Plenty of fruits of the Everyone Can initiative are blossoming across the country. Among them:
? Biltmore Baptist Church, Asheville, where a strategic planning team has been formed to promote associational baptism rallies across North Carolina. Biltmore Baptist has baptized more than 400 people in outdoor gatherings since 2003. So far, more than 45 of the 80 Baptist associations have signed on to hold baptism rallies.
“In the state of North Carolina, we have the opportunity to impact nearly 4,000 churches as we take the life-changing gospel to our communities and allow them to really see what we are about,” said James Walker, Biltmore Baptist’s pastor.
? Bell Shoals Baptist Church, Brandon, Fla., where 146 people were baptized on the church’s “Unashamed Sunday” and nearly 40 others had walked the aisle by the end of four services Jan. 8.
Pastor Forrest Pollock described it as “a movement of God unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
? Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, Calif., where 125 people were baptized during one service in December.
“As churches, we need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to reach the people who live across the street and the people who live in our communities and neighborhoods,” evangelism pastor Matthew Spradlin said.
? Englewood Baptist Church, Rocky Mount, N.C., where the church reached the 1,000 mark in total baptisms for a five-year period on Nov. 27, a day Welch had set aside for the convention to emphasize baptisms.
“We’ve baptized 22 since then,” pastor Michael Cloer said in late December. “God is doing a work here.”
? Grace Southern Baptist Church, Virden, Ill., where more than 60 people have accepted Christ as Savior during the past two years. In a town of 3,500 people about 20 miles south of Springfield, Grace was striving to have 100 people for a Sunday service two years ago, but now they easily surpass 200 each week.
“I would say 80 percent of the people over the past two years who have been saved have been adults over the age of 18,” pastor Brent Williams said last fall. “These people have been pulled in from outside. – When churches decide that they’re going to take seriously the Great Commission, then God is ready to do amazing and mighty things.”
? First Baptist Church in Colleyville, Tex., where 66 teens found a new life through accepting Christ as their Savior at a Super Bowl party Feb. 5 sponsored by the church. Only 24 of the 66 new Christians attended a church prior to the event. More than 400 students attended.