[1]BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Hillvue Heights Church [2] will celebrated a remarkable milestone Sunday (May 24) — the church’s 15,000th baptism during the 35 years that Steve Ayers has served as pastor.
Yes, 15,000 baptisms.
Ayers, 62, who came to Hillvue Heights in 1991, quickly redirects any praise away from himself or the church staff. He says the staggering number has everything to do with people sharing the Gospel.
“We say the same thing all the time, people eventually are going to get it,” Ayers said. “It’s the people, not a system, not a program. The heart of it is our people have become convinced they don’t want their friends in hell and they share the Gospel.”
At Hillvue Heights, when someone comes to salvation, baptism is presented as the beginning of the Christian journey with Jesus.
“It’s taught very clearly at Hillvue that baptism is the beginning,” Ayers said. “We start with water; we end with a trumpet. We will all hear the trumpet whether dead or alive.”
The friend or family member who shared the Gospel with the new believer is often the person who performs the baptism. That culture of intentional evangelism has fueled dramatic growth in baptisms over the years. Ayers said the church has already baptized 741 people this fiscal year, with the 1,000 mark well within reach.
And once someone is baptized, Ayers said they are not simply added to a church roll and forgotten. Instead, the people who led them to Christ help disciple them and encourage their spiritual growth.
[3]“We’ve had more different people baptize people than any other year,” Ayers said. “When they baptize their friends, we’ve learned along the way, that’s been one of the biggest deals because they disciple them. They worry about them being in church, so they connect them with a new believer’s class, and they walk with them on the journey.”
That investment comes naturally, Ayers said, because people genuinely love the friends and family members that they have shared the Gospel with.
“I don’t believe baptism is a requirement for salvation,” he said. “It’s a verification and sealing in the life of salvation. We ordain baptism and the bread and cup. We have communion every Sunday. Baptists have different traditions. I’m the Sandy Creek Revival edition of Baptist life.”
It has been years since a service at Hillvue Heights did not include a baptism. Ayers recalled one Sunday when no baptism had been scheduled, and associate pastor Jamie Ward commented on how unusual that felt.
“Then, during the invitation, six people came forward to be saved and wanted to be baptized,” he said.
The church has conducted so many baptisms that it literally wore out one of its baptistries.
“This is a cool story,” said Ayers. “We had to replace the baptistry because we can’t gel-coat it again. Hillvue has literally worn out a baptistry.”
Ayers said he has also noticed a significant shift in the age of people coming to Christ and being baptized.
“I’m just blown away by it,” he said. “These are 20-somethings, 10 to 25 years old, that sector of people have a different resonating with the Spirit right now. I’ve never seen it in my ministry, the young people saying, ‘I want God to form my life.’”
Hillvue Heights intentionally reaches into the community with the Gospel in numerous ways, and Ayers said baptisms naturally follow when people actively share their faith.
He has even seen it happen in his own family.
His 9-year-old grandson, Tucker, regularly talks about Jesus at school and tells his friends they need salvation. Tucker’s younger brother Rhett, 7, heard so much about Jesus from Tucker that he came to faith and asked Tucker to baptize him because no one had shared Jesus with him more consistently. Last year, at Hillvue’s ‘Godstock’ event, brother baptized brother. Ayers said Tucker became the youngest person ever to participate in a baptism at Hillvue.
Ayers also believes a life-changing event 10 years ago helped strengthen the church’s ministry. The pastor suffered burns over 60 percent of his body when the back of a houseboat exploded, threatening his life.
The crisis, Ayers said, forced church leaders to step forward, which strengthened the ministry.
“Our elders, everybody, developed. We’ve got real elders. We’ve got men of God. Seven of our elders could pastor a 500-member church with ease because of their leadership and teaching ability. They believe in seeing people come to know Jesus. They are focused on people coming to the Lord in a deacon meeting. We are every ordinary people who love Jesus.”
That, Ayers said, is how 15,000 baptisms can happen — not just at Hillvue Heights, but anywhere believers are committed to sharing the Gospel. The church sets annual baptism goals and continues to raise expectations year after year.
He said he learned valuable lessons as a teenager from evangelist Don Mathis.
“I was 19 knowing the Lord wanted to use me in ministry. It was an evangelism conference. Don Mathis looked at me and said, ‘Young man, whenever you preach the Gospel, you need to trust the Word of God and expect somebody to be saved.’ Every time I’ve given an invitation, I expect somebody to be saved. The Holy Spirit used Don Mathis to give me that truth.”
Ayers said churches should be intentional and accountable in their outreach efforts.
“People oppose goals and get upset about baptism goals because they said it hinders the sovereignty of God. That goal is there for the disobedience of my flesh. God wants a lot more than my goal, but it keeps my flesh accountable.”
Ayers insists there is no secret formula behind Hillvue Heights’ baptism growth over the past 35 years.
Instead, he says, it simply comes down to ordinary people sharing the greatest story ever told with the people they love most.
This article originally appeared in Kentucky Today [4].
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