May 20, 2024
COMMERCE, Ga. — In another encouraging sign of revival spreading across Georgia, 24 individuals made professions of faith at a recent event at Beaverdam Baptist Church in Commerce. Jon Reed, a Georgia Baptist evangelist, reported that there is a spiritual awakening taking place at Beaverdam.
The revival meeting started on Sunday morning, April 21, and was scheduled to end on Wednesday evening. However, God was moving in such a significant way that the services were extended through Friday evening.
Even after the meetings officially ended and the evangelist had left God continued to manifest His saving power. On Sunday, April 28, the church reported on Facebook that, “After a week of God moving in such a powerful way, one might ask, ‘How did Sunday morning at church go?’ We are happy to report 5 baptisms and 5 new church members joined the team today! So, revival continues, Amen!”
One of the reasons Reed sees such success in his revivals is because of the way he prepares the church for a successful campaign by using an app called SOW Evangelism. Two months prior to the Beaverdam revival, on Feb. 18, he went to the church for the revival training he has developed.
Reed explained, “Sammy Simmons, Send Relief National Project Director at the North American Mission Board, was the interim pastor of the church when we started the planning process. Sammy and I have been engaged in revivals before in Georgia and Illinois and had excellent meetings with lots of people getting saved. Steve Fenlon, the current interim pastor, was also instrumental in helping with the preparation and celebrating the victories won during the meetings.”
Charlie Howington, the chairman of the deacons at Beaverdam, recounted an interesting facet of the training process. “During the preparation period,” he said, “Jon began to explain how the app would be used to make the revival a success.” One of the elderly ladies present, Miss Lois, who resided in an assisted living home, had prayed at the beginning of the new year for the Lord to use her right where she lived. She downloaded the app and used it as a tool to facilitate her prayers for those she knew who were lost.
“Two of the ladies who worked in the assisted living home came to the revival and were saved the very first night,” Howington recalled. Ten others who were saved during the revival were among those for whom Miss Lois prayed.
Ned Klugh, a member of Beaverdam has been a Gideon for years, distributing Bibles, speaking in churches, and serving the Lord. During the revival, he realized that although he had joined a church and been baptized years ago, he had been genuinely saved after his baptism. He resolved to get the order of “believe and be baptized” in the proper sequence. Klugh was asked to give his testimony and included an invitation resulting in three people being saved.
Jeremy Johnson, the student pastor of the church did a great work in gathering the youth to the revival. One of his students brought two of her friends to the revival and they were both saved.
One of the teenagers stood up in the school lunchroom and shared the gospel. Another student shouted, “We don’t believe what you say.” She responded, “That’s all right, but it doesn’t change the fact it is true and also, Jesus is still performing miracles and if you don’t believe that, just come to my church tonight and see for yourself.”
Reed stated, “Stacy Culpepper, the church’s worship leader, did a fantastic job of leading in true revival worship. The songs were about how great God is and about His power to change lives. Stacy and the choir inspired us to expect great things each night. The music made it very easy to preach.”
Reed said that what happened at Beaverdam shows that “a small church can be effective in sowing seeds when the congregation is willing to undergird the meeting with prayers and fasting.” As church members prayed, their faith and dependence upon the Lord grew and they “got to the place where they expected God to move, and He did move in an amazing way.”
Reed said he came alongside the church in preparation and prayer prior to the revival. “Everything that I asked the church to do,” he said, “I resolved to do as well. I prayed and fasted and invested in the leadership of the church.” Reed communicated regularly with the church leading up to the revival, including prayer and planning. And afterward, he explained that “because it was fairly near my home, I was able to go visiting with them to follow up on the decisions.”
Reed sees one overwhelming need as lostness increases in the world. “We need,” he said, “a mighty movement of God that will not only produce the kind of salvation that changes people forever, but revitalizes our churches, alters the course of our society, and brings God back into the fabric of our nation.”
You can find out more about Jon Reed’s evangelism ministry or about the SOW Evangelism app on his website, Focused Evangelism.
