Neal Butler said his church didn’t look unhealthy when they started a revitalization journey a few years back.

“We had over 100 people,” said Neal, pastor of Bower Memorial Baptist Church in Evergreen. “But we didn’t have a deep discipleship or evangelism effort going on.”

So he began meeting with Rob Jackson, director of evangelism and church revitalization at the State Board of Missions. They
worked on an evangelism plan, and Bower Memorial started a monthly outreach night where church members visited people they knew in the community.

Last year, Bower Memorial had 21 baptisms, up from three in 2022. One of those baptisms was a grandson led to faith by his grandmother during one of those visits.

“When the mindset changes to doing what Christ has called us to do, it changes the atmosphere of the church,” Neal said.

He asked Rob if he could help others in the same way, and now Neal is walking alongside Noah Phillips at Eutaw Baptist Church as they go through a revitalization process too.

“It meant a lot for Rob to come alongside me, and I wanted to be able to encourage other people in that too,” Neal said.