their grandchildren: Brycen, Brinan, Breanna, Karson, and their newest grandchild expected to make his arrival very soon!