Waves are forming in an Easley church’s baptismal pool, and people are starting to take notice.
Last month, 16 people were baptized, four more were awaiting baptism, and still four others were being counseled. This is happening in an Easley congregation that saw 11 baptisms in all of last year, according to the 2006 state convention’s annual. Naturally, members of Arial Baptist Church are growing quite excited at the harvest of souls they are seeing.
“You can just feel in it the air!” exclaims pastor Danny Parton.
Perhaps also intriguing for some is that this is occurring in a congregation of about 400 where the entire staff, except for Parton, is bivocational. Ken Dover, minister of education, a retired minister and schoolteacher, holds the longest tenure – seven years. Danny Langston, minister of music for six years, is a human resource supervisor with BiLo’s corporate office in Greenville. Kelley Crowe, youth director, who has been studying cosmetology, and Stacy Chapman, children’s director, who works as a plant engineer at Milliken, have both been on the staff for about a year now.
So what’s happening at Arial?
To a large extent, Parton attributes the recent surge in conversions to a spiritual atmosphere that was an outgrowth of a “REAP” revival led by evangelist Sam Cathey in early February. The annual revival is a joint effort with three other local Baptist churches – Corinth, Day Star, Elljean and Park Street.”
“The recent revival lasted for eight days. The revival rotates from church to church in alphabetical order,” Parton explains. “This was the third one we’ve participated in, and while the messages are principally aimed toward the churches, a couple of nights are evangelistic.”
While Parton acknowledges, “Our churches really seem to take off afterwards,” he also feels there may be more to the picture. “This is something that God is doing. It’s amazing,” he says. “There was a spirit of revival even before the revival got here. The revival was just like throwing gas on a fire.”
Some point to the kingdom mindset among the four churches, which have begun pulling together to do several community-wide outreach events. A “Feast of Plenty,” which last year was held in Park Street’s gym, drew a crowd of about 1,000. Local law enforcement, fire and rescue personnel were invited, and gospel music was provided during the meal.
The churches also sponsor day camps that often feature backyard Bible clubs and sports clinics on Wednesdays in June and July on Arial’s ball field and at Hagood Park in Easley. The camps attract kids from age 3 through high school, Parton notes.
Still others might point to a missions mindset that has been fostered through the REAP partnership. Last year, the churches sent a combined team of about 40 persons to assist four churches in Montana, including a recent church start in a mobile home park near Billings. This year they anticipate sending a team to help Paul Seddon, a North American Mission Board missionary who is finishing his studies at Southeastern Seminary, with a church plant in Livingston.
At Arial, specifically, since many of the additions are youth, some are also pointing to a thriving skateboarder ministry on Wednesday nights that regularly attracts up to 100 area children – many of whom are from unchurched families. But Parton also affirms the power of prayer, spotlighting a group of about 35 senior adults who faithfully gather to pray for the families of the church.
Yet, the other churches are also seeing people come to Christ. And Parton traces the roots of a shared spirit of revival even further back to a mission trip to Canada sponsored by Piedmont Association five years ago. “It was then that the REAP churches first came together,” he explains. “On the way up there, the pastors of the four churches began talking about doing things together.”
When they got back, the pastors agreed to meet on Wednesdays for prayer. They formed a cluster group, led by Ken Dover, that was the kicker for many of the cooperative events, including the “Feast of Plenty,” according to Parton.
“God is sovereign, and he honors a genuine spirit of cooperation,” Parton affirms. “What I am seeing is that when churches come together and God begins to give a sense of his kingdom and we turn outwardly, then God just honors that.”