October 1, 2026
GRAY, Ga. — For the past three years, Elam Baptist Church in Gray has been showing its community the love of Christ in a hands-on way, helping second-grade students at Gray Elementary School become better readers.
The Jones County Reading Program, organized through Elam Baptist, pairs volunteers with students who are reading below grade level. Volunteers tutor one or two days a week during school hours, working with one or two students for 20 to 25 minutes per child.
Elam’s goal is to build relationships that may one day open doors for students and families to hear and respond to the gospel.
“Our vision at Elam Baptist Church is to be a church that's impacting our community for Christ. Folks who are a part of this program get the opportunity every single week to be salt and light to a group of kids that a lot of them need to be loved on and need to be encouraged,” said Elam Senior Pastor Adam Bray.
At Gray Elementary this year, the percentage of second graders reading below grade level dropped from 44% to 10%, a change church and school leaders say reflects the combined work of teachers, school staff, and volunteers from Elam Baptist.
The improvement excites Megan Bray, Adam’s wife and a third-grade teacher at Gray Elementary. ”That gives all that many children the chance to keep on going and feel successful throughout the rest of their academic career," she said.
Because the tutoring takes place during school hours, volunteers follow school guidelines. They do not initiate gospel conversations on campus, but they may wear church apparel and answer questions when students raise them naturally.
Bray serves as a program volunteer and remembers a conversation with a young boy who thought he was a school employee. After seeing Adam’s church polo shirt, the boy asked about it. Adam explained that he was a pastor and that he gets to tell people what the Bible says on Sundays, and came there to spend time with him and help him read. “I was able to go into a lot of detail about what that is and got to share a little glimpse of the gospel because he was the one who opened the conversation up,” Adam said.
Educators have found over the years that students who struggle to learn also have very low self-esteem and confidence. Elam volunteers show students that someone loves them, cares about them, and is invested in them. “We connect with the church in that when we do our end-of-year celebration, we'll talk about the fact that the church sponsors the program, and it gives time for the reading tutors to meet the parents. Normal conversations come up that way where the parents ask why they're doing it, and they'll be able to share about the church,” Megan said.
Some students come to church activities throughout the year. This includes Vacation Bible School. Megan said, “We have one retired gentleman who volunteered for two years, and while he never shared the gospel on campus, those kids came to see him at Vacation Bible School. And that was where the gospel was shared.”
Adam Bray said he does not know whether any students have accepted Christ through VBS or other church activities, but he said the ministry is already making an impact beyond the classroom.
He added that male volunteers also have an opportunity to encourage students who may not have a consistent male presence in their lives.
Megan said the students' familiarity with the volunteers in the classroom week in and week out has also helped the church's Wednesday night children’s program. “The students saw the volunteer showing up every week with the Elam shirt on.” The church also has a van ministry that transports students from the school to the church on Wednesdays.
Megan said she got the idea from Read Georgia, a literacy-focused program from Mission Georgia that partners churches with local schools to improve children’s reading skills while introducing families to the love of Jesus. Georgia regularly sits in the middle of the 50 states in childhood literacy statistics.
A large number of rising third graders struggled to read, Megan said. “Our second-grade team was overloaded. We met with our administrative staff and presented the idea of the community coming in to support. We needed an agency to basically fund it and organize it, which was where the church came in,” she said. “It was the answer we were looking for.”
Megan met with Jones County district office officials for full approval, and a training program was established to train volunteers. She said teachers want volunteers, but don’t have time to put things together for them, so training volunteers outside of school was the answer. Elam provides tutoring bins that include different activities, word lists, games, and books. The school system, not Elam, selects the students and sets the schedule.
Third-grade reading proficiency is widely considered a key predictor of future academic success. Students who are not reading proficiently by third grade are significantly more likely to struggle later in school and less likely to graduate on time. Those are outcomes Elam volunteers want to help change, one child at a time.
Megan said that meeting practical needs often opens the door for deeper ministry.
“If we haven’t shown them that we love them and shown that we are going to take the time to meet them where they’re at and meet the needs that are very real in their lives, they’re never going to listen to us,” she said.
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