SOMERSET, Ky. (BP) – The pastoral staff of Beacon Hill Baptist Church is four weeks into a weekly Bible study they lead at Pulaski County Detention Center. Eleven men—many of whom are new believers—have already been baptized.
GJ Farmer, senior pastor of Beacon Hill, said they built toward the June 17 baptism service.
“The first week I taught on the prodigal son, forgiveness, and what repentance looks like. Then I taught on what baptism is and why we’re baptized. The third week I taught what the new life in Christ looks like, once we decide to follow Him.”
Baptism week he taught on Acts 2 and Peter’s sermon in Jerusalem about Jesus being Lord and Messiah.
“I explained to them that we repent and turn to Jesus, and then we show that we’ve done that through baptism.”
Some inmates had been waiting to get baptized and had not yet had an opportunity; others had never responded to the gospel, but wanted to make a decision “right then,” Farmer said.
The fruitfulness of faith professions follows Beacon Hill deciding to focus on a few cells at the jail instead of rotating through the whole population and going six to eight weeks between seeing the same group of men again.
“Our hope was to be able to really disciple those guys a little bit more and go more in depth, by meeting with the same ones every week,” Farmer said.
Beacon Hill is working toward providing a Bible to every inmate who wants one, and Farmer hopes to eventually establish a weekly Bible study for every cell. “That would be great,” he said.
And in addition to ongoing discipleship at the jail, Farmer hopes to connect the men to Beacon Hill or another local church once they’re released.
“I baptized a guy the other day, and as soon as he got out of the baptistry, he looked at me, he was like, ‘Man, I get out in October. I’d love to bring my wife and kids to your church,'” Farmer said.
The baptisms at Pulaski County Detention Center are part of a larger revival the Lord is working at Beacon Hill.
“After Covid, our church baptized like five or less people a year, for several years,” Farmer said. “And when I came into the church [in January 2024], one of the things that kept going through my mind was the potential we had, because I knew that given us following the mission that Jesus gave and everybody jumping on board, I knew we could reach more people than that.”
Including the 11 men baptized on Tuesday, Beacon Hill is on track to see around 40 people baptized for this reporting year of the KBC’s annual church profile.
“It’s kind of become a little bit of a joke at church where people are like, ‘Well, who are we baptizing next this week?'” Farmer said. “It all came just from our church getting serious about reaching people…I think, really, when we take that mission that [Jesus] gave us seriously, a lot of times we can see God do way more than we ever expected.”
Beacon Hill has also seen more people who have been nervous about attending church, disenfranchised or previously hurt by a congregation come to weekly services.
“When they realize they’re going to be loved and we preach Jesus, and that it’s not what they expect, then what we’ve seen is that those people are coming and then inviting more people,” Farmer explained.
And then those who have been at Beacon Hill for years have gotten excited about community members making decisions and started inviting even more people.
“Literally the last three weeks, I’ve received random phone calls from people not connected to our church who have reached out to somebody in our church…and they’ve said, ‘Hey, I want to be saved and can I talk with your pastor?'” Farmer added. “I’ve been on the phone a couple of different times talking to random people I don’t even know, leading them to the Lord because of our church connecting with people, and it’s just been amazing to see.”
Farmer said there hasn’t been an overall master plan—just obedience.
“We have just followed the direction we felt like the Lord was leading us, and here we are.”
This story first appeared in Kentucky Today.
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