fbpx
News Articles

FROM THE STATES: Ga., Ark. and Miss. evangelism/missions news; ‘They realize outreach still works’


Today’s From the States features items from:
Christian Index (Georgia)
Arkansas Baptist News
The Baptist Record (Mississippi)

**********

Ga.’s ‘Big Invite’ spurs record
church attendance Easter Sunday

By Scott Barkley

DULUTH, Ga. (Christian Index) — New steps brought new results for churches, as well as new beginnings for many people, around the state of Georgia this Easter.

Guided by steps through “The Big Invite,” ministers throughout Georgia are reporting large crowds and responses to the Gospel. Many of those experiences were shared on a Facebook group dedicated to The Big Invite, an initiative by Evangelism Ministries of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. Through it, churches utilized resources and step-by-step instructions to reach out to their communities in efforts of having their biggest Easter attendance ever.

“Praising God for a packed house with many, many guests at Riverbend Baptist in Gainesville!” wrote Mike Dorough, pastor. “One young man professed faith in Jesus! Thousands of invites extended across [northeast Georgia]! God honored the hard work & prayers of His people! Now, we’ve got LOTS of awesome follow-up to do!”

Saturday night salvations

Pastor Daryl Womack of Montgomery Memorial Baptist Church, also in Gainesville, saw the transformation first-hand. Not only did business as usual end for the seven individuals praying over the weekend to receive Christ, but so did the way his church saw reaching out to others.

“We were very disciplined and systematic about what we were going to do in preparing for Easter,” he said. “We formed teams that went into our community and knocked on the doors of 2,000 homes.”

Those homes, he pointed out, sat in sections representing different parts of the city along ethnic and socioeconomic lines.

“We saw those folks in our two Sunday services as well as Saturday night service,” he added. Back in February, Womack noted how Montgomery Memorial benefited from the Big Invite layout and resources.

For example, the ‘Easter Eve’ service on Saturday night was a first for Montgomery Memorial and brought about five of the salvations from the weekend. Beforehand, church members presented door hangers to local first responders working Easter Sunday, showing the Saturday service as another option.

“We sent letters to the police chief, fire chief, and sheriff to let their people know this was available to them,” said Womack, who estimated the Saturday service split nearly 50/50 on visitors and church members.

Seeing success

“I’m proud of our church and all other churches that were involved in the Big Invite. Awesome job, everyone!” posted David Cook, pastor of Union Baptist in Winder. “We had a great Easter at our church with more people at our Sunrise, early service, and regular service. We were definitely up numerically, but didn’t have any public decisions for Christ. It wasn’t because Jesus’ heart and my heart wasn’t pulling for people. It’s not by our power or might, but by God’s Spirit. We can plant and water, but God is the only One who can give the increase.”

“Pastors, if you preached what God gave you to preach and you loved the people, it was successful in God’s eyes!”

Rockmart pastor Justin Carter, of Bellview Baptist Church, noted an increase in those checking out Jesus.

“We had the largest Easter crowd in three years due to The Big Invite,” he told The Index. “We had more unchurched families from the community at Easter than I’ve ever seen at our church. We’ll be following up this week.”

‘This works’

Cook and Womack joined numerous others in crediting the leadership and work of Georgia Baptist Convention president and Alpharetta pastor Thomas Hammond, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board Evangelism department, and specifically state missionary Scott Smith in helping make The Big Invite a success.

For Smith, the results acknowledge what he’s always known.

“This works,” he stated. “We said from the outset we were offering a proven model for having more guests than ever for Easter. We synthesized a plan that would be workable for most any church in any location. For those who implemented, they saw the fruits of their labor Sunday morning.”

And now, he stressed, comes a critical aspect of the effort.

“[Follow-up] is extremely crucial. We sent out a ten-minute training session (below) that if implemented will not only keep guests from falling through the cracks but lead to even more salvations.”

When it comes to following up, he pointed out two key mistakes churches make.

“One is not making it multi-touch. Guests need to receive at least two separate contacts on different mediums, whether that’s a phone call, email, or personal visit,” he explained. “The other key mistake in follow-up? When churches just don’t do it.”

Buzz, buzz

Smith said he began receiving texts, emails, and other alerts from pastors yesterday, with little break in the updates.

“We had an overflow capacity today [and] had to add chairs,” said John McMillian, Jr., senior pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in Eatonton. “We do not have a definite number because people were crowding into rows! We do know it was 500-plus. That’s about a 60 percent increase.”

“Record crowds at both our sunrise service (125) and morning worship attendance (250),” wrote Sonoraville Baptist Pastor Steve Skates. “The morning service attendance was 110 more than our average.”

“We at Concord Baptist in Mableton came within 18 of doubling our average Sunday morning attendance,” exclaimed Lanier Gable, minister of music.

“We had our all-time high at FBCVR yesterday with 1,912 people in attendance,” reported First Baptist Villa Rica Pastor Kevin Williams. “Prior to that it was 1,480. We also had 24 decisions yesterday!”

In two services, said Altamaha, Jesup Pastor Jack Lee, his church experienced more than 700 attendees.

“No way we could have done that in one service,” he told Smith. “Many came because they were invited. Praise the Lord!”

Ray Cochran, family minister at First Baptist Chatsworth, said their attendance from Palm Sunday to Easter nearly doubled, from 161 to 308. “That’s an amazing number,” he noted.

Hammond himself shared that Alpharetta First Baptist witnessed more than 1,600 in attendance yesterday with four baptisms. “Largest Sunday in the history of the church,” he said. “We also had our first service at our church plant in north Alpharetta, GracePoint Church at Union Hill, which had 120 in attendance.”

Enduring impact

Smith attests to The Big Invite’s reach going much further than yesterday.

“We’re seeing a new excitement in many of our churches,” he said. “They experienced what it’s like to invest time and energy and see a visible return. They realize outreach still works, prayer has power, and ‘come-and-see’ evangelism like Andrew’s leaves an imprint. People in our culture are grateful to be invited to church and will often respond.

“It’s almost as if we literally doubled or tripled our vision-capacity. Ephesians 3:20 just showed up in response to the faith-driven action steps of Georgia Baptists.

“We’ll be reaping the rewards for a long time.”
–30–
This article appeared in The Christian Index (christianindex.org), newsjournal of the Georgia Baptist Convention. Scott Barkley is production manager for The Christian Index.

**********

Three Ark. congregations
under one roof

By Staff

ROGERS, Ark. (Arkansas Baptist News) — What might be described as “a little taste of heaven on earth” happens every Sunday at Open Door Baptist Church in Rogers.

There, Pastor Jerry Harris and the Anglo congregation of the church meet concurrently with the Open Door Korean Baptist Church and with Iglesia Bautista Oikos. Every Sunday Anglos, Koreans and Hispanics meet under the same roof to worship.

“Once each month these three culturally diverse congregations meet together to celebrate what heaven is going to be like when every tribe, tongue and nation come together in the presence of our great Savior, Jesus!” said R.E. Clark, associational missionary for Northwest Baptist Association.

Recently all three congregations came together simultaneously for a morning of singing and preaching. Pastors Jerry Harris of Open Door Baptist, Kim Young-Gurl of Open Door Korean Baptist and Daniel Cerda of Iglesia Bautista Oikos organized the joint service. Clark preached the morning message.

“Each congregation provided special music in their heart languages, and all joined in unison as words to songs were displayed in English, Korean and Spanish,” said Clark. “It was easy to imagine what it would be like one day in heaven as multitudes of other languages sing in harmony the songs of Zion!”

Before Clark began preaching, he noted to the congregation how much this scene looked like heaven — except for one small matter. The Anglos were all seated in one section; the Koreans, in another, and the Hispanics, in yet another. “Not quite like heaven after all,” said Clark.

The congregants were then asked to stand and were regrouped according to the day of the month on which each head of household was born. Everyone reassembled by birthday in the center of the sanctuary with Anglos, Koreans and Hispanics now thoroughly interspersed in the mix.

“Now, it looked like heaven!” said Clark, who preached in English while the message was translated into Korean and then Hispanic.

“As the message began, the translators stumbled over each other a bit as they determined who was to go first. But then it all came together! Like a fine-tuned three-cycle engine, the Word of God was preached into the heart language of three congregations meeting together under one roof and in the presence of heaven itself! The result: three saved and multiple other decisions were made while there was joy in the presence of the angels! The service concluded with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Representatives from each congregation participated in the distribution of the elements and the times of prayer,” said Clark.

“It was indeed heaven on earth for one day in a church that has learned that God is not finished with them yet. With 10 acres of property and a large facility, this congregation has revitalized themselves, not in a traditional way by trying to regrow the Anglo congregation, but by becoming what God has always intended the church to be — a place where all who will eventually go to heaven can gather now and again while still living together here on earth,” said Clark.

What’s just as amazing, Clark said, is that Harris, the pastor of Open Door Baptist, surrendered to the ministry at age 62, following retirement from a secular vocation.

“Now at 70 years young, he and his wife Alice are leading Open Door Baptist Church to a new day of potential in reaching the world in and from northwest Arkansas,” said Clark.
–30–
This article appeared in the Arkansas Baptist News (arkansasbaptist.org), newsjournal of the Arkansas Baptist Convention.

**********

Rodeo ministry
spreads Gospel in Miss.

By William H. Perkins Jr.

JACKSON, Miss. (The Baptist Record) — Almost 30 professions of faith in Jesus Christ were recorded at the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (MBCB) exhibit booth at the Trade Mart in Jackson during the 2017 Dixie National Livestock Show and Rodeo.

MBCB director of evangelism Don Lum characterized the booth’s second appearance at the Dixie National as a success from the dual standpoints of sharing the Gospel with lost people, and the training and experience in doing so that was acquired by the Mississippi Baptist volunteers staffing the booth.

“Mississippi Baptist church members from all over the state came to help lead people to Jesus,” Lum said. “A Christian witness was shared with 1,926 people. A total of 811 visitors to the booth filled out contact cards in response to the three-minute witness the volunteers were giving and the prayer time that was offered by the volunteers.”

Lum said the idea for the Dixie National effort came from Wyoming Baptists, who have many such opportunities annually that are provided by the manifold livestock shows and rodeo-type events in their state.

Lum travelled to Wyoming in July 2015 to observe and work in the Wyoming Baptist booth that was set up at the High School National Rodeo Finals in Rock Springs.

“It was an inspirational experience to see Wyoming Baptists having so much success reaching those young rodeo enthusiasts and their families, and I concluded from watching those volunteers in action that we could do the same at our own Dixie National.”

James Scott, a church planter with the Wyoming Southern Baptist Convention in Casper and the coordinator of the Wyoming program who served as Lum’s contact, came to Mississippi for the 2017 Dixie National effort and helped in the booth.

“James also spoke about witnessing and church planting in a number of our Mississippi Baptist churches while he was with us,” Lum said. “He inspired the churches and their members to get involved in church planting, and I appreciated him doing that.”

Lum said planning is already underway for the Mississippi Baptist exhibit booth at the 2018 Dixie National on Feb. 14-18. For more information, contact the MBCB evangelism department at P.O. Box 530, Jackson, MS 39205-0530. Telephone: (601) 292-3278 or toll-free outside Jackson (800) 748-1651, ext. 278. E-mail: [email protected]. Web site: mbcb.org.

The Dixie National evangelism ministry is supported each year by gifts to the Mississippi Cooperative Program.
–30–
This story appeared in The Baptist Record, newsjournal of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (mbcb.org). William Perkins is editor of The Baptist Record.

**********

EDITOR’S NOTE: From the States, published each Tuesday by Baptist Press, relays news and feature stories from state Baptist papers and other publications on initiatives by Baptist churches, associations and state conventions in evangelism, church planting and Great Commission outreach, including partnership missions. Reports about churches, associations and state conventions responding to the International Mission Board’s call to embrace the world’s unengaged, unreached people groups also are included in From the States, along with reports about church, associational and state convention initiatives in conjunction with the North American Mission Board’s call to Southern Baptist churches to broaden their efforts in starting new churches and satellite campuses. The items appear in Baptist Press as originally published.

    About the Author

  • Staff