Arkansas Church Down to About 20 Members Draws 110 to First Service After Lonoke Baptist Replant
Trinity Chapel Baptist Church in Carlisle, Ark., closed in August; Lonoke Baptist Church reopened it in October as The Chapel, a second campus that has averaged about 100 people a week.
See where this is ›CARLISLE, Ark. —
A small Baptist congregation in Carlisle, Ark., that had dwindled to about 20 people has a new start as a campus of Lonoke Baptist Church, Arkansas Baptist News reported Nov. 5. The first service at the new campus, called The Chapel, drew 110 people.
See where this is ›Trinity Chapel Baptist Church closed in August, and Lonoke Baptist opened The Chapel at the same site in October. The next week's service drew more than 120, and attendance averaged more than 100 over the first three weeks. Worship is at 9:30 a.m. Sundays, and leaders are looking at ways to add Sunday school.
The idea began more than a year ago, when Senior Pastor Reid Terry told Chris McCarty, associational missionary strategist for the Caroline Baptist Association, that Lonoke Baptist was growing and that some members drove in from Carlisle and Hazen. Terry asked McCarty to let him know if a door opened in those towns.
When Trinity Chapel went looking for a new pastor, McCarty began helping the church through SmartStart, an Arkansas Baptist interim ministry for churches after a pastor leaves. He came to believe the congregation would struggle to find a pastor and revive on its own, and he suggested a replant as a second campus of Lonoke Baptist. Trinity Chapel's members voted for the plan unanimously. “The location has a history, but the future has a purpose,” Terry said.
Lonoke Baptist used One Day, the yearly Arkansas Baptist outreach, to launch the campus with a block party, a pumpkin patch and hayrides, hoping families would come back for worship the next morning. The campus kept the Chapel name. Chris Furnell, a Lonoke Baptist member who has preached at churches around the area, is campus pastor, and about 30 people from the main campus help run it.
Several former Trinity Chapel members took part in the replant, and some are joining the new campus. “To see their tears, their smiles... They're just so excited to see their church have new life,” Terry said.
McCarty said the work shows the local church, the association and the state convention working together. Terry asked for prayer for chances to reach Carlisle residents who are not in church, and for more volunteers and staff.
