Florida pastors invest in baptism as celebrations & discipleship

Apr 29, 2009
BABARA DENMAN
Florida Baptist Convention

JACKSONVILLE (FBC) – While the Southern Baptist Convention has reported a drop in baptisms for the 2008 church year, Florida Baptists stirred the baptismal waters more than any other time in the past six years, which David Burton believes stems from the yearning of pastors to saturate their community for Christ.

“We can rejoice that God has so blessed our pastors in being aggressive and intentional in soul winning and baptizing,” said Burton, who leads the Florida Baptist Convention’s Evangelism Division. In this role, Burton acts as cheerleader and teacher--encouraging pastors, while developing and implementing new -– as well as tried-and-true -– evangelistic strategies.

During 2008, Florida Baptists led 41,790 people into New Testament baptism, a 4.5 percent increase over the 38,303 baptized in 2007, when Florida Baptist congregations led all Southern Baptist state conventions. They did so again in 2008.

“The intentionality of showing the importance of baptism is higher than I have ever seen it in Florida,” said Burton. “We emphasize this much in our training meetings and gatherings.”

He identified several methods effectively being used by pastors across the state to reach non-Christians.

Evangelistic youth rallies give “our youth ministries vision, encouragement and strength as youth pastors become bolder in their approach to intentionality in presenting the Gospel at all events and giving an invitation,” Burton said.

Special evangelistic harvest events motivate pastors to be “innovative and bold in their approaches.” From individual churches to collaborative efforts, these events produce a strong outreach event.

Baptism celebration days encourage pastors to preach on the meaning of baptism, followed by a baptismal service.

Such a day brought eternal consequences to Cornerstone Baptist Church in St. Cloud, when 151 people were baptized at the community’s local pool. For three weeks this past summer, the pastor preached on the importance of baptism as the next step following salvation, said Todd McGlirchey, assimilation pastor.

When a tropical storm threatened the church’s planned beach baptism, the event was moved to the community pool where more than 700 persons gathered for a picnic and baptism.

“We were shocked,” recalled McGlirchey. “We had expected maybe 75 or 80 for baptism,” but 151 indicated their desire to be baptized.

That one event spurred the church’s baptisms for the entire year to 187, after having baptized 39 in 2007.

For the fourth year in a row, Flamingo Road Church in Fort Lauderdale led all other Florida Baptist churches in baptisms, with 1,381 new believers led through the baptismal pool at the church’s seven campuses.

Those reported at Flamingo Road were more than double the baptisms reported by the top five other leading Florida Baptist churches: Church by the Glades in Coral Springs, 620; Church at the Mall, Lakeland, 591; First Baptist, Orlando, 591; LifePoint in Tampa, 587 and South Biscayne in North Port, 506.

In explaining their phenomenal results, Flamingo Pastor Troy Gramling said, “There are a lot of lost people in South Florida. We have a huge population of people that do not know God.”

Gramling said their strategy is “simple:” drawing unchurched people to worship, church events and Bible studies; having them hear the Gospel presentation; and helping them take the “next step in a way relevant to where they are.”

Baptism is taught as the next step after salvation in their Christian discipleship, he explained.

Baptisms are big events as they are portrayed scripturally, he said, with beach baptisms and gatherings around the baptismal pool located on the church’s courtyard.

“We raise the value of baptism by making it a celebration of their previous commitment to follow Christ,” Gramling said.

Since assuming the reins as pastor of First Baptist Church in Umatilla a little over a year ago, Brooks Braswell has baptized his father, grandmother, aunt and several cousins, which brought the congregations total number of baptisms in 2008 to 148.

The church without a baptistry, baptizes converts in nearby Lake Pearl, weather permitting. During 2007 the church baptized 10 new believers.

Using the lake enhances the family atmosphere and spiritual impact of the baptisms where people bring lawn chairs, picnics, family members and relatives—many of whom are not Christians. There they hear the Gospel proclaimed and demonstrated in the lives of their family and friends.

The church is experiencing growth as it draws visitors from across Lake County, said the 29-year-old pastor and Baptist College of Florida grad. “There is an excitement here. People are hungry for the Lord. We are far from being politically correct; but we strive to be biblically correct.”

After just 18 months as a new church targeting the 19-35 year-olds in Tallahassee, The Well reported 62 baptisms in 2008. Their efforts are continuing to pay dividends, said Pastor Dean Inserra, as more than 1,000 attended church on Easter Sunday and 14 persons were baptized the next week.

Their evangelism strategy, modeled after Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, is to “forge relationships” with the non-believer in everyday walks of life. “We really push this,” said Inserra.

“We are carrying out our mission and God is blessing,” said Inserra. “We are growing by brand new believers coming to Christ.”

Included in the 41,790 baptisms reported by Florida Baptists are 7,376 baptisms performed in Haiti, where the Florida Baptist Convention employs a ministry director and six associational missionaries to lead 826 congregations in the Caribbean country.

Florida Baptist churches baptizing over 100 persons in 2008

Church	Pastor	Number

Flamingo Road, Fort Lauderdale	Troy Gramling	1,381
Church by the Glades, Coral Springs	David Hughes	620
Church at the Mall, Lakeland	Jay A. Dennis	591
Orlando First	David Uth	591
LifePoint, Tampa	Brad White	587
South Biscayne, North Port	John L. Cross	506
Christ Fellowship, Palmetto Bay	Rick Blackwood	392
Jacksonville, First	Mac Brunson	384
Hopeful, Lake City	Rodney Baker	380
Idlewild, Lutz	Ken C. Whitten	376
Bell Shoals, Brandon		340
McGregor, Fort Myers	Richard A. Powell	319
Olive, Pensacola	Ted H. Traylor	308
Naples, First	Hayes P. Wicker	292
Fort Lauderdale, First	Larry L. Thompson	274
King’s Way Community, Homestead	Jere D. Weaver	240
Brandon, First	J. Thomas Green	227
Cornerstone, St. Cloud	Nathan Blackwell	187
Oviedo, First	Dwayne E. Mercer	186
Sarasota	Mike Landry	177
Calvary, Clearwater	William E. Rice	177
South Miami Heights Haitian, Miami	Anthony L. Martin	165
Indian Rocks First, Largo	Jeff Parish	160
Angel Aid, Jacksonville	Carl R. Shipley	150
Umatilla First	Brooks Braswell	148
Church at the Springs, Ocala	Ron Sylvia	144
Panama City First	Craig Conner	144
Westside, Jacksonville	Keith Russell	137
Oasis, Pembroke Pines	Guy A. Melton	135
Crossing, Tampa	Greg Dumas	134
Woodland, Bradenton	J. Timothy Passmore	134
Altamonte Springs, First	Todd Lamphere	134
Fuente de Luz, Orange Park	Diego R. Jaramillo	132
Central Florida First, Orlando	Clayton Cloer	128
Mandarin First, Jacksonville	Gary L. Williams	123
Leesburg First	Cliff Lea	109
Hibernia, Green Cove Springs	Scott E. Yirka	107
New Port Richey First	Guy S. Sanders	106
Fellowship, Orlando	Rodney Gage	106
North Florida, Tallahassee	Randy Ray	106
Daytona Beach First	Tim Mann	103
Crestview, Lakeland	David Renfroe	100
Greater Little Rock, Pensacola	Lonnie Wesley	100
Palm Coast Community, Palm Coast	William L. Wight	100
Village, Destin	Steven A. Davies	100
East Brent, Pensacola	Dale A. Patterson.	100

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