When Reid Guy and his wife, Lori, started The Port Church in late January, they set up eight chairs in their living room in Chickasaw.
“We thought we might have six, eight, 10 people there,” he said.
But more and more came until there were 25.
“We ended up having to move to the backyard,” Guy said.
Many of those have become key leaders in the church, and now — seven months later — they’ve outgrown the backyard and a local community center and are meeting in the fellowship hall of a Catholic church.
‘It’s incredible’
“We’re enjoying where we are, we’re reaching people and seeing people get saved and be baptized,” Guy said. “We’re seeing people come to church when they haven’t been to church in 10, 15, 20 years. It’s incredible.”
This has happened with the help of partners like First Baptist Church in Pelham, which brought a team to help The Port Church with outreach this summer.
“They reached out to me, and we began planning a sports camp and block party that they do in different locations every year,” Guy said.
It went better than he could have imagined — some 20 kids showed up each day for the sports camp, and the block party drew nearly 200 from the community.
Twenty-three professed new faith in Christ — 19 at the block party, and four kids who accepted Jesus at the sports camp, Guy said.
‘Beautiful picture’
“It was just incredible. We talked with their parents and were able to baptize them right there in front of their friends.”
Matt Wright, student pastor at FBC Pelham, said seeing two churches come together to gather a diverse group from the community was “a beautiful picture of the Body of Christ,” adding his team was grateful for the opportunity to come alongside Guy, who is “on top of things and passionate about reaching his whole community.”
Guy said he’s grateful to have a front-row seat to watch what God is doing.
“The Lord was definitely in what happened,” he said. “We couldn’t have done it without First Baptist, Pelham. It was a blessing to be there and be part of the story.”
Share with others: