Dying church finds new vitality through missions

God is at work in the former mill town of Pacolet, just outside of Spartanburg. For the last few years, Brown’s Chapel Baptist Church has seen how God is breathing new life into the congregation through baptisms, new ministries, and mission opportunities.

A renewed focus on missions at home and abroad has spurred growth and vitality at Brown’s Chapel Baptist Church in Pacolet.

Four years ago, long after he was called as pastor to Brown’s Chapel, Ralph Jett was painting a window and was struck by the community he saw through the pane – a neglected place with junky yards and dilapidated houses. The once-bustling mill town where people took pride in their homes had become the opposite. Jett asked God about his own ministry there: “Why here, and why now?”

“God said I was there to love the people, to preach the Word and do ministry,” Jett said. “I came down from the ladder realizing that nothing else seemed to be there, but God was.” The church cleared off an area near the parsonage so people could see the church, “and so the church could see a community was there as well,” he said.

It was a situation many smaller churches know well: A dying church reflects a dying community, where families move away to find work and begin worshipping elsewhere. What makes Brown’s Chapel’s story different is that excitement about what God is doing in the church is drawing people back to the community – in some cases driving 12-15 miles to worship and to be a part of ministry there.

“God has shown up and done incredible things,” Jett said. “It’s been good to watch new people come in and to see the older members receive and welcome them.”

Just a few years ago, Brown’s Chapel had about 50 people in Sunday school and 70 regularly in worship. Now it averages 130 in Sunday school, and around 200 people attend worship. In the last four years, there have been 55 additions to the church through baptism. Currently, about a dozen families are going through a new-member class.

So why are people drawn to this out-of-the-way church that is more than 100 years old? It is a church passionate about local and foreign missions, and members of all ages are actively involved, Jett said. He talked about a 96-year-old church member who participated in the church’s partnership with North Spartan Association on a Haiti mission project a few years ago. She told him she’d been “coming to church and taking, but now wanted to serve and do something,” so she used her sewing talent to make more than 100 pillowcase dresses for the project.

A former Brown’s Chapel member, Brad Wall, is now a North American Mission Board missionary working with ethnic groups in New York City, and the church has sent mission groups there to work with Wall and do street evangelism. Brown’s Chapel has partnered with a church in Nova Scotia through financial support and sent groups from the church to lead Vacation Bible School and sports camps there during the summers. Through the local association, church members have also been to Montana and Ohio, partnered with NAMB in urban Atlanta-area ministries, and supported a couple from North Spartan Association who are NAMB missionaries working with a cowboy church in Idaho.

Locally, the church reaches about 150 young people through a summer sports camp and partners with other churches to have a presence in a nearby school. A men’s group volunteers to help neighbors in the community with minor home repairs and by building wheelchair ramps. The church has a family outreach event called “Making a Connection,” which includes games and activities in a local park followed by an event at a nearby barn. More young families have been attending worship, so the church started a children’s church that has grown from about five children to around 30.

Jett said church members are encouraged to respond when God places new ministry ideas on their hearts. One member began “Zone in on Pacolet,” an outreach effort that breaks focus areas into zones. Groups of church members adopt zones of the community to prayerwalk the streets, engage neighbors, and provide basic supplies when needed. Church members are also encouraged to drive through the zone on their way to church instead of taking their usual route.

“God is raising up leaders throughout the church,” Jett said. “It has been wonderful to watch the reproduction of the Lord in people’s lives,” Jett said.

Brown’s Chapel is incorporating the idea of being intentional into how it goes about sharing, praying, going, and doing ministry. Jett said church members aren’t interested in new programs, but in doing things in new and different ways. The Care Ministry, for example, is a new system of outreach and visitation that has organized groups of members to pray, write cards, make phone calls and do home visits.

Brown’s Chapel, which maintained its facilities for about 40 years without any major improvements, has completely funded a recent capital campaign to do major renovations to respond to its growth in numbers and other ministry needs. Jett reports that there are also signs of revitalization in the town of Pacolet, and the church is excited about future ministry opportunities.

“The Lord says, ‘I will build my church,’ and if we will just listen and move when he tells us to, he will move,” Jett said. “I believe God is looking for people and willing to work in situations no matter where. This is his deal, and God can use anyone.” – SCBC