ALPINE Caleb Hughes came to the ministry in a roundabout way, working as a ranch hand and taxidermist and joining the Alpine Church of Christ as its young adult minister and then its preacher.
A native of Grandview, south of Fort Worth, Hughes earned an associate degree at McLennan Community College in Waco and enrolled at Sul Ross State University for his bachelor’s degree and a master’s in range science and wildlife management.
He is also a geographic information systems specialist for SRSU’s Borderlands Research Institute.
“Where the church hits a wall today is in struggling to get to a point where we abide in Jesus Christ and his practices and become a natural outflow of hearts that look like Jesus’s,” Hughes said. “I also really enjoy teaching apologetics, investigating the reasons we have to know the reality of our God and the truth of the Scripture.”
The Alpine Church of Christ at 402 E. Sul Ross Ave. averages 30 people at its 10:45 a.m. Sunday services. Hughes’ wife’s name is Cali.
“College students get exposed to this flood of information that usually discounts Christianity,” he said. “In a college town, you meet people from everywhere who have very different backgrounds.
“But because of the struggle finding their identity that young people often have, their beliefs tend to be a little more malleable and they are more receptive to biblical truths when these truths are presented in an enlightening way.
“It can be a wonderful thing to meet people with different backgrounds and give them new perspectives on who Jesus was and is, especially people who have been in a box for a lot of their lives.”
Hughes said traditional teachings about Jesus “can seem very rehearsed and lose their luster.
“There is no shortage of reasons to continue pursuing Jesus and be captivated by a life of following his call,” he said.
Harrison Armstrong, an administrative coordinator 3 at Texas A&M University, is a longtime friend of Hughes who said he “is by far the most honest and admirable man I have ever met.
“Caleb was born about 200 years too late,” Armstrong said. “He deserves to be back in the 1800s.
“When you have a subject, he will not find the traditional church answer. He will dive deep into the Greek or Hebrew and give you the best, most honest answer.
“He will give you an answer that is thorough and deeply rooted in Scripture and historical facts.”
