Straining muscles baptizing no hardship for Daisetta pastor_101804

Posted: 10/15/04

Straining muscles baptizing
no hardship for Daisetta pastor

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DAISETTA–Kenny Rawls' ailment is the kind some Baptist preachers would boast about having. He strained muscles baptizing so many people.

In fact, he has baptized more than 10 percent of Daisetta's population in less than a year–118 people in a town of 1,100.

When Rawls first came to fill the vacant pulpit at First Baptist Church of Daisetta two years ago, his family of five comprised one-third of the worshippers. By the time the church called him as pastor about five months later, attendance had grown to just under 40.

“But they still had the faith to call a full-time pastor, not knowing if they could pay one,” he recalled.

And Rawls had enough faith to accept the call to his first pastorate, even though he knew his family would have to make a significant change in their lifestyle.

“We didn't really have a game plan other than to love the people and pray for God's guidance,” he said.

While the church was on a gradual growth trend, baptizing 17 in 2003, its real turn-around came when it adopted the FAITH evangelism strategy last January. At a kickoff event for FAITH training, Rawls expected a couple of people to enlist immediately. Instead, 40 people signed up. Thirty completed the training and began to share their faith in the community.

FAITH uses Sunday school as an organizational tool for evangelistic outreach.

“It was overwhelming. That was a major turning point for our church. When people catch the vision of what God is doing, look out,” Rawls said.

The FAITH teams worked so well, 45 people had been baptized by the end of August.

In September, the Heaven's Gate and Hell's Flames evangelistic drama team came to Daisetta. While First Baptist Church had grown to an attendance of about 120, the congregation still was smaller than most of the churches where the drama is performed.

“It cost us about $3,800 to bring them here, and we spent probably another $1,500 on advertising. That's a lot for our little church. It's also something where you could get a pastor fired,” he said, chuckling. “It was a risk.”

It seemed even riskier when Rawls talked to other pastors who had invited the production to their churches. They told him the event sparked a large number of decisions, but few lasting commitments.

But Rawls had seen the Heaven's Gate production while he was singles minister at Calvary Baptist Church in Beaumont years before, and he thought it might be what Daisetta needed.

“Our FAITH teams had been out on the streets and had met a lot of people who just wouldn't be reached without something like this,” he said.

During the four-day production, 1,053 people came to the church, and 253 made professions of faith in Jesus Christ and 90 rededicated their lives.

“And what's neat is that they came back,” Rawls said. The Sunday following the dramatic event, members and guests packed the church's sanctuary. When pews filled, ushers brought in extra chairs, and people stood along the walls until 308 people made their way in.

Part of the reason so many came back to the church on Sunday may have been an innovation First Baptist used in conjunction with the dramatic production.

Rawls said 83 people made professions of faith in Christ the first night of the drama, and many made inquiries about baptism.

The church's baptistery was used in the production, so it was unavailable for baptisms. But after the pastor mentioned the situation to a church member, the layman arranged for a portable swimming pool to be on the church lawn a few hours later. The local fire department sent a pumper truck to fill the 5,000-gallon pool in time for services the second night. Some people saw the pool being filled and were baptized before the second service began.

Any teenagers baptized had to have permission from a parent on the premises or in writing. “We made sure all of these people knew what they were doing. We didn't leave out the stops of wanting to do this the proper way,” Rawls said.

He was proud of the people who showed up that night, not expecting to be baptized but did so in whatever they happened to be wearing. One woman was baptized in her business suit.

“How much courage does it take to get into the water in street clothes? That's bold,” he said.

While Heaven's Gate generally is aimed at a teenage audience, in Daisetta most of the people who made professions of faith were adults, including an 80-year-old grandfather.

“We were trying to get them to take their commitment to Christ one step further,” Rawls said. “Stepping into that pool one at a time and confessing Jesus as Lord was a little different than making a mass rush to the altar and then disappearing out the door a few minutes later. Maybe this made it a little more real.”

The additions have excited the congregation, he said. The hard part has been to expand the Sunday school leadership enough to accommodate all the new arrivals.

Space also presents a problem. Classes now meet in different corners of the sanctuary and in the pastor's office. But the congregation is too excited to mind any inconvenience.

“They're overjoyed. This is so far past my ability or any of our abilities. This is simply God,” Rawls said. “I can't even get my teeth around that we've baptized 118.”

The church is even revisiting plans to build a family life center as a place for youth to congregate. Twenty-three years ago, the church considered it and decided it was too expensive. New excitement has brought the idea again to the forefront.

The church's sign in its front lawn sums up Rawls' feeling about everything that is happening in the church that held only a few more than a dozen people not long ago. It simply says, "WOW!"