After a record year of baptisms last year, Hillvue Heights Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky, has exceeded that total by more than 100 this year.
The church will celebrate that kingdom work on Sunday, Aug. 31, with “Risen Sunday” — everyone who has been baptized in the past year is asked to wear a “Risen” shirt. “We will have baptisms Sunday, but it is mainly a day to celebrate what has happened this year,” said Jamie Ward, co-lead pastor.
“It’s a work of God,” he added. “Our people have more and more bought in on sharing the gospel with lost friends and family.”
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Ward said he and lead pastor Steve Ayers allow others to be included in the times of baptisms. “We always say the fewer we baptize the more the church baptizes. We let family members, co-workers and friends be involved — as long as they are a baptized believer.”
Risen Sunday will be the prelude to the church’s annual Godstock event, which is the weekend after Labor Day. It is weekend of praise, worship and baptisms at Barren River State Park.
There are services scheduled Friday and Saturday evenings as well as Sunday, and the weekend ends with a baptismal service at the lake. This will be the 32nd year for Godstock, which has had consistent growth and draws people from various states while others watch it online.
‘Preach the gospel’
“The biggest thing we do is preach the gospel,” Ward noted. “Every service people hear the gospel. We also challenge our people by telling them the whole mission of Jesus is to seek and save that which is lost. We tell our people that the great end run of discipleship is seeing people come to Christ. We walk with people and they share the gospel. Sometimes we forget that part of the end fruit of discipleship is seeing other people coming to Christ.”
The church wastes no time in equipping new believers to share the gospel. For our new believers, there is a big emphasis on that. “We tell them that their feet are in a world full of people who don’t know Christ, and we ask them who can they share Christ with.”
Hillvue Heights previous record of 745 baptisms last year eclipsed the previous high of 641 in 2019. With one Sunday left in the church’s fiscal year, there have been 846 baptisms, pushing the total baptized there to 14,260 since Ayers became the pastor in 1991. Ward has been on the church staff for 21 years.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Chip Hutcheson and originally published by Kentucky Today.
