How The Restoration Ministry Began

Dixon Murrah began developing the Counseling Ministry at Sagemont Church when he served as the Church Counselor. In this role, Dixon and his wife Lois became aware of many unmet spiritual, emotional, and relational needs in people’s lives, so they asked God for wisdom in expanding their ministry. They prayed, and God led them to focus their efforts on wounded church leaders. Their plan was bold and simple: As they taught and counseled these leaders, God would bring healing and hope. Then the leaders could pass along these transforming principles to their people.

The first step in ministering to leaders was a dinner for ministers’ wives from all over Houston.  Shortly after that event, a couple in Florida saw a newspaper article in which Pastor John Morgan stated that he wanted to help pastors. The Lord had already laid that same burden on this couple’s hearts, so the man arranged to have lunch with Brother John to explore his ideas. As he caught Brother John’s vision, he gave a large check to Sagemont to fund this ministry.  

Brother John called Dixon and asked him to use this donation to develop a program for ministers. About this same time, the leaders of Rapha Treatment Centers approached Sagemont about their desire to help struggling ministers and their families.  Rapha’s Dr. Jim Mahoney and Dixon prayed and planned together. Their strategy was to invite pastors and their wives to a weeklong conference called “Stress in the Ministry.”

The first of these conferences took place in September 1989.  For the next few months, Dixon and Dr. Mahoney conducted a conference each month.  In the spring of 1990, however, Dr. Jim Mahoney was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  With their leader in this work out of action, Rapha participated in one or two more conferences in their partnership with Sagemont, and then resigned from the joint effort.  Since then, the conferences have been conducted and underwritten solely by Sagemont Church.

A few years ago, Sagemont’s Counseling Ministry and the Stress in the Ministry Conferences had grown so much that Dixon was advised to carve out a separate identity for these events for pastors and their wives. Dixon and Lois still host, lead and teach church leaders and their spouses at these conferences.

Over the years, about 800 couples from some 18 or 20 different denominations have participated in 84 Stress in the Ministry Conferences.  The attendees have included missionaries, seminary professors and deans, denominational leaders and pastors serving in churches all over the United States.  In addition, pastors and their wives from Dominica, Argentina, Great Britain and Canada have also attended, and in 1995, the conference was held in Nicaragua for about 50 indigenous pastors.

Throughout the years, God has used this ministry to bring hope to the hopeless and restore men and women to effective ministry. One pastor related, “I was going to leave the ministry. My life was a wreck, and my family was a disaster. But God used Dixon, Lois, and their conference to give me more healing than I ever thought possible. I’ll always be indebted to them.”