First Baptist Woodstock has baptized more than 600 new believers during, after pandemic

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WOODSTOCK, Ga. – In 2020, George Barna president David Kinnaman predicted that 20 percent of America’s churches could close with the next 18 months. It is yet to be determined if his prophecy has become a reality, but many churches are struggling in the wake of what we hope is the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it appears that churches large and small have suffered some loss in the past 30 months.

For more than 30 years First Baptist Woodstock had exponential growth under the leadership of Pastor Johnny Hunt. In 1991, the church moved to a new 2,400-seat worship center on Neese Road; and fourteen years later opened a new 7,000-seat sanctuary. In 2019, Pastor Hunt announced a transition in leadership whereby Jeremy Morton would become the lead pastor.

Following a pastor who has had an extremely efficacious ministry is often overwhelming for his successor, and if a restrictive pandemic is added to that reality the result could be challenging at best and significantly problematic at worst. How have those dynamics impacted one of Georgia’s most prestigious churches?

One way to measure a Baptist church’s health is to find out how many people the church has baptized lately; First Baptist Woodstock has baptized 604 new believers since June 14, 2020.

Derrick Jackson, executive pastor of Administration for the church, explained, “Our church is very healthy right now. The pandemic actually helped many find us due to three main factors: First, we already had an incredibly polished online worship service. Second, our worship center is so large it naturally felt safer because you could socially distance at your discretion. Three, we made the decision to allow people to make their own decisions about health and opened our doors again in June 2020. Due to these factors, God has allowed us to grow in number. As we grew in number new people found Jesus.”

Jackson added, “As crazy as it seems, a large percentage of those baptized in the past two years started their journey via watching our online broadcast. We have had multiple baptisms almost every Sunday since we reopened. This is in large part due to our ability to put our services in people’s living rooms and on their devices.”

Craig Ormsby, mission pastor of First Baptist Woodstock, avowed, “I believe that our pastor is modeling what he is leading our congregation to do. In the last few months, he has baptized several people that he has personally led to faith in Christ. This speaks volumes to our people. Needless to say, this is great leadership, for with his actions he is leading our people to build relationships with those around them and to intentionally be soul winners.

“For two years now, on the third Thursday of each month,” Ormsby noted, “our staff will break up into groups of four or five; and these groups have been prayer walking and building relationship in the neighborhoods closest to our church. We view them as neighbors, and we are praying for them regularly. It is a planned effort that involves seeking out people of peace  in each neighborhood and working with them to reach those in the neighborhood with the goal of leaving behind a gospel-centered group that meets regularly.

In modern missionary parlance, a person of peace is one whom God is providentially positioning and preparing to hear the gospel and spread it to others.

Lead Pastor Jeremy Morton explained, “I have begun to say on a weekly basis, we exist to help people find and follow the Lord Jesus, in Woodstock and the world. That has been the hallmark of this great church. Thousands have been reached with the gospel through the ministries of this church, but the truth is that we are standing on the shoulders of many faithful men and women of God who have come before us.

“But we must preach that same gospel to a new generation that is radically unchurched and does not have the same spiritual presupposition that their parents and grandparents do.

“The people that we are reaching have no church background whatsoever,” Morton stated, “On the one hand this is very intimidating because the darkness is so real. But on the other hand, this is such a privilege, because the people that we have reached – we are training to become followers of Christ for the very first time in their life.” 

First Baptist Woodstock in no way limits its mission concerns to the region where the church is located. Jackson exclaimed, “Our missions ministry continues to reach many locally, nationally, and internationally. We have ramped up our mission to reach more in all these areas. Locally we continue to reach those who are struggling financially [through the Care Ministry] and mentally [through the Counseling Ministry]. More and more people are coming to Jesus, and it is exciting.

“Nationally the church plants we support are thriving. This past month we got word that one of our church plants is about to plant another church! Internationally we are supporting ministries and missionaries and sending our people to help. Lives are being changed!"

The executive pastor concluded, “Despite the chaos of the last couple of years, God has fortified our people and our mission, and we feel more compelled than ever to take the Gospel to those far from Jesus. Our people at FBCW are the biggest joy of my life to serve. They understand what is at stake and they are motivated to help people find and follow Jesus from Woodstock to the world!”

Morton summarized, “I am grateful that the whole story of the Bible is that God raises beauty from the ashes. This is the heartbeat of the gospel and we’ve seen this fleshed out in our church over these last couple of years. From the Covid pandemic, through the political fractures on the national level the last couple of years, life has not been particularly easy for anyone.

“But I cannot say enough about the grace of God and the kindness of the First Baptist Woodstock congregation. The people have been faithful, they have been generous. They have literally loaded me down with cards and prayers of encouragement!

“My wife, Carrie and I have drawn such strength from knowing that if we had to go through difficulty as we have for the last couple of years, there is no finer people in all the world to go through it with than the people of First Baptist Woodstock.”