April 19, 2024
JONESBORO, Ga. – Steven Greene recalled the dust in the baptistry at Central Baptist Church in Lawrenceville when he arrived as pastor nearly our years ago.
Once a booming congregation in one of Georgia’s fastest growing counties, Central Baptist had been in decline for years, falling to a low of 30 people in Sunday morning worship in 2016.
“The baptistry was full of dust,” Greene said. “The changing room was being used for storage for silk flowers. We have old, galvanized pipes running to the baptistry and the water had sat in the pipes so long it was coming out orange.”
Greene, one of the speakers Sunday evening at First Baptist Church in Jonesville for an inspirational rally that kicked off the two-day annual meeting of the Georgia Baptist Convention, said his congregation is a testament to the power of prayer.
It was when church members began to pray, he said, that people began to get saved.
“I’m here to let you know that even though we’re a small church, we’ve seen God do some amazing things,” Greene said. “We may be a small church, but we do not serve a small God. We’ve seen lives completely changed. And despite the pandemic, we’ve had the best year that Central Baptist has had in many years.”
The turning point, Greene said, came when the congregation began praying for spiritually lost people by name. He told about a 17-year-old prodigal who returned home to his parents after being the subject of intense prayer. “And the first person he told his parents he wanted to see when he got home was the pastor so he could give his life to Christ,” Greene said.
So far this year, Greene said, Central Baptist has had nine baptisms and has seen some 20 people accept Christ as their Savior. Sunday morning attendance had reached about 75 pre-COVID.
“By the grace of God, we’ve seen it over and over and over again,” he said.
Jeff Crook, pastor of Christ Place Church in Flowery Branch, used the example of the Old Testament prophet Jonah to challenge Georgia Baptists to be obedient to God even when He assigns them difficult tasks.
“We can’t be a bunch of pansies,” Crook said. “We’ve got to have courage. We’ve got to push back the darkness. We’ve got to do what God is calling us to do.”
Crook said Jonah, after his initial hesitancy, obeyed God, preaching His word to the people of Nineveh despite their wickedness.
“They were cruel people,” he said. “They would impale people on sharp poles, leaving them out to roast in the sun. They would bury you body in sand; leaving your head exposed, pour honey all over your head to let it be the Golden Corral for the ants. They beheaded people by the thousands, stuck their skulls up like in a pile. They would skin people alive. … They were vicious evil people.”
But, Crook said, those people believed God and were changed.
Crook challenged his fellow Georgia Baptists to refocus on what God wants them in calling people back to God instead of getting caught up in side issues.
“We all pick our fights and our battles,” he said. “Everybody’s squabbling, arguing. Let me tell you something. The devil loves it. He loves all this stuff that’s happening in our Southern Baptist Convention. He loves it for our convention to be clown town. He loves that. He thrives on a lack of unity and squabbling. And if we are ever to reach the 9 million people in Georgia for Jesus Christ, we’ve got to stop this sideways energy. We’ve got to be focused on our mission. Forget all this crazy sideways stuff.”
Crook reminded the crowd that Jesus is soon returning.
“We have no time to squabble,” he said. “We have no time to growl. We have no time for sideways energies.”
