July 19, 2025
PALMETTO, Ga. — Over the past five years, a dramatic change in spirit has taken place at Palmetto Baptist Church, and it has resulted in historic growth.
“It’s a beautiful place to be,” said senior pastor Lee Brewer. “Its reputation is one of friendliness, excitement, and a place where lives are being transformed. We regularly have baptisms and are introducing new members. It's a church that young families want to bring their kids.”
The church has doubled its overall worship attendance since 2022. The church, which offers both traditional and contemporary services, now averages 385 attendees each week. A record-breaking 738 people attended Easter services this year, and on June 22, 2025, the church welcomed 475 in worship. The children’s ministry has tripled in both participants and volunteers, while the youth program has doubled in the past year and is on track to triple by September 2025.
“It is in the healthiest place that anyone here can remember. There is a true desire to not only do church better, but to be a better church. That entails envisioning a relationship with Christ, to become like Christ, to serve like Christ, and introduce others to Christ,” said Brewer.
Palmetto’s numbers are a result of the church undergoing a revitalization and refocusing process. This journey began with transitional pastor Dr. Rob Peters. In 2017, Peters founded Corpus, a ministry focused on revitalization and helping churches learn the skills they need to successfully capture their church vision, or bring clarity to their mission of reaching the community for Christ and making disciples. Corpus has a six-step training process called ReFocus. Peters walked Palmetto through ReFocus and Brewer continued that work when he arrived in 2022.
“There is no way this church would be where it is today without Rob and ReFocus. I am a benefactor of what they were able to do,” said Brewer.
He said Palmetto struggled with identity and clarity at the beginning of ReFocus. “Our church is a mostly conservative theological thinking kind of church. It’s a very biblically evangelical church in the Southern Baptist sense. And, they were really getting away from all that," he explained. "So, they began to question what they stood for, they were questioning where the Bible is clear, and where the Bible is lenient on culture, life, and choices for living. They just needed to have some clarity on what that culture looks like within the church, and what stance they need to take to be biblically accurate and biblically true,” said Brewer.
Although resistance to change followed, the church made the decision to "buy in" and move forward by choosing to do things better, lead people better, and lovingly stand firm in what it believes.
“We had to get the church in a good place where we could move forward,” said Brewer.
As a result, worship improved. “It was like the sun came out and the clouds rolled away. The church can look back and see exactly when it changed for the better,” said Brewer.
Leadership, programming, volunteers, the church calendar, and budgeting were reviewed. Out of this process, the church developed the scripturally based 4 C's: Christlike Behavior, Cooperative Spirit, Competent Skills, and Cultivate Teams. These would be the catalyst for accountability. Each carefully chosen Godly leader is taught these 4 C’s. Each leader is chosen by members of the congregation. “By having them in the process, the rest of the church felt confident that we were shaping PBC to be what God had called it to be,” said Brewer.
There are 40 Georgia Baptist churches currently going through the ReFocus process, said Mark Marshall, senior lead strategist for Church Strengthening for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. The GBMB has a goal of 300 churches that will have gone through or be in Refocus before the end of 2027.
ReFocus is the opportunity for a church to once again revisit the mission and vision God has for that church. Marshall said this positions the church for revitalization. “Through this process, the Holy Spirit gets involved, which of course is what can bring revitalization. In addition to that, through the skills the pastor learns and the congregation experiences, there is buy-in. ReFocus brings all three of those things together.”
Marshall said being intentional in what the church is doing, and being sure that everything the church does has meaning is key. Churches thinking of revitalization should focus on what is really important and what should be done “that could be unique for every church.”
Revitalization is not about increasing numbers, Marshall added, it’s about members growing spiritually, sharing their faith, and living the life of generosity.
Palmetto, said Marshall, is an example of a church that is very healthy now and is “growing like crazy.”
The church has a five- to seven-year strategy to sustain its growth. The children’s ministry was first and is growing by leaps and bounds with many young families. In March 2025, the church launched a fundraising campaign called "TIME TO BUILD," to finance a new 12,000-square-foot building that will increase the preschool and kids ministries as well as provide a large lobby and additional adult class space. This fall, the church hopes to grow small group Bible studies, and it hopes to grow missions programs in the future.
“Our identity, our vision, and our mission is not to build buildings, it’s to grow disciples. And, we take all these little pieces around our church and we are launching and growing one at a time,” said Brewer.
Brewer's advice for other churches is to start with communication and clarity. “Clarifying who we are, what does it mean to be a Christian, what does it mean to be a disciple, and what does it mean to be a church.”
Brewer sees a bright future for Palmetto. “God has already seen fit for us to grow. We just have to faithfully be who He has called us to be and do what He has called us to do.”
___
For more information about partnering with the GBMB in revitalization, please visit https://gabaptist.org/ministries/revitalization/.
