Baptist and Reflector
Pastor Jamie Work (with hand raised) of Candies Creek Baptist Church, Charleston, prepares to baptize the Ensley family in the Hiwassee River. The church has seen more than 100 professions of faith in Jesus Christ and recommitments this summer as a result of community outreach and a harvest revival.
CHARLESTON — In the fall of 2014 the Lord began to compel Candies Creek Baptist Church here to give themselves to a renewed emphasis on disciple-making for 2015, said Pastor Jamie Work.
He noted that ministry leaders and pastoral staff prayerfully planned the coming year around the theme of “Disciples Making Disciples: Reach, Teach, Equip, and Release.”
A team of the church’s pastors from both of Candies Creek’s campuses put together a “Disciple-Making Blueprint” designed to guide mature believers through a year-long process of discipling new, or soon-to-be, followers of Christ, Work said.
In the early part of this year, church members were asked to write the names of family members, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, neighbors, and relatives for whom the church could pray that they would experience spiritual transformation.
The names were written on a large, double-sided white board in the Worship Center during worship gatherings, Work said.
“Members were asked to make themselves available in 2015 to become a disciple willing to disciple those for whom the church was praying,” he continued. Everyone willing to become a discipler was given a copy of the Disciple-Making Blueprint, he added.
“As the summer months of ministry approached the church family began to pray that God would use their various ministry efforts to birth 100 or more commitments to Christ; either first time, or renewing, commitments to Christ,” Work said.
The summer efforts culminated in the church’s first-ever Sportsman’s Expo, followed by a four-day evangelistic Harvest Revival, both of which incorporated the ministry of full-time evangelist Morris Anderson of Maryville.
Between April and August, the church sent missions teams all over the nation and globe — Atlanta, Alaska, Kenya, Romania, Chicago, China, and Mongolia, Work said. Locally, the church sponsored its annual Vacation Bible School, Student Ministry Camp, and weekly outreach called Compelled to Action, he added.
“All the while the church family was seeking the Lord on behalf of those precious ‘names’ on the large, double-sided whiteboard,” Work said.
Before the Sportsman’s Expo and Harvest Revival even began the church had already seen 40 commitments to Christ, Work shared.
During the evangelistic efforts of the expo and revival the Lord added an additional 43 professions of faith and 15 recommitments to Christ, the pastor continued.
Since the conclusion of the Harvest Revival, an additional seven people have committed their lives to Christ, Work said.
The church held an afternoon, outdoor baptism in the Hiwassee River, on Sept. 13, baptizing 11 individuals. Other baptisms have already taken place and others are yet to be planned, he said. “All glory, honor, and praise belong to the Lord Jesus Christ for the great things He has done.”
