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Pastor Randell Trammell, wearing tie, greets members of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Resaca Jan. 20. Mt. Zion is the first of what COSBE officials hope will be many smaller churches across the Southern Baptist Convention to take advantage of the Baptism Assistance Project. The program, a joint venture between the North American Mission Board and Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists (COSBE), enables smaller congregations to have the services of a highly-qualified evangelist for revival services. Georgia evangelist Brian Fossett, of Dalton, is president of the national evangelism fellowship.

RESACA — Randell Trammell wanted to wait, but is glad he didn’t.

Trammell, 25 and pastor at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, knew revival services would help his congregation. However, the small church with a membership of 30 didn’t have enough in the wallet to pay an evangelist.

“It had been awhile since they had revival,” said Trammell, who arrived at the church in the summer of 2006.

Trauma suffered by the church body led Trammell to deal with healing before establishing any overt evangelistic plan. “Their pastor had died unexpectedly a few years before that and I felt I needed to tend to the soil before tending to the seed too much,” he added.

The situation at Mt. Zion reflected what is common in other small churches. A core group of members. Little training in evangelism. Limited funds for someone to teach them how.

A postcard from his associational missionary, David Ledford, brought the Baptism Assistance Project to Trammell’s attention. Through the program an evangelist affiliated with the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists (COSBE) would lead a revival at Mt. Zion. Mt. Zion’s responsibility was to commit to a detailed planning and preparation process and agree to take a love offering that would go directly to the Baptism Assistance Project. The venture is a joint effort between COSBE and the North American Mission Board.

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In addition to serving as pastor and playing the organ during worship, Mt. Zion’s Randell Trammell, right, leads a Sunday School class.

Convincing a small, rural church to trust an outsider and take a lot of extra steps before revival week was about as easy as one would expect. However, church members packed a 12-week study on personal evangelism into six. It prepared them for community outreach. The proverbial frog had jumped out of the pot before the water began boiling.

The hurried-up schedule came about after Trammell contacted COSBE president Brian Fossett in mid-October to set up revival for that spring. Fossett encouraged him instead to have it before the end of the year.

Church members were taken aback at first over the concept of preparation before a revival. The time of year also raised some eyebrows.

“I thought ‘December? He’s crazy!’” admitted Pam Powell. “But it ended up being an awesome experience. Randell pointed out the stress of the season and that a break was really needed during that time of year.

“I’d encourage other small churches to take advantage of this. In our position it’s hard to get a quality speaker. It’s helped us a lot.”

“This was a great opportunity for us to become more visible in the community,” agreed Coy Coggins, chairman of deacons. “I felt like we needed it. The literature prepared us for revival and allowed us to be blessed from not just the services but the preparation as well.”

“This program is great,” shared Trammell over fried chicken at a local eatery following morning services Jan. 20. “It affords smaller churches the opportunity to have a speaker normally only larger churches would have.

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Randell Trammell, pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Resaca, visits with seven-year-old Caitlyn Bates, standing beside her grandmother, Pam Powell. The church, which celebrates its 140th year this summer, is the first in Georgia to take advantage of the Baptism Assistance Project.

“I could tell before the actual revival services the church was experiencing renewal. There was an air of excitement about what God was doing.”

Fossett and music evangelist Bob Smith led the revival Dec. 9-12. Three came forward for salvation. Trammell said that every Sunday since there has been at least one visitor. “It seems like we’re beginning to see some of the fruit from sowing in the community,” he added.

No matter the size

“Evangelism is not isolated to the size of the church,” stated Steve Parr, vice president for Sunday School and Evangelism of the Georgia Baptist Convention. “The fact is the gospel can be effectively proclaimed by any sized congregation. A small congregation isn’t going to win hundreds to Christ, but can win dozens – which is huge when you’re adding churches together.”

Parr pointed out that as of 2006, baptisms statewide had declined six of the eight previous years. Annual Church Profile numbers for 2007 are not yet tabulated.

“The aim is to provide the ministry and message no matter your size, whether you’re 125 or 25,” he said. “The aim is to reach people. Period. The reality is that as you do have more people, you have more opportunities to sow the gospel.”

“I didn’t know what to expect at first,” said Trammell. “As we saw the results of the curriculum and how God was moving, I knew God was going to do something big. Perhaps it wasn’t something huge in the community but instead to transform the hearts of our people.

Prepare before, reap later

“Our biggest need in our church was probably revival within the members,” added Trammell. Now that that’s occurred, they’re more prepared to lead others into following Christ.”

Instead of a one time mark-it-on-the-calendar-and-move-on event, members now say they see the bigger picture when it comes to revival.

“Preparing for the revival made it more special,” said Powell. “The Bible studies beforehand got us ready to go out into the community. It was awesome.

“It ended up not being so crazy after all.”

For more information about the Baptism Assistance Project
or materials on preparing for revival, go to www.sbcevangelist.org
or call Evangelism Ministries of the Georgia Baptist Convention
at (770) 936-5236.

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Randy Trammell, the pastor’s uncle, leads an adult Sunday School class. Church members studied a personal evangelism course designed for 12 weeks in six weeks of Sunday School prior to revival.

Get involved . . .

The Baptism Assistance Project provides an evangelistic team to churches who request assistance, says a statement from the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists. To take part, churches must commit to a detailed planning and preparation process prior to revival meetings and agree to take a love offering at every service. COSBE serves as a clearing house to help churches locate evangelists qualified in leading crusades, revivals, evangelistic training, and conferences.

COSBE’s goal is to conduct 100 of the meetings this year, resulting in more than 1,000 professions of faith. “This alone is enough reason for the investment, but we believe these meetings could serve as a catalyst to reinvigorate these churches for greater evangelism and ministry,” said the statement on the groups website, www.sbcevangelist.org.

In 2006, the North American Mission Board provided financial assistance to develop the Baptism Assistance Project alongside COSBE. The idea was that many churches feel they’re too small to meet the financial needs of a vocational evangelist, choosing instead to not schedule revival.

To assist churches for revival, Georgia Baptist Convention Evangelism and Sunday School/Open Group Ministries consultant Steve Foster has developed a manual titled How to Prepare for an Effective Evangelistic Revival. Through it, pastors are advised on topics such as building and organizing preparation teams, listing proven revival event strategies, and given tips on increasing attendance at revival. To purchase a copy call GBC Evangelism Ministries at (770) 936-5232 or email lmiller@gabaptist.org.