Today’s From the States features items from: Baptist Message (Louisiana); Illinois Baptist; The Alabama Baptist.
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One new life among
hundreds at La. church
By Brian Blackwell
NEW ORLEANS (Baptist Message) — For years, James Fletcher struggled with drug addiction, resentment toward others and separation from his brother who was sentenced to serve life at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
But in late 2015, Fletcher found hope in Christ at Celebration Church marking the beginning of an awakening in his own life, and also a revival among many of his family members.
“I let those strongholds take over my life and had to realize forgiveness is one of the biggest things I need to have,” said Fletcher, who was baptized in January 2016. “I was so dependent on the things of the world to hide my feelings, but once I took it to the Lord, He took away those burdens and anxiety.”
It only takes a spark
Fletcher also shared how God used his faith to touch the lives of those close to him.
“Now, a lot of my family members have accepted Christ,” he exclaimed, “and we are so excited about what He is doing with us.”
After his baptism, his mother Veronica Singleton and wife Elisha accepted Christ and both were baptized within a six-month period. His grandmother Janet Richard was redeemed in March and has plans to follow through with baptism in April.
Fletcher, who recently became a youth ministry volunteer for Celebration Church’s River Parishes campus in LaPlace, said God has shown him in the past 15 months that He can use one life to impact many.
“Being able to share my story with my youth, family members and others in the community is a great feeling,” Fletcher said. “People see how great the Lord is and what a difference He has made in my life. They want to then follow the Lord. It’s like a gravitational pull.”
Evanglistic heartbeat
In the past two years, Celebration Church has experienced more than 500 baptisms annually, combined among its nine campuses in the New Orleans, Northshore and Baton Rouge areas.
Also, the single congregation in multiple locations has recorded more than 1,100 and 1,250 professions of faith, respectively, in 2015 and 2016.
In 2017, through just the first 12 weeks of 2017, Celebration Church has baptized 89 people and counseled 359 individuals who made professions of faith. The goal for the year is 700 baptisms, which if reached would set an all-time record, surpassing the all-time high in 2015 of 552.
Dennis Watson, pastor of Celebration Church and is found on the Metairie campus most days, attributes the growing number of baptisms and professions of faith at the church’s several locations to being intentional about equipping members to share their faith.
He pointed to a recent initiative to illustrate how simple it is to prepare others to share Christ around them.
Earlier this year, he and his staff began requiring members to write down the details about how they came to saving knowledge of Jesus. In turn, pastors and other leaders from the church assess the inputs, and return instructions via e-mail with hints on how to start a conversation that leads to presenting their testimony with people they interact with on a regular basis.
Since launching the campaign in February, hundreds of members have turned in their write-ups for feedback.
“By having them write down their story, we are able to turn around to affirm their story of what the Lord has done in their life and encourage them to share this with others,” Watson said. “By sharing ways to share their story, it then becomes a natural transition to invite friends and others to church as well.”
Missions is the pulse
Watson said the congregation’s health and growth in evangelism is a reflection of the members’ passion for missions.
In December 2016, Celebration Church started two new campuses — one in the Covington/Mandeville area and another in St. Gabriel. They hope to launch another campus in New Orleans East in April 2018.
Celebration Church also supports church plants around the country, in Florida and Texas, and even internationally, in Costa Rica.
Celebration Church also has trained more than 5,000 pastors in other nations in the span of 5 years — and has been inspired by the Holy Spirit to train 1,000 pastors in the Dominican Republic in the next 10 years, seeking to spark revival in the country.
“We can help take that nation for Christ,” Watson said. “It can revolutionize the country. We could see a great spiritual awakening in the Dominican Republic and other nations as well.
God’s vision guides
“I knew God had called me here in 1989 to pastor and start a church in New Orleans, I wanted to be faithful in that,” he continued.
“There is no way we could have dreamed where we are now. It’s just God — the favor and blessing of the Lord.”
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This article appeared in the Baptist Message (baptistmessage.com), newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Brian Blackwell is a staff writer for the Baptist Message.
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Food pantry fixer upper:
One woman’s mission
By Staff
STAUNTON, Ill. (Illinois Baptist) — Shortly after Derrick and Ailee Taylor started NET Community Church last September, Ailee started feeling burdened for the community’s food pantry.
Space was tight — the pantry was crammed into three small rooms in another facility, and people were waiting up to four hours to be served.
“Oh, dear heavens, we need to do something about this,” thought the 15-year veteran retail manager. She started volunteering alongside the food pantry’s coordinator, building a relationship so that she might one day earn the right to suggest changes to the pantry’s operation.
But soon, the coordinator came to Ailee with her own idea. “I need you to take this over,” Ailee remembers her saying. She was turning 70 and she told Ailee, “I think God sent you to me to take this.”
Over the next few months, Ailee worked with city officials and the pantry’s board to begin to institute some changes. The biggest was a move to a new facility, a former pharmacy in downtown Staunton. The Taylors’ church, just a few months old, guaranteed that the pantry’s rent and overhead expenses would be provided, and in February, volunteers from the NET and others in Staunton started demolition on the new space.
The relocation and renovation story is one of amazing orchestration, Ailee said. Their landlord, the pharmacist, pays for the pantry’s heat, water and trash pick-up. A local contractor called to see how he could help just when they needed a wall built. And a church from Paducah, Ky., sent a team in early April to build shelving and help host the community for a block party and open house.
Along with the new building, the coordinators raised money to purchase four freezers and four refrigerators, a move that allowed the food pantry to become part of the Central Illinois Food Bank. The partnership means food now costs the Staunton pantry $0.19 per pound at most, which drastically cut their overall costs, Ailee said.
The brightly lit new space with original, local art on the walls is also more than five times larger than the previous facility, and their volunteer force has grown from 11 to 60. People can be in and out in 20 to 40 minutes, and they can bring their kids. In the new pantry’s first week, traffic more than doubled from the previous location.
The project also has proven to be an effective outreach for the Taylors’ young church. “We have met so many people in the process of the project, so many people that now end up coming to church with us,” Ailee said.
The food pantry is operated as a separate 501(c)(3) organization and staffed by volunteers from NET Community Church and four other local congregations. Ailee currently serves as a co-coordinator with two other women, including Carole Sharp, the long-time food pantry organizer who first recruited her to help run the operation.
The pantry’s new name is the Staunton Helping Hands Center, which points to a vision for a facility that will one day be more than a food pantry. Through their rental agreement, the pantry also has access to an additional 1,200 square feet in a building next door that Ailee hopes they can use to bring government assistance to Staunton residents in need, who are currently traveling to nearby communities to receive those services.
NET Community Church has budgeted a certain amount each month to support the Helping Hands Center, but donations from the community are already helping to cover costs, Ailee said.
The partnership between individuals and organizations in Staunton is illustrated by art on one wall of the new pantry — black and white photos of the hands of actual volunteers as they serve people in their community.
In Staunton, many helping hands make for light work.
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This article appeared in the Illinois Baptist (illinoisbaptist.org), newsjournal of the Illinois Baptist State Association.
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Hundreds respond to Gospel
at Will Graham crusade in Ala.
By Carrie Brown McWhorter
DOTHAN, Ala. (The Alabama Baptist) — Music, drama and preaching by Billy Graham’s grandson drew thousands to the Wiregrass Area Will Graham Celebration on May 5–7 in Dothan.
“We’re thankful for the Will Graham Celebration coming to Dothan, and we’re excited about the future of our community and church because of the mission focus the Will Graham Celebration brought to our area,” said Nolan Helder, associate pastor of children and family ministries at First Baptist Church, Dothan, in Columbia Baptist Association.
Will Graham, son of Franklin Graham and grandson of Billy Graham, headlines four to five Celebration events each year for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). The Wiregrass Celebration was 1 of 4 on this year’s BGEA event calendar.
Building relationships
Sandy Uhler, director of ministries at Harvest Church, Dothan, told The Dothan Eagle that local leaders have been working with BGEA since 2012 to bring an event to Dothan. Once Dothan was chosen, representatives from 143 churches worked with BGEA in a five-month effort to organize the crusade held at the Dothan Civic Center.
The relationships built between churches during the planning will make a lasting impact on the Wiregrass area, Helder said.
“We’re excited to see how God will use the improvement of our churches working together for the community,” he said.
Total attendance at the four sessions held throughout the weekend totaled 7,700.
The May 6 KidzFest drew a crowd of 1,000 and featured a petting zoo and a three-act play, “The Greatest Journey,” which was designed to teach kids in a fun way how great it can be to be a follower of Christ. That evening’s youth-oriented session included music and testimony by 18-year-old rapper Aaron Cole and a concert by Christian pop rock band The Afters and drew a crowd of 1,750. All events related to the Celebration were free of charge.
Attendance at sessions on Friday night and Sunday filled the 2,500-seat auditorium. More than 32,000 viewers around the world streamed the services, which were broadcast live at billygraham.org.
According to a BGEA report following the event, 353 individuals were saved and 125 others made decisions during the Celebration.
“To watch people go forward at the end of each session was incredible,” said Merrell Henry, associate pastor at Camp Ground Baptist Church, Ozark, in Dale Baptist Association.
In the months preceding the Celebration, almost 1,500 local believers prepared to lead others to Christ by taking the BGEA Christian Life and Witness Course on how to share one’s faith and be a counselor at large events. Their preparation will have a lasting impact in the Wiregrass area, Helder said.
“We had almost 70 people trained in counseling and evangelism and discipleship through the BGEA,” Helder said. “They are now using their training to disciple those at our church who made decisions.”
Counselors from BGEA will remain in the area for the next few weeks to follow up with individuals who made decisions at the Celebration. Area churches also are planning events to keep people motivated, Helder said. Two student-oriented community events are scheduled for upcoming weeks, WIRED 2017, a youth camp in June and Winshape Kids Camp at Northview High School in July.
Clearer understanding
Henry took students from Camp Ground to the Sunday session and said they came away with a clearer understanding of what it means to live life for Jesus each day. If everyone who attended practices that message, the impact of the Celebration will last, he believes.
“The message was not complicated,” he said. “If people who were there ‘go and tell,’ this event will have lasting effects in our community.”
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This article appeared in The Alabama Baptist (thealabamabaptist.org), newsjournal of the Alabama Baptist Convention. Carrie Brown McWhorter is a correspondent for The Alabama Baptist.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: From the States, published each Tuesday by Baptist Press, relays news and feature stories from state Baptist papers and other publications on initiatives by Baptist churches, associations and state conventions in evangelism, church planting and Great Commission outreach, including partnership missions. Reports about churches, associations and state conventions responding to the International Mission Board’s call to embrace the world’s unengaged, unreached people groups also are included in From the States, along with reports about church, associational and state convention initiatives in conjunction with the North American Mission Board’s call to Southern Baptist churches to broaden their efforts in starting new churches and satellite campuses. The items appear in Baptist Press as originally published.
