Small Mississippi Church Baptizes 59 After Revival Moves to College Theater
First Baptist Poplarville once drew few to its revivals. Now it closes each one at a 900-seat campus theater, and this summer it baptized 52 people in the parking lot on a single night.
See where this is ›POPLARVILLE, Miss. —
A small-town Mississippi church baptized 59 people in one week of revival this summer, many of them on a single night in the parking lot of a community college theater, The Baptist Record reported.
First Baptist Poplarville held its August revival with guest evangelist Ronnie Hill and worship leader Chris McDaniel. Six people were baptized one night in the church, and 52 more were baptized after the closing service at the Brownstone Theater on the Pearl River Community College campus. One more young man was baptized in the church baptistry the next Sunday, bringing the total to 59.
The college's president, Adam Breerwood, approved the parking-lot baptisms. The church used two 12-foot concrete troughs, and the Poplarville fire department filled them with water. Two coaches who are church members, Michael Avalon and Seth Smith, brought their teams to the meeting.
Pastor Kipp Smith has led the church for almost 10 years. When he came, it had about 80 members and was in decline, and its revivals in the church building drew few people and few decisions. Nearly six years in, the church moved the last night of revival to the Brownstone, which seats about 850 to 900. This summer was the third straight year it has closed revival there.
“God gave me a vision of First Baptist Poplarville doing an event at the Brownstone Theater,” Smith told the paper. The church counts about 250 to 300 people saved through its revivals over those years.
The church spent three weeks getting ready. It preached two Sundays on preparing for revival, held a worship and testimony night with members saved in past revivals, and began 24 hours of prayer the Friday before. A men's dinner drew more than 150 men, and a ladies' luncheon reached more than 100 women.
The revival week ran Saturday through Wednesday. It opened Saturday night with a “Men of Influence” dinner, continued with services Sunday morning and evening, Monday and Tuesday, and closed Wednesday night at the Brownstone. The whole Pearl River Community College football team and other athletes attended, the paper said, because the closing service was on their campus.
The revival was budgeted at $6,000 and cost about $13,000. A love offering of $7,000 covered the difference. “We had a vision to see people saved, and God took care of the financial part,” Smith said.
The church's story was first published by The Baptist Record, the paper of Mississippi Baptists, and was shared this month by Baptist Press and other state Baptist papers.
