In 2006, Bob Crosby was a state wildlife officer, serving 30 years in law enforcement, when God “turned up the volume.” Today he is pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Ridgeland, where the church has grown from 20 to around 100 in two years.

To understand the story of God’s movement at Faith Baptist, it’s important to understand Crosby’s journey there. In 2006, he was a member of Pine Level Baptist Church, one of the larger membership churches of Savannah River Baptist Association. Crosby was a Sunday school teacher and involved with discipleship training.

“I was carrying this burden, back to 2005, that God wanted something more from me, and God was turning up the volume,” Crosby said. “It was getting to the point that I couldn’t sleep at night.” He came to a place where he prayed, “God, you tell me what you want me to do and I will do it.” From that point, Crosby enrolled in school and started studying to have a better biblical foundation. He also got on the association’s pulpit supply list.

Within weeks, he received a call from Faith about preaching. The church then invited him to speak again, and that led to meetings with church leadership. Within six weeks of accepting God’s call on his life, Crosby was pastor at Faith Baptist Church. That was January 2007. The church ordained him in March 2007.

“I personally don’t have a lot to offer them,” Crosby said. “It is all from God. Everything I have comes from God.”

On Crosby’s first Sunday at Faith, he estimates there were about 20 people at the church. “I was not intimidated by where the church had been, and I was not intimidated by the successful, larger churches in the area. I was not going to make comparisons. At Faith, I saw the possibility for Christ to be proclaimed, and for our church to work with other churches.”

He leaned on Philippians 4:13: “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (NIV). “Using that scripture, I just refused to give up and lay down. I knew God could do great things through the church.”

Vacation Bible School, in 2007, became a real focus.

“The church had never had a daily Bible school,” Crosby said. “It had a three-hour meeting on a Saturday morning and called that Bible school. I began to meet with prayer warriors, six months in advance, to pray for 100 people at our first Vacation Bible School.”

On the Friday before VBS was to begin, Crosby said he happened upon the kitchen crew; members said they were preparing for 60. “I was stunned. I told them that we had all been praying for 100, and we had to have faith that God was going to send 100.” God sent 110. This summer, 2009, Faith enrolled 226 in its Vacation Bible School, and recorded salvations and recommitments. It also collected more than $1,500, which will be used by the church at Christmas to provide dinners and gifts for families in the area. In 2008, the church served 13 families at Christmas.

“I fully intend for us to work as hard as we can to grow the kingdom of God and touch as many lives as we can for Christ,” Crosby said. “I am very outspoken about Christ; he’s my greatest asset this side of heaven.”

In 2008, the church sponsored its first mission trip, sending four people to Kentucky. “They came back with awe-inspiring stories,” Crosby said. “This year, we are sending 16 people. Several of them are going on a mission trip for the first time. People at Faith are seeing that Christ can work in their lives, use them, and make them a part of something bigger – something he can use to touch people’s lives. It is so exciting to see people come alive in Christ, pick themselves up and be cleansed by the blood of Jesus.”

“I’ve grown up here and people know me,” Crosby said. “I think some are coming to our church because of curiosity, but many have stuck, stayed and are now helping. That initial 20 grew to 30 and then 40, and now we’re seeing about 100 on Sunday morning.” In 2008, Faith led Savannah River Association in baptisms with 49. “The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is first and foremost what we are about,” Crosby said.

Others in the community are paying attention. Crosby tells the story of a woman who doesn’t go to church at all, but through her business donates gift certificates to the families touched by the Christmas project. Also, the community sees the church producing leaders. An ordination council was held recently for a man entering the ministry, and Crosby says two others have expressed God’s ministry call on their lives.

Steve Scudder, director of missions, Savannah River Association, said, “The story of Faith Baptist Church is the story of God’s redemptive work in the life of the community through his followers.? Faith was a little church nestled in the shadow of a much larger church in our association.?Yet, they heard God’s call to impact their community with the gospel and acted upon that call. They demonstrated that faithfulness to God’s call is what makes a congregation effective.” – SCBC