Derek Murry said one Sunday while his church was holding a drive-in service, a grandfather who was headed to pick up McDonald’s breakfast for his grandkids pulled into their parking lot.
“He said, ‘Let me see what that church has going on,’ and he ended up not being able to leave,” said Murry, pastor of St. James Holt Crossing Baptist Church, Montgomery. “He started coming every Sunday after that, and he joined about a month ago.”
Murry said they’ve seen that happen over and over since they started holding outdoor services once the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Honestly, it’s almost all he’s ever known as a pastor — he was new to the ministry and had only recently been called to St. James when the virus forced them to come up with a new plan.
Many in the congregation were uncomfortable attending in person and also uncomfortable attending online, so the drive-in services made sense, Murry said. The next thing they knew, people from the community were listening from their porches and backyards, walking up with their dogs or pulling in to check it out.
And not too long after that, Murry was asking Neal Hughes, director of missions for Montgomery Baptist Association, if he knew where they could get a portable baptismal pool.
“God has just greatly used them in this COVID-19 season,” Hughes said. “They were the first in our area to jump out and do a drive-in service. They just sang and preached where everyone could hear. It’s been an absolutely awesome season for them.”
‘Act of cooperation’
That is reflected in the fact that St. James ended up at the top of Alabama’s list for baptism ratio on this year’s Annual Church Profile report — they baptized one person for every 1.2 church members in 2020.
Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said these kinds of metrics are “a valuable ministry tool” for churches in evaluation and celebration.
“We encourage all churches to participate,” he said. “It is an act of cooperation with other Alabama Baptist churches and the larger SBC family.”
The ACP helps gauge trends in Alabama Baptist churches when it comes to baptisms, Cooperative Program giving and designated giving.
Eternal difference
“We praise the Lord for the generosity of Alabama Baptists during this pandemic,” Lance said. “Their faithfulness has made an eternal difference in a world of chaos and confusion. Every Alabama Baptist church needs to experience the joy of giving through the missional mutual fund called the Cooperative Program.”
The April 15 issue of TAB includes some highlights of the state’s total data for 2020, and the reports of every church’s giving and baptisms are now available online at tabonline.org/2020ACP. (Numbers in this report were provided by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. To contact them, call 800-264-1225.)
Churches that did not complete an ACP will see blanks in their baptism listing.
2020 Church Receipts
Share with others: