Posted on Aug 18, 2006 | by Andrea Higgins

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--Central Baptist Church had not had a baptism in more than 20 years. With the neighborhood declining into crime and drugs and only three members remaining, it was hard for some to see a future.

“They were throwing the church records into the garbage” because they figured the tiny brick church’s 50-plus year history was at an end, said Georgia-based evangelist Keith Fordham.

It may sound like hyperbole, but it really happened, said Thomas Johnston, associate professor of evangelism at nearby Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, who began preaching at the church July 4, 2004, as part of an urban evangelism initiative.

Besides dwindling numbers, another reason there hadn’t been a baptism there for so long was because the old baptistery leaked. With a donation from another church, work began to repair it, and that’s when the church’s old records were unearthed.

One of the three people who were in the congregation when Johnston began spearheading the evangelism effort took the boxes and threw them in the dumpster.

“When I asked him why he was doing that, he told me, ‘No one cares about these or what happened here,’” Johnston recounted. “I told him that I had a research Ph.D. and that I cared, but he kept throwing boxes of WMU minutes and baptismal records away.”

But 79-year-old Steve Saluto, one of the last three when Johnston arrived, never gave up hope on the church he has attended since 1965.

“We decided that there was hope for the church and we would remain open if we could,” said Saluto, a deacon since 1972. “We wanted to keep the doors open, and have a place where people coming by could come in and they could have hope and hear the Gospel.”

Indeed, after an intensive door-to-door effort and a two-day revival preached by Fordham -– the first spearheaded by the Low and No Baptism Project, a joint effort of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists and the North American Mission Board -– not only did the 20-year baptism drought end, but the church had a veritable flood of 16 newly saved souls and 10 baptisms.

To be a public witness in the needy neighborhood, they did the first baptism outside in a borrowed metal cattle trough and then celebrated another first with a baptism inside the church in the newly refurbished baptistery.

The funny thing is, said Fordham, the Low and No Baptism Project was targeting churches that had had one or no baptisms in the past year.

“When we go there, we didn’t know they hadn’t had one in 20 years,” Fordham said.

Blistering July temperatures during the week of the revival were only worsened by the fact that thieves had torn the air conditioner out of the outside wall two weeks before.

“They finally got a new one, and three days before the conference, somebody stole the copper wire off of it,” Fordham said. “It was 103 degrees, and I can’t even describe how hot it was.

Even though Central Baptist was able to borrow tents for only the first night of the revival and had to move into the hot church, people followed and some got saved.

Aside from being a poverty-stricken area, one of the greatest challenges is that 27 different languages are spoken in the inner-city area surrounding the church, with 60 different countries represented in the local elementary school, said Johnston, who is also director of evangelistic teams at Midwestern.

So, the church had flyers printed in seven languages -– Arabic, Somali, Vietnamese, French, Spanish, Portuguese and English.

“Whether it is a neighbor of the same race or an immigrant down the street, Jesus called us to tell of His salvation unto the nations,” Johnston said.

Master of divinity student Nathan Dawson was among 50 students who took the intensive evangelism class taught by Fordham in conjunction with the Low and No Baptism Project, which included street evangelism as preparation for the Central Baptist canvassing and revival.

“We’d go downtown Kansas City, where’s it’s not quite as bad as the area around the church, and share the gospel,” Dawson said. “We’ve been cussed at and chewed out, and others smile and listen and trust Christ in the initial conversation.”

Dawson said several students who had not done that type of outreach before were surprised at the response.

Another 28 volunteers from Macedonia Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo., also took part in the canvassing effort for the revival.

“We had people witnessing to anything that was or wasn’t moving,” Fordham cracked.

After seeing the response at the revival, Dawson said he understands why so much preparation and outreach were required beforehand. He said he had been involved in another tent revival effort the previous year, for which none of the door-to-door outreach or training took place.

“It was fun, but we didn’t see a lot of response,” Dawson said.

“Oftentimes, what has come up in conversations with Dr. Johnston is that people say revivals and street evangelism is ‘old school,’” Dawson said. But, he said it obviously still works because it’s the same technique politicians use when they want to get people out to vote, for instance.

Fordham said 100 to 400 church revivals are envisioned for the Low and No Baptism Project, with an overall budget of $55,000 and the same intensive requirements for outreach and the commitment of the pastor.

“I’ve been in over 1,300 revivals and harvest days,” said Fordham, who has been an evangelist for 33 years. “I’m just used to seeing people saved every week. When people say they don’t work, I say what are they talking about?”
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