Archive: Conversions Spell Real Growth

North Georgia Conference gets back to the basics in evangelism.

by Gus Gustafson, Executive Director, Georgia Laity Board of Renewal

The evangelism thermometer in the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church keeps going up and up.

An observation by a Dunwoody, Georgia, layman helps explain this upward trend. Speaking from a background of being a high official in one of the nation’s large chemical companies, corporate merry-go-round living in many parts of the U.S., and a life-long Methodist, he said: “I’m glad to see the United Methodist Church get back to basics.”

Quizzing him, I discovered that he was referring to an experience in his local church, the Kingswood UM Church. Then, this explanation:

“I had just about dropped out of the church until we moved here. My wife happened to get into the Ichthys Sunday School Class. She told me about the excitement of that group. I tried it out.

“There I heard talk about commitment to Jesus Christ. People were sharing what He does in their lives. Christ was held out as a resource for everyday living. That kind of experience put me back on the track; it made my faith come alive. That’s what I call ‘back-to-basics.’ ”

Encouraged by Bishop Joel D. McDavid, “back-to-basics” is catching on all across Georgia Methodism. Last fall he held seven evangelism rallies, four in North Georgia and three in South Georgia Conferences. In North Georgia, they were attended by 1,513 preachers and key lay people involved in evangelism. These North Georgia rallies are being followed up by District Evangelism Seminars for preachers.

Dr. Hoyt Purcell, evangelism staff member on the Conference Council of Ministries, reports that seminars already have been held in six districts. Two more are on the calendar and four yet to be scheduled this year. Presently he is working on church growth with 15 different congregations ranging from small rural to large metro.

The results of evangelism efforts in North Georgia are impressive. Over the last three years of record, 1978-1980, there are net gains in every category of church growth. Transfers to and from other UM churches showed a net gain of 4,062; to and from other denominations a new gain of 4,947; and an important 2,697 net gain of confessions of faith (historically, conversions) after subtracting charge conference removals. After deducting loss by deaths, it all adds up to a total net gain of 1,766 members in 1980 and 3,745 for the three years.

What’s back of this steady surge of evangelistic effort in North Georgia? Answers to the question vary. One of the first offered is the succession of evangelism-minded bishops, first Bishop William R. Cannon and now Bishop McDavid.

Looking at North Georgia Conference records, it becomes clear that generally a church with a number of confessions of faith is a growing church. By and large, the growing church will show a 25 to 50 percent growth, resulting in confessions of faith. Across the conference, growing churches outstrip the losers 320 to 210, with 80 showing no gain or loss.

Another answer, which may surprise some, is excited lay people. This encouraging answer means that more and more preachers are inspired by what they see Christ doing in their own lives and in the lives of people around them. This enthusiasm spreads from the pastor and catches on. One person summed it all up by saying, “The Holy Spirit is moving.”

Gary Fuller, teacher of the 100-member Ichthys class of Kingswood UM Church, illustrates: “I feel the Lord has called me to serve Him through the United Methodist Church. He uses me to teach. He blesses my effort in helping strengthen His Body, the Church.”

One minister gives this encouraging answer:

“Our lay people spread the Good News to others out in the community, bringing unchurched people into the fellowship of our church.” Those words describing the aroused spirit of large numbers of North Georgia laity come from Grafton Pressley, pastor of the Norcross First UM Church. In 1980 they led the conference with 80 people added on confession of faith, a big 44 percent of their net growth of 180 in 1980. Confessions of faith are one of the big sources of Norcross’ four-year record of growth from 922 in 1978 to 1600 by the end of January 1982!

“Only 15 out of our 80 came from our church school. We need to increase this number, but the rest are unchurched youth and mostly adults of various ages coming from the ‘highways and byways’ of life,” explains Pressley.

“Unless we bring into our fellowship people who were uncommitted to Jesus Christ,” Pressley continues, “we are pretty much playing a church game of musical chairs where people simply change seats from one church to another. This is not expanding the Body of Christ. The bottom line of our ministry is real growth.

“And, that’s why I’m so strong on the small caring groups we have in our church. Meeting in the homes throughout the community and in the church, they are the power cells for bringing in the unchurched and assimilating them into our fellowship.”

Then comes his exclamation point: “We have a well-organized visitation program—and it’s important—but that’s not the source of the bulk of our growth. It comes from those joyful, small-group people telling their friends at work, in the neighborhood, at the party, or in the marketplace about their discovery of a life-support system; yes, even life-lifting. That’s how the unchurched find their way into our Body and to the altar.”

“We support our out-in-the-world missioners with warm and available worship services and Sunday school classes. We now have three Sunday morning services and two church school sessions, with 15 adult classes. This gives us a current average of 800 total for the three celebrations and 600 in Sunday school, all steadily moving upward. Then, too, we have a Sunday evening gathering with attendance of 150-200. At every service, the entire congregation warmly shares in a close-knit family-of-God feeling. All this is reflected in our budget. For 1982 we budgeted $357,000; pledges totaled $390,000. In January ’82 we received $10,000 over our budgetary requirements.”

Norcross First Church started their plans for accelerating small group ministries early in 1979. Spearheading their program, they put on a Discipleship Celebration weekend, a program offered by the UM Board of Discipleship. At the close of the weekend 53 adults and 19 youth made commitments to Christ and a program of discipleship. Their “power cells” came alive. Within two weeks after the celebration, nine caring groups were begun.

Sardis UM Church in the Gainesville district, and numerous other churches that could be spotlighted, attest that the sweeping spirit of evangelism is not limited to urban churches. So-called smaller churches, including country churches, are barely touched.

Dennis Duncan, chairman of the Administrative Board of Sardis UM Church, a country church between Buford and Gainesville, reports, “For as long as I can remember, we were a church on a two-point circuit. Our membership hung around 85. Back in 1978, encouraged by Wallace Wheeles, our pastor at that time, we held a Lay Witness weekend. That got us started, and new people came. Reconciliation within the church took place. Relationships were healed. People were born again. Many renewed their commitments to Christ. Out of it, our membership and church attendance grew. Our faith was recharged and we got busy for the Lord.”

Then he sums up the good news: ‘Today our membership is 130 and 65 percent of our members attend regularly. We now have our own pastor and have built a new parsonage. We’re a joyful church, praising the Lord for the way He’s using us in building His Church.”

It was my privilege to coordinate the Sardis ’78 Lay Witness Mission. Out of it comes this vibrant experience: Friday night of the mission, Mrs. Veda Buffington and her two children attended. They were unchurched, in fact, rather anti-church. Out of curiosity, they came after hearing something unusual was going on at Sardis. On Saturday night Veda brought her husband, Bob. Sunday the family was at the altar responding to the call, “I will give as much of myself as I can to as much of God as I understand.”

Two years later I received a phone call: ‘This is Bob Buffington. Remember me? I’m now Chairman of our Council of Ministries. Our church would like to have a Venture in Discipleship weekend. [Another program offered by UM Board of Discipleship.] Could you come back and coordinate it?”

Sardis, pulsating with new life, will soon go the next mile in their renewal and discipleship experience.

Norcross and Sardis are only two of scores of churches using Lay Witness programs to launch spiritual growth. In 1977, the UM Board of Discipleship (BOD) scheduled only four lay missions in Georgia. The number has steadily increased to 40 in 1981! Vance Archer of BOD reports that over 60 Georgia churches recently requested information on lay renewal programs. Winds of renewal are blowing in North Georgia.

Bishop McDavid, a booster for Lay Witness weekends, as well as all forms of lay involvement for church outreach, says, “Lay renewal is at a high level all across Georgia. It does much to power the evangelistic thrust.”

This is especially true among men in the North Georgia Conference. Ken Weatherford, National President of the United Methodist Men comments, “North Georgia United Methodist Men are on the move, evangelistically. They witness in their homes, work, church, and mission/work teams. The number of first-time commitments to Jesus Christ among North Georgia UMM grows year after year.”

North Georgia United Methodist Men’s annual retreat attracted 1,700 in 1981. Moved by great evangelistic preaching, from the Bishop, Charles Allen, Cornelius Henderson, Mark Rutland, and other inspired leaders, more than 300 men made first-time commitments to Jesus Christ.

The North Georgia UM Men adopted a budget of over $95,000 to support their work. This includes 15 or more planned mission/witness work teams going to Mexico, Guyana, Haiti, Antigua, and possibly British Honduras. Also, they are sending and supporting a full-time missionary couple to Mexico. From this retreat experience the renewed men fan out across North Georgia, infectiously spreading the enthusiasm of their faith throughout the conference. “The sharp increase in the number of people received on confession of faith (after deducting removals)—going from 512 in 1978 to 1,311 in 1980—is the most exciting thing on the evangelism front in North Georgia,” says Bishop McDavid. “Camp meetings, Lay Witness weekends, revivals, the Men’s Retreat, and more and more local church ministers are reporting new and renewed commitments to Jesus Christ. In my book, that’s the church’s first priority. It’s evangelism!

“We have a long way to go,” the Bishop cautions, “but we’re off to a good start. We believe that’s ‘back-to-basics,’ as described by the Kingswood layman. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Editor’s Note: Hearing about the evangelistic happenings in the North Georgia Conference, we asked Gus Gustafson, author of forthcoming book, I Was Called … To Be A Layman, being published by Abingdon, to give us a report. Gus is a North Georgia layman, delegate to the 1980 General Conference, Executive Director of Georgia laity Board of Renewal, Lay Witness coordinator, District Lay Leader, and Chairman of Evangelism in his local church. Rejoice with us about this good news on evangelism in North Georgia.