SNELLVILLE, Ga. (BP)–“He preached on ‘The Old Time Religion’ and said things like, ‘Deacons, if you are not leading people to Christ, you are not right with God.’
“It scared some of our people to death. We lost around 300 people in the first month,” said associate pastor Chuck Allen of James Merritt’s initial weeks 12 years ago as pastor of 9,000-member First Baptist Church, Snellville, Ga.
“However,” Allen continued, “with the emphasis on soul-winning, we eventually began to see stretches of four and five months when we would average more than 40 decisions each Sunday.”
Sunday school attendance has increased from an average of 800 in 1985 to more than 3,200 as Merritt has led, taught and modeled how to become a soul-winning church through three key strategies: evangelism, Sunday school and dynamic worship.
Early in his pastorate, it was not uncommon for Merritt to make more than 100 visits per week. In his first year as pastor, he probably led more than 100 people to Christ.
The growth continues; in 1997, 805 people were baptized into the church.
“The pastor has also led the staff to become soul-winners,” Allen said. “In weekly staff meetings there is always talk about outreach, prospect visits that were made and the times during the week staff persons shared their faith. Because of Dr. Merritt’s modeling and this weekly emphasis, the church has developed a soul-winning staff who have trained soul-winning lay leaders.”
Each Tuesday night, church members focus on evangelism with weekly outreach/evangelism visitation. In the heart of metro Atlanta, Merritt, the staff and 250 others come to the church each week in what has become a way of life for the congregation.
Vacation Bible School has been and continues to be used as a key evangelistic strategy, with more than 2,000 children attending each summer’s VBS.
All of the major special emphases — pageants, Super Bowl parties, dinner theaters and concerts — are planned as evangelistic events.
Even so, the church’s most effective outreach/evangelism strategy is that the members invite their friends, neighbors and co-workers to come to church with them. With more than 150 visitors each week, it is estimated more than 90 percent of all first-time guests attend because a member invited them.
Of the pastor’s evangelistic passion, minister of education Ashley Clayton said, “Dr. Merritt is the greatest soul-winner I have ever visited with. He attends visitation. He leads people to Christ. He is excited about evangelism. He platforms people who are soul-winners, and they share their experiences.”
Every Sunday, soul-winning experiences are shared by laypeople in the worship services, and in Sunday school classes and on Tuesday nights at weekly outreach/evangelism visitation.
Merritt has written a tract, “Life’s Greatest Questions,” for leading people to Christ. An eight-week soul-winning training course based on the tract, “Contagious Christianity Training,” is continually taught. The staff’s motto: “If you can read this tract, you can lead someone to Christ.”
Concerning Sunday school, Clayton described the classes as “a microcosm of the church.”
He said he believes adults need Sunday school units/classes larger than four to six people, to create something in Sunday school complementary to the vibrant worship style they have experienced or will experience in the worship service.
Adults at First Baptist have moved from a department structure to a class structure. According to Clayton, there are two reasons for the change: “One is a practical reason. We are beyond the point of being able to provide space large enough for department settings. The second reason is a philosophical one. We have tried to define the role of the teacher as the leader of a group of people. Class members today have an identity with the teacher.”
Clayton explained adult Sunday school classes are encouraged to develop into one of three “styles of classes:”
“Intimacy classes are our smaller classes, typically averaging between 10 and 20 people in attendance,” he said. “They are a close-knit ‘family’ that ministers to one another and cares very deeply about each class member.
“Ministry classes are very large classes, running between 70 and 120 in attendance. A ministry class usually is a lecture class built around the strengths of the teacher. The church has five of these classes right now.
“Fellowship classes are the middle group,” Clayton said. “These classes are the growth agents of the Sunday school. They are characterized by great fellowship. People are easily welcomed into these classes. There is often a higher degree of turnover because adults may join this class and, six months later, find a place of service. These classes are great ‘open arms’ and ‘open doors’ for the church.”
Fellowship classes are the fastest-growing classes and start the greatest number of new units/classes.
How do teachers and students decide which style of class is best for them?
“The best thing we can do is describe and define the three different styles of classes,” Clayton said. “Then I ask a potential teacher, ‘Where do you see yourself?’ Without fail, the teacher looks across the desk, looks me right in the eyes and says, ‘That’s me right there.’
“For instance, one teacher may have a style and personality and giftedness that grows a class to more than 100. We start a new unit/class by taking 20 to 25 people out of this class. This teacher will always grow it back to more than 100. Each style maximizes the giftedness and strengths of the lay leaders. So, whether the classes are intimacy style or fellowship style or ministry style, they each make significant contributions to the Sunday school fulfilling its roles and/or functions.”
This may be a different approach than Southern Baptist educators have typically been taught, Allen acknowledged.
“Some say the perfect adult class has an enrollment of 25, with an attendance of 10 to 12. This isn’t wrong,” he said. “I am saying that there are stages in the life of a church when you have to be willing to get outside of the box. You can no longer do the things that you did to run 500 if you want to run 1,500. Our church cannot operate at 3,000 like it did at 2,000.”
Clayton added, “The truth is that this church was built upon the ‘box.’ In fact, many churches today are still operating very successfully by that philosophy. We need the box! At First Baptist, I have the privilege of getting to work with many more people; we have flexible schedules with three different Sunday school hours on Sunday morning and a broad base of people coming from different backgrounds with different personalities, strengths and giftedness. I have the opportunity to suggest doing things differently — things I couldn’t do in a smaller church.”
“In other words, to go from 2,000 to 3,000, we had to build another box, or build onto our existing box,” Allen said, emphasizing, “We still and always will emphasize the five functions of Sunday school: teaching, fellowship, ministry, vision and outreach.”
The third key strategy for growth at First Baptist has been the “front door” of “great worship.”
“I think lively, dynamic worship begins the moment people drive into the parking lot,” Allen observed, “with how they were greeted, how they were escorted to the worship service, how they were received in worship and how much they could participate without feeling excluded. And then, did they hear, in that worship experience, something that would make a difference in their lives?
“I think the vast majority of Americans want to rally around hard lines and need and want to hear somebody from the pulpit say this is sin, this is not. If you sin, you will pay this price. If you walk with God, you can expect these results.
“The only way I came to understand that I was lost was when I understood that it was my sin that caused me to be separated. I don’t think you can understand that apart from confrontation.
“This is what happens in our worship experiences,” Allen said. “We have fun in our worship services. We feel God is alive. We don’t swing from the rafters, but our worship is lively.”
