Lighting the fire, fanning the flame for renewal

Georgia Baptists' "What Now?" emphasis is off to a promising start as churches seek to reach unprecedented numbers of people for Jesus Christ within the next 10 months. The goal for the Georgia Baptist Convention is to have a record 50,000 baptisms, start 100 churches and create 3,500 new units in Sunday School by September of 2005.

The established goals and emphasis on "Empowering Kingdom Growth" can't be measured or explained and have apparently motivated many churches to seek the heart of God for revival. Consequently, an increasing number of lives are being changed and more and more people are being won to faith in Christ and baptized.

Second Baptist Church in Griffin recently had a revival meeting with Ronnie Spillers as the evangelist. Pastor David Hill excitedly explained, "The church was filled to capacity for each service, the altar was covered with people recommitting their lives to Christ and the people did not want the meetings to stop."

Not a thing of the past

Hill declared, "Our church had not had a revival meeting for several years. The people had begun to think that revivals were a thing of the past and some said, 'They just don't work any more.' But God moved in an incredible way. It was awesome! There were relationships that got straightened out. We had about 15 families that we had been praying for to unite with our church and 59 people made professions of faith."

New converts were baptized during each service of the revival as well as in subsequent Sunday worship services. "I guess the Lord helped us disprove the theory that revivals don't work anymore," Hill said.

When asked to comment on the key to Second Baptist's successful revival, Hill explained that he had secured the services of Mike Minnix, the Georgia Baptist Convention's vice president for evangelism, who preached in the church on a Sunday morning previous to the revival and then trained the church's revival team using the "Seven Steps to a Successful Revival."

"We took the revival training session seriously," Hill said. "We had prayer teams, cottage prayer meetings and 30 days of concentrated prayer."

David Mills, a consultant with GBC's evangelism ministries, recently preached a revival at Cabaniss Baptist Church near Forsyth, where 81-year old Robin McLeroy has been the pastor for almost 30 years. On Sunday morning there were 21 present for the worship service, including Mills, but by the closing service that number had more than tripled and 13 people had made professions of faith.

Pray hard and work hard

McElroy said, "I told the people, David can't bring revival. We've got to pray hard and work hard. We had our young people visiting every home in our area and giving out literature. When people come to Cabaniss they seem to like our church. We have an interracial congregation and everybody is accepting of one another. We have a lot of enthusiasm in our church as a result of the revival."

New Town Baptist Church in Calhoun has also recently experienced a significant revival under one of the tents provided by the Georgia Baptist Convention. Many decisions were noted, including 30 professions of faith.

David Ray, New Town's pastor, remarked, "I've had revival meetings without doing much preparation and found out that it doesn't work that way."

On the Sunday the revival started the church experienced a record attendance in Sunday School with 480 present while the average attendance for the evening services was more than 400. Evangelist Wayne Hamrick was the preacher for the New Town revival.

Starting fires

Rick Gage, one of Southern Baptist's foremost evangelists, recently conducted a four-night crusade in Madison that attracted crowds exceeding 10,000 people. By the conclusion of the crusade, 725 spiritual decisions had been recorded, including 420 first-time professions of faith. More than 50 churches had come together with hundreds of volunteers.

"It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," said businessman and Crusade Chairman Keith Kelly. "So much more happened than we expected or than any of us had imagined or envisioned. The crusade started fires of revival that swept through our county, uniting churches, individuals and races."

Pastor Wilburn Hill of Centennial Baptist Church says, "Everyone has a story to tell because the crusade was the most awesome thing that has ever happened in Morgan County. I have pastored this small church for 24 years. Sunday we had our largest baptismal service. I baptized 20 of the 40 people from our church that made professions of faith.

"The community is buzzing as people continue to be saved and churches are working together as never before to keep the fires of revival burning."

Another incredible example of God working in the life of Georgia Baptists is found at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (JFBC) in Marietta. On Oct. 17 Pastor Bryant Wright concluded the church's "40 Days of Purpose" emphasis with a giant outdoor worship celebration on the church's soccer fields. A huge platform was built for the preacher and choirs and thousands of chairs were set up to accommodate the anticipated throng of worshippers.

Johnson Ferry's sprawling campus in East Cobb County attracts thousands of worshippers each Sunday, but on this special day under the canopy of God's blue sky 4,872 people gathered for worship, with 56 trusting Christ as personal Savior and 157 others requesting church membership.

In addition there were 197 who expressed interest in being involved in a Bible study. There were 665 individuals who made a commitment to serve in a new ministry and 71 persons who made a commitment to help with Cedar Crest, Johnson Ferry's new church start in Paulding County. The new church, already underway with home Bible study groups, will begin having services in January at Shelton Elementary School. Wright will preach at the Paulding County site via a delayed video simulcast.

"A taste of heaven"

In response to the church's burgeoning mission's ministry there were 658 people who indicated that they have an interest in going on a mission trip in 2005 and the day's offering was $1,730,555 with $15,000 of that amount in coins.

Lisa Joyner, the JFBC outreach coordinator, jubilantly reflected upon the celebration Sunday by saying, "It was a taste of heaven. The service was marked by both excitement and reverence. Everything - the music, the message, the weather - was just perfect. It was also good to have everybody together for one service, because we usually have four morning services."

In January the church will add a fifth Sunday morning service at the Johnson Ferry campus.

God is at work

God is at work in small churches and large churches, rural churches and city churches; and we are beginning to see some sure signs of revival. The hymn says, "Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead."

Minnix exhorts, "We need a movement of God, the Holy Spirit, in our churches that empowers our people to do what we will never do with mere strategies or programs. We need people to begin to pray for personal spiritual awakening. And we need people to gather and pray corporately for spiritual awakening in our churches.

"We've got great programs, great materials, great books, great training, but what we need is a great movement of God on our churches."

Robin Nelson

Reports are being shared from around the state of churches breaking out in revival. Pastors attribute the movement to God's blessings, the holding of revival meetings and a willingness from individuals to acknowledge Christ.

Ed C. Thompson

Tim and Pam Turco stand in the foreground at right at a recent outdoor service held by Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta. In front of Tim Turco is Tiffany McQueen, ministry assistant at JFBC's new start in Acworth, Johnson Ferry at Cedarcrest.

Ed C. Thompson

Cindy McCollum, a member of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, places an offering in a basket following a 40 Days of Purpose service. Georgia Baptist churches are using events such as "40 Days ..." to reach out to others.

Robin Nelson

Evangelist Rick Gage speaks during a revival service held in Lincolnton last month. For more information on scheduling revivals with a Georgia Baptist evangelist, contact Evangelism Ministries at the GBC at (770) 936-5236 or 1 (800) RING-GBC.