What began on March 1 as a regular Sunday service at Bethlehem Church in Georgia quickly became a day that few who were present will forget. By the time the waters stilled, exactly 400 people had been baptized across all three campuses. Lead pastor Jason Britt said 13 baptisms were planned, and 387 more followed in response to the invitation.
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Britt said he was preaching a series on the Holy Spirit, titled “Familiar Stranger.” The series focused on what Britt called “the person, power and presence of the Holy Spirit,” and he knew he would close with the description in Acts 2 of the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost.
As he prepared the message, Britt sensed the Lord leading him not only to preach repentance and faith, but to call people to immediate obedience in baptism. “I felt prompted, and I read it with fresh eyes. It says, ‘Repent and be baptized,’ and I felt like the Holy Spirit pressed that on me.”
That invitation led to many of those in attendance coming forward in their street clothes for the unplanned act of obedience. “People didn’t want to leave,” Britt said. “The 9 a.m. service went into the 11 a.m. service. Services were an hour and a half to two hours. Parking lots were packed.”
Only adults were baptized, Britt added, noting that children at Bethlehem complete a separate faith class before being baptized.
At the church’s main campus, baptisms continued until just before the next service began.
The spontaneous scene of people coming forward was repeated in the 11 a.m. service as more people stepped forward after the next message and invitation. Some had been watching online, Britt said, and then got in their cars to come in person. Others watched the early service, then returned later.
‘Fresh awakening’
Britt said he was struck with the realization that spiritual fruit cannot be produced or scheduled by man. “We didn’t plan 400 baptisms,” he said. “I can’t manufacture or manipulate life change. Only the Spirit can do that.”
Reflecting on reports of a wider move of God, Britt said he is confident that something is stirring. “I don’t want to jump out and say ‘revival,’ but I do think there’s a fresh awakening,” he said. “It’s hard to talk about revival until you look back. In the Great Awakening, they didn’t know they were in what we now call the Great Awakening — they just knew God was doing something.”
Britt said the moment was a reminder that spiritual renewal, for the individual as much as for the church, is tied to obedience. “We can’t control the fruit,” Britt said. “We can control our faithfulness.”
That conviction is what Britt hopes others take away from this moment. “Be faithful to what you’re called to,” he said. “God is still in the life-changing business.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Henry Durand and originally published by the Christian Index.
