Pastor David Bagwell, 29, was impacted by the book, “Simple Church,” by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. So when Bagwell came to Bethel Baptist Church, Westminster, he wanted to move the church toward understanding its simple purpose to reach the lost, make disciples, and send people out to serve.
Pastor David Bagwell (circled) and members of Bethel Baptist Church, Westminster, have seen a simplified ministry focus yield some big results.“God has done some amazing things here,” Bagwell said.
When he came to Bethel, the church averaged about 130 in worship, but now has two services. One of those is a 45-minute Southern gospel bluegrass service led by a group of men, the Bethel Boys. The second service is more blended with a praise team and choir.
In Sunday school, Bagwell has tapped into a concept used by Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Church, Vista, Calif., and author of the book, “Sticky Church.” Using a sermon-series approach, Bagwell produces a weekly worship guide with each message. People can take the worship guide and use it the next week in their personal prayer time. Then, the following Sunday, in participating Sunday school classes, the previous week’s worship guide is discussed.
“We are seeing people impacted by this approach,” Bagwell said. “If they miss worship, they can obtain a DVD or CD of the message and get the worship guide in print or on online. It keeps the message on everyone’s mind and heart for two Sundays.” Sunday school leadership is involved, too. “There is retention of the Bible lessons, and I hear that people are seeing improvements in their private prayer time,” Bagwell said.
Discipleship has extended beyond Sunday to “Life University” classes on Sunday and Wednesday evenings, and the church is focused on “Love, Serve and Save” as a simplified motto for its mission statement: “Loving God, loving people and saving the world!”
Bagwell said his church has embraced missions like never before. “The history here was to see missions only as giving to the Cooperative Program,” he said. Today, however, the church has a multifaceted missions involvement that includes participating with the South Carolina Baptist Convention and mission work in London; holding Good News Clubs in schools; ministering through homeless ministry; sending men to Tennessee and Kentucky for missions work; and commissioning youth for mission trips to work in urban ministry.
“We are working to keep our church simply focused on worship, Sunday school, service and missions. That is our discipleship strategy,” Bagwell said. – SCBC