POWELL, Wyo. – Bill Harvison was called as pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Powell (now Victory Baptist Church) two weeks before the COVID pandemic hit in 2020.
When the church regathered a couple of months later, the congregation began to realize God had work for them to do for His kingdom. A team of seven members formed a “what should we do?” committee.
“We knew we wanted to be more effective in reaching people for Christ,” Harvison told Baptist Press.
The committee looked at the research, examined the town’s demographics and even did some polling around Powell, a town with a population of about 6,600 in northwestern Wyoming, 75 miles southeast of Yellowstone National Park.
That resulted in some updates, such as changing the church’s name and updating the worship style, from traditional hymns to “contemporary hymns that are rich in spiritual truth,” the pastor said. The worship team today consists of piano, drums and a rotating team of four vocalists.
“We’ve only become Victory Baptist Church in the last 18 months,” Harvison said. “That’s something the committee came up with. We had to rebrand, and to get our new name out. Now we’ve got the same people, but we’re moving forward in a new light with a new name so we can continue to thrive.
“We know prayer is the first and most important thing,” the pastor continued.
Baptisms, which totaled 15 during Harvison’s first four years, jumped to 10 in 2025 alone, “as the revitalization kicked into high gear,” the pastor continued.
The congregation began to trend younger. A family of six joined. The pastor is mentoring a 20-something once a week to “talk about life, what it means to be a Christian and move forward in his faith.”
About 40 people from the congregation of about 75 are in one of five life groups that mostly meet in homes. “We call them life groups because they live life together,” Harvison said. “They learn and study and grow in Christ as a family and in an every-day setting, experience what the Christian life looks like.”
Victory Powell for several years hosted a Halloween “warming hut” ministry with chili and hot chocolate for those going around the neighborhood on Oct. 31, and a weekly hot meal for locals in need called Open Table. One group, led by member Roena Halbur, still meets at the church every week to make quilts for veterans.
But major illness and deaths have beset the congregation over the last year or more, so local ministries for the most part – such as Victory Powell’s TeamKid ministry that met for years after school Tuesday afternoons – are on hold until next fall, Halbur told Baptist Press.
Mission teams each summer from First Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky., lead in well-attended summertime VBS and sports camp ministries that consist of several sports for younger kids – soccer, baseball, basketball and more – “to see what they like,” the pastor said.
Victory Powell helps sponsor the Rendezvous Church plant in Pinedale, Wyo., and previously helped with a church plant in Evanston, Wyo., and in Red Lodge, Mont.
“We are going to Pinedale this summer for the Fourth of July celebration there,” Harvison said. “I try to support as many church plants in Wyoming as we can. We’re going to pick up a fourth one in the fall. Byron, Wyo., 12 miles east of Powell. We support one at a time for two years.
“Church plants is what brought us from Mississippi to Montana 15 years ago,” the Powell pastor continued. “I see the importance of planting churches in rural, small, isolated towns. I want to support those church planters as much as we can.”
In addition to generous seasonal offerings, Victory Powell has at least since 1980 given 10 percent to missions through the Cooperative Program, and before the pandemic, more than that.
“We have very generous people who love to support missionaries and the Cooperative Program,” Harvison said. “They just give, always have, even before I got here.
“I was not raised Southern Baptist,” the pastor continued. “When I came to know the Lord and got involved in Southern Baptist churches and saw how CP works, how the little bit I gave in my tithe literally went around the world to spread the Gospel, I thought, ‘This is powerful!’
“As Southern Baptists, we get the leadership we have in the Executive Committee, the educational opportunities from our seminaries, and we have Lifeway curriculum. SBC publications help our churches keep us aware of missions opportunities, places to go and to reach people with God’s Gospel.”
Demographic studies have shown “Powell is 90 percent lost,” the pastor said. “That’s 5,400 potential people who don’t know Jesus. It’s God’s design for people to come to know the Lord, and we can only know Him through Jesus Christ. We all need to be sharing the Gospel, the good news of God’s unconditional love and presence no matter what life throws at you.”
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