When a West Virginia pastor whose church had been served by volunteers from Bennettsville Second Baptist Church came to Bennettsville, he was expecting a church the size of 500 or 600 people. Much to his surprise, he found a vibrant, energetic congregation of 60 in Sunday school.
Ron Taylor, director of missions, Pee Dee Baptist Association, likes to tell the story of the visiting West Virginia pastor. “Bennettsville Second ministers like a church that’s much larger in size,” he said. “Every time I go to that church, there is a series of announcements about what they are doing in ministry. There is no casual Christianity at Bennettsville Second.”
Taylor laughed and said, “It amazes me that they aren’t larger in terms of numbers, but I think people are afraid to go there because it will certainly involve ministry work. This is a church that is very active in its community and in the world. [Pastor] Denny Costner promises his church that it will have the opportunity to be involved in local, state, North American, and international missions.”
Costner, who has served the church for more than 17 years, said, “We take the Great Commission literally. We believe that we should go to other places, serve in other places and tell people about the Lord.”
In 1997, Costner was in Dillon when he heard a pastor speak about missions in Honduras. “It was like God was sitting right beside me and told me to get involved. I signed up to serve.” After three years of participation, Costner and Bennettsville Second were leading the annual Honduras mission trip.
In preparation for the 2010 trip to Honduras in February, a Sunday school classroom is filled with grocery items. Each Monday evening, from May to December, volunteers gather to fill boxes with 22,000 pounds of clothes, medicine, and food that will be pre-shipped to Honduras. “We easily fill up a 53-foot trailer,” Costner said. This year’s Honduras trip will also include worship services in tents and building a church, utilizing a roofing crew within Bennettsville Second. The church also pays $500 toward the cost of each volunteer’s trip expenses.
“We try to keep missions and ministry in front of our people,” Costner said. “We give 13 percent to the Cooperative Program, and keep people involved, too.”
Prayer is important to the church, whose largest age group is between 25 and 45. On Wednesday nights, director of missions Taylor said, people come to the altar to specifically pray for people they know.
The church has been involved on the Gulf Coast, serving to rebuild communities after Hurricane Katrina. It is sending another team in January 2010. The church also responded to West Virginia in 2003 after serious flooding there.
Locally, Bennettsville Second provides block parties at the church and offsite. The block parties help connect the church with its community, including a public housing development about 400 feet from the church property. An active men’s ministry is always looking for opportunities to serve others in the community. Within days, men respond to meet the needs of others, most of whom are not attending the church.
Members participate in the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life and purchase food boxes from Angel Food Ministries and distribute the boxes to senior adults on a monthly basis.
The church is active in Operation Christmas Child and is a drop site for the Bennettsville community.
The church is involved in the Luke 19:10 Ministries of Greenville and sends used Sunday school curriculum and other literature to the ministry for continued use.
“We are going to be involved in anything that is about reaching people with the gospel,” Costner said. “It’s exciting. We don’t know from one week to the next what God is going to call us to do, but we are ready.” – SCBC