October 2, 2026
DONALSONVILLE, Ga. — There were already indications the Spirit was moving at Lake Seminole Baptist Church in Donalsonville prior to the church's revival week Sept. 14-17. The 30-year-old church averages 50 to 60 attendees each week. Since August, there have been 14 baptisms and 12 salvations. Pastor Rusty Bradley reported that 83 people attended on a recent Sunday morning.
Although the church holds a revival each year, this year's movement is a new thing for them. “It just seemed to come out of nowhere,” said Bradley. “We are just seeing the Lord move.”
Jason Jones, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board's Pastor Wellness catalyst for South Georgia, said, "It was one of the most spirit-filled atmospheres I’ve been in in quite some time."
Bradley said he doesn’t consider himself to be a revival preacher; he just preaches the Bible. “If I show them something," he said, "I want them to know it came from the Bible.”
Bradley has served as pastor at the church for five years and has consistently prayed for revival.“We are just now starting to see it bear fruit, and it is looking good.”
Bradley, 69, knows what it means to be patient and wait. This is Bradley’s first and only church he’s pastored. Bradley retired early from Georgia Pacific's containerboard mill in Cedar Springs, Ga., in 2014 after a 30-plus-year career. “I got sick and had to go,” said Bradley. He never received a diagnosis after many hospital visits. “It’s kind of a mystery to me. They could never put a finger on it.”
While attending another church, he felt a calling to ministry. With no plan, he just told his wife he thought they needed to go.
Just like Abraham, Bradley said he stepped out in faith and waited. A month later, he got a call from Lake Seminole to be a bi-vocational pastor. Originally saying no, the Lord turned the light switch on for him. Bradley, who has no formal education beyond high school, preached his first sermon on Father's Day 2020. “I have no theological training. I just love to study the Bible and the word,” he said.
According to Bradley, this time of revival is a result of waiting on the Lord, being consistent, treating people like they want to be treated, being fair with people, serving others, and being welcoming.
Jones said that in the weeks leading up to the revival, the church had been encouraged by Bradley to be more evangelistic. “He’s being faithful to share the gospel, and he has people in his church that have caught onto that and are sharing the gospel with their friends, or at the very least, they are inviting their friends to church to hear the gospel.”
On Sunday mornings, Bradley has been preaching through the book of Luke verse-by-verse. On Sunday evenings, the church is going through Henry Blackaby’s Bible study Experiencing God.
“For those who attend Sunday nights, it’s definitely had an impact on us,” said Bradley. “We’re not in a hurry to get through it...We’re making sure we take it all in. We talk about it all the time.”
Church members were discussing the possibility of starting new ministries, and Bradley pointed to Blackaby's book which says that God has a plan for ministry, and he invites people to join with Him. "We kind of looked at that moment as our opportunity," he said. "I think that has had a really big impact.”
One ministry that had grown along with the revival is a Celebrate Recovery program on Friday nights, which draws around 50 people. Bradley says the program, which the church began six years ago, has contributed to the growth. “People come in for relief, and they get saved and want to get baptized. A lot of our success recently has to do with that. Not all of it, but a good portion of it,” said Bradley.
The church will also be starting a women’s ministry called Embrace Grace, which will work alongside Alpha Pregnancy Center in Donalsonville.
Jones said it’s important to remember that no church is insignificant. “Even churches we don’t know about may not be running the big numbers, but God is using our smaller churches to reach people for the gospel.”
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