April 24, 2024
Georgia is a lost state. According to recent studies by Pew Research, about one out of every three adults in Georgia has no connection with religion. This is much better than the bleak picture of New England’s Christian presence, but only about twenty percent of Georgia’s population is connected to Baptists of any stripe. When asked specific survey questions, Georgians responded with only 42% regular church attendance, 31% practicing corporate prayer with other Christians, and only 38% believing there are absolute standards for morality.
Within each region of Georgia, some population segments have more unchurched than others. In conjunction with data from several demographic companies and using algorithms as identifiers for the church population, Georgia Baptist Mission Board has highlighted the most lost zip code within each of the six regions being facilitated for church strengthening. In the East Central region, that is 30907 Martinez and 30281 Stockbridge for West Central.
Over the last two months, key associations and churches undertook concerted efforts for community outreach to engage the lost on one-day mission trips. On September 24, the Augusta Baptist Association hosted a Crossover907 event that included basic evangelism training, prayer walking, and gospel conversations in sixteen targeted areas. Under the direction of Association Missions Strategist Dr. Dwayne Boudreaux and Associate Missions Director David Nowling, churches throughout East Central Georgia were invited to converge on a Saturday morning for prayer, evangelism, and celebration. Eighty people from eleven churches from as far as Dexter drove into Martinez to ask for God’s blessing, receive initial instructions, and then form groups of prayer walkers. Nowling had prepared packets with necessary maps, a simple survey, supplemental gospel tracts, and water bottles.
After Georgia Baptist evangelism consultant Brad Marchman highlighted ways to initiate gospel conversations naturally, the groups spent two hours on the streets. When they returned for lunch, they handed in documented conversations for local church follow-up and celebrated the divine appointments God had provided. The local missions team from Abilene Baptist in Augusta provided lunch for the participants. Dr. David Stockton, the pastor of Damascus Baptist in Appling, expressed his thanks: “We had eight people, and they loved it. They saw that by relying on the Holy Spirit, you could talk to people about Jesus. We were able to share with two people who need to be followed up with. Others we were able to pray with.” The August Baptist Association is planning more future one-day mission trips into the Augusta area due to the tremendous response to this event.
To help GBMB’s mission efforts, North Henry Baptist’s pastor Stan Jordan serves as the virtual strategy coordinator for 30281 Stockbridge. With an estimated lost population of almost 41,000, local churches within the zip code struggle to meet evangelism demands. So when Ryan Appling, youth pastor at Flat Creek Baptist in Fayetteville, was planning ministry opportunities to incorporate into his fifth annual M-Now weekend with students on November 19, GBMB’s Buck Burch connected the two men for an integrated chance to reach that zip code. M-Now, which stands for Missions Now, is the brainchild of Appling. On a Friday evening, students meet at the church for worship, fun, and a lock-in experience. On Saturday morning, the students awake early, have quiet times and are taught about missions. As a practicum, they are usually taken out to do a Saturday service project in the community and return for final worship before going home.
But this year was different. As Appling and Jordan planned together, they focused on what the students could do in the most lost zip code to help local churches with their outreach. With the oversight and blessing of Southside Network’s Association Mission Strategist Ray Gentry, along with the use of the network’s Evangelistic Block Party Trailer, several other churches were invited to put fuel to the Flat Creek students’ fire. In partnership with three other churches in Henry County, Flat Creek sent fifty students and adult volunteers to canvas specific neighborhoods, take community surveys, and serve the community with a block party. As the students formed three teams, they knocked on doors “with the sole purpose of telling these families that Jesus loves them.” Appling noted that “the conversations that followed were priceless. Students faced many closed doors, but they celebrated their victories when someone came to the door, when they would say they loved the Lord, and when they said they had been looking for a church home and would visit the following week.” When the group calculated the results for the day, they realized they had knocked on over 350 doors in one afternoon, prayed over those homes, and would continue to lift up each church they had partnered with that weekend.
The Stockbridge partnering churches supporting Flat Creek youth were also highly impacted. Andrew Pasedag, the pastor of Tanners Baptist Church, mentioned that he was delighted that the students could hand out 200 fliers to a newer subdivision in their area as he seeks to revitalize this congregation. Chris Mason, the pastor of Ellenwood Oaks Community Church, commented, "This block party has given the members of our church hope that we can reach the people in our community." North Henry’s Stan Jordan said, "The survey was to help our church know how to love our community the best we can."
Neither of these events in 30907 and 30281 was expensive. The Great Commission is all about churches working together in partnership for the gospel. And there is something about being in the field together to impact the lostness of Georgia. The Martinez event was a partnership between GBMB Missions and Evangelism, and the Stockbridge event was a partnership between GBMB Missions and Next Gen Ministries.
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Buck Burch is missions catalyst for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
