Anniston congregation uses diverse methods to grow their church

Hill Crest Baptist Church in Anniston, the fourth church in The Alabama Baptist’s five-part series on healthy churches, baptized 386 people in 2003 — more than any other Southern Baptist church in the state. Numerically, it is the fastest-growing church in Alabama according to the office of leadership/church growth for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM). In the last 27 years Hill Crest has added more than 3,000 members to its rolls.
  
Impressive as the numbers are, Rick Reaves, senior pastor, said topping the list was simply an indication of a healthy body.
   
The church, once known as Moore Avenue Baptist before it moved to its present location on Highway 431, experienced some growth after the move alleviated parking and space issues. But it really took off in the early 1990s.
   
“I have been praying diligently for this growth for 27 years,” said Reeves, who became the senior pastor in 1992 after serving in other leadership roles since 1977.
   
“At that time, I started implementing different programs that I felt led to do. Evangelism became one of our top priorities.”
   
The church changed the worship a bit, encouraging a balance between contemporary music and southern gospel.
   
Although the average age at Hill Crest is between 40 and 50, the church draws students from eight high schools in the area and young families from a 40-mile radius.
   
“We found that balance encourages everyone to support one another’s music,” he said.
   
“The kids will do a heavy-duty contemporary piece and the adults will stand and applaud them. The youth do the same. The worship is so vibrant that it is an extension of our members. “They take that enthusiasm into the workplace, their neighborhood and their schools.
   
“And when they come to visit we make them feel like they are at home,” he said. “Being friendly is part of who we are. If people don’t feel welcome, they’re not going to come back.”
   
Sammy Gilbreath, director of evangelism for the SBOM, said when he first visited Hill Crest he was overwhelmed by the members’ kindness.
   
“They had no idea who I was, but they sent someone out with an umbrella to my car because it was raining,” Gilbreath said. “From the moment I walked in, they made my wife and I feel like they were glad we were there.”
   
The church’s conspicuous location doesn’t hurt either.
   
“People drive by and see all the cars and sooner or later they stop in to see what going on,” Reaves said.
   
That’s where Operation Contact,  a beefed-up version of traditional Monday night visitation, comes in.”
   
Every Tuesday the church draws from a pool of 500 volunteers, sending them out on eight different teams. Some visit prospective members — many who were invited to a service by friends or co-workers.
   
Other teams visit shut-ins and the sick; one team handles crisis situations, and another soulwinning. They visit with such frequency and  they visit so many people, they have earned a reputation in the community.
   
“If people visit church on Sunday, they expect us to knock on their door that Tuesday,” Reaves said.
   
“This program is critical to our growth because in this day and age people respond when a church shows them love.”
   
Operation Contact is so diverse that members can easily plug into their area of gifts.
   
By using this method no one feels left out and even new Christians have a way they can become involved.
   
“They may not be ready to be part of the soulwinning team, but they can visit a shut-in,” Reaves said. “This gives them a place to fellowship and grow at the same time.”
   
More recently the church started New Wine Ministries — a recovery center for people battling addictions.
   
Hill Crest owns three homes where 15 people from five different states are participating in a Christian-based rehabilitation program led by trained Hill Crest members.
   
Gilbreath added, “Hill Crest is intentionally evangelistic in every area — in worship, preaching and in their mind-set. 
   
“They have grown their church around the ideas that they are part of Kingdom work, and it has become part of their DNA,” he said. “You see it in everything they do.”
Gilbreath said that to be growing the way it “is even more extraordinary.
   
“I don’t believe a church can have the kind of consistent baptisms like they have and not be a healthy church.”
   
Reaves said he gauges what God is doing through the ministries at the church and by the increase in baptisms.
   
“Growth means that you’re winning souls to Jesus,” he said, “and that’s the most important thing.”