Across the SBC, God is at work in the lives of individuals, and in small and large congregations alike, as they seek to do their part in reaching the convention-wide goal of witnessing to, winning and baptizing 1 million people this church year.
Ron Bingaman, 61, runs marathons to raise funds to support teams from his church that will participate in Crossover events.SBC president Bobby Welch cast the vision in the “‘Everyone Can!’ Kingdom Challenge” for evangelism, which emphasizes that all believers can share their faith with another person.
Ron Bingaman, the FAITH evangelism pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, Calif., has run two marathons to raise money to take a team of 13 church members to Greensboro, N.C., to participate in Crossover Triad, the door-to-door evangelism blitz preceding the SBC annual meeting in June.
Bingaman, 61, ran the Los Angeles Marathon with a time of 3 hours, 57 minutes and 37 seconds March 19 and the Boston Marathon with a time of 3 hours, 54 minutes and 55 seconds April 17.
Personal evangelism is his passion, and he was thrilled to participate in Crossover Nashville last June.
“The lights, the bells, everything went off and I said, ‘That’s for me!'” he said.
Bingaman was so adamant about the importance of Crossover that he ran one marathon last year to raise funds to take a team to Nashville. This year, he wanted to run two marathons in hopes of taking twice as many people.
“I told the folks all the money they would pledge would go to help team members go to Crossover Triad,” Bingaman told Baptist Press. “We advertised it in the Sunday bulletin, and all of the team members had a pledge sheet, and they were encouraged to talk to their friends. My part was to run, and their part was to gain pledges.”
Through pledges, other financial gifts and a bake sale, the California team has raised nearly $8,000 for the trip.
Growth in just about 12 weeks
SBC president Bobby Welch has cast the vision of winning and baptizing 1 million people this year.At Central Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., the congregation has grown from an average attendance of 70 to more than 140 in just 12 weeks – including 185 on Easter Sunday.
They’re also seeing increases in Sunday school, where average attendance has grown from fewer than 40 to more than 95. They’ve had five baptisms, 12 professions of faith and 47 new Sunday school members.
“We’ve put a heavy emphasis on Sunday school and visitation,” Andy Goode, who became pastor 12 weeks earlier, told Baptist Press. “We’re following up visits, inviting people, working our Sunday school rolls to see who’s falling through the cracks, inviting new people to come.
“It has built an excitement in the people, and they have a vision now,” the pastor added.
Central Baptist “has gone from consideration of shutting the doors to a budget surplus,” Goode said.
Last year, the church baptized three children, and this year they’ve baptized five adults already and have more people waiting to enter the waters.
In addition to going back to the basics of Sunday school, Goode said the church thought it was important to address an issue that had plagued them for decades. Central started as a split from First Baptist Church in Albany in 1958, and for years they had dealt with tensions associated with the break-off.
Though just two of Central’s charter members are at the church today, the pastor and some church members were led to ask forgiveness from First Baptist.
“We felt like before God that we would do what we could do to get a clean slate,” he said.
Produce distribution
People in a community often remember simple acts of kindness, and in Texarkana, Ark., some grateful families have attended services at South Texarkana Baptist Church after church members gave them free bags of garden produce and other food items.
Church attendance had dwindled to less than 20 people, and the aging congregation considered closing the doors. But in March, they called Travis Payne as pastor and began to see revival.
“God started touching hearts and lives, started bringing people in,” he said.
In April, the church held revival services and saw great success.
“During the revival, we ran 75 to 100 each night, and we had 11 professions of faith,” Payne said. “On May 7, we baptized nine, and we have two more waiting on baptism. They were just people in the community, people hearing about what God is doing in the church. They want to come be a part of it.”
Several weeks ago, a church member heard about another church in town that was giving away free garden produce and had quite a bit left over. He contacted Payne, and the two of them gathered it up and walked through the community surrounding the church, knocking on doors and offering it for free. People were appreciative, and the practice continued.
“Three weeks ago, we carried 90 sacks of food house-to-house around the community,” Payne said. “Every Thursday we’re putting food into sacks and giving it away, telling them Jesus loves them and we do, too.”
Payne believes a key to rejuvenation in the church is that people have reconsidered what church is all about.
“The people of the church have fallen in love with Jesus, and, as a result, they’ve fallen in love with the church,” he said. “The people are getting out of the church walls and are going and doing things in the community. They’re caring for people, they’re sharing with people, and they’re watching how they can minister.”