By Lindsey Carraway
Writing Specialist
Mississippi Baptists have done exceptionally well to send, support, and serve in overseas missions. Pastors continue to stay equipped for the task of preaching God’s Word and shepherding His flock with Spirit-led guidance and grace. The local church faithfully gives out invitations for every fall festival, Christmas cantata, Easter service, and summer Bible school, ready to welcome new and familiar faces.
But something has been missing in Mississippi Baptist churches that has hindered the ministry of the church. After mission trip volunteers return home, sermons come to a closing prayer, and decorations are stored, are we reaching our neighbor with the Gospel?
At the 2025 Mississippi Baptist annual meeting, a motion was raised to launch a task force aimed at assessing the current state of evangelism and baptisms in Mississippi Baptist churches. After a year of conducting surveys sent to every affiliated church in the state, the Evangelism Task Force gave a report at this year’s annual meeting Oct. 27.
Bo Rice, pastor of First Baptist Church, Brandon, served as chairman of the Evangelism Task Force. Judith Lyons, a member of Twin Lakes Baptist Church, Madison, and a clinical psychologist with extensive experience conducting survey research, was one of the contributors who volunteered to assist. Other contributors included David Haynes of First Baptist Church, Senatobia; Caleb Lewis of Faithview Baptist Church, Saucier; Collin Montgomery of First Baptist Church, Greenwood; Lloyd Sweatt of Meadowood Baptist Church, Amory; and David Williams of the Lincoln County Baptist Association.
Celebration
Through data collected from the Annual Church Profile (ACP), which SBC churches are asked to fill out every year, the Evangelism Task Force reported 9,306 baptisms in Mississippi Baptist churches in 2025. This is the highest number of baptisms since 2016 and is a milestone further celebrating five consecutive years of increased baptisms.
“God is moving,” said Rice, “and we get to be a part of the work that He has called us to do. He is working in our state and the seeds that we have planted are breaking through the soil.”
Concern
Although Mississippi Baptists have cause to celebrate, the data also gives rise to concern.
As the Evangelism Task Force corresponded throughout the year, two different surveys were developed, starting with one that went to the pastor of every Mississippi Baptist church. The Evangelism Task Force committed to be intentional in thoroughly reviewing churches of every size, in order to come to a fair conclusion of which churches, regardless of size, are reaching people for Christ.
When asked to rate their roles in the church, only 7% of the pastors surveyed rated evangelism as their top priority.
One of their questions from the start was, “Where do pastors spend most of their time?” Analyzing all the responsibilities of the average pastor, the majority — 55% — rated preaching as their number one focus. Only 7% of the pastors surveyed, however, indicated evangelism as their top priority.
“When it comes to the amount of work that it takes to be a pastor,” said Rice, “are we comfortable with the fact that evangelism is such a small slice?”
That question led to more concerning data. In the survey, the majority of pastors ranked their own passion for evangelism at a six out of 10.
“Here’s the sobering truth,” said Rice. “If evangelism is suffering in our churches, it’s not because we don’t care. It’s because evangelism is not built into how we actually spend our time.”
After analyzing results from the first survey, a second survey was sent to a select group of churches with a higher-than-average number of baptisms relative to their attendance numbers.
Lyons, who helped develop both surveys, summarized all the answers from the open-ended questions and carefully studied what the churches with higher baptisms might be doing differently.
“In my pre-retirement life,” said Lyons, “I would have had research assistants or interns to help categorize the responses so that the interpretation would not be skewed by one person’s biases. In this case, I was able to call upon AI to run its own summaries for comparison to mine. Then the rest of the task group looked over both types of summaries, as well as the individual pastor comments, to reach a consensus regarding the key points to present at the Convention.”
Challenge
“Two characteristics in the narrative responses distinguished the churches that had a high number of baptisms per attendee,” said Lyons. “First, they emphasize developing mature disciples who know what they believe and get practice until they are comfortable chatting with nonbelievers about faith issues as they go about daily life. Second, their outreach events are designed to create ongoing relationships as an evangelism lifestyle rather than one-time-contact events.”
In studying these churches of every size that are leading the way in evangelism, the task force found that any church could follow their example in just three simple steps:
- Implement a simple, repeatable evangelism model: Teaching a baseline Gospel presentation can help believers to begin somewhere as they study and internalize God’s Word on their own.
- The pastor should use his platform to encourage others to engage in Gospel conversations: Pastors can use their calling as a way to engage in Gospel conversations themselves, talk about their conversations regardless of the outcomes, and encourage and challenge members of the congregation individually and as a whole to engage in Gospel conversations.
- Celebrate Gospel conversations, not just outcomes: Churches that are leading the way in evangelism don’t just celebrate the decisions of faith and the baptisms; they also celebrate when someone shares their faith. What gets celebrated is what gets repeated.
When church staffs and congregations are encouraging each other to share their faith, a passion for evangelism takes root.
“The size of the church makes little difference when it comes to the ratio of worship attenders to baptisms,” said Rice. “A small congregation can reach its community just as effectively as a large one. We sometimes think that the large church has all the resources, all the tools, all the people, all the training to be able to lead people to Christ. Statistically, regardless of size, we all have the same opportunity and all that we need is to share the Gospel and see God use it for His glory.”
Looking back on her year serving as a part of the Evangelism Task Force, Lyons shared, “I was honored by the way the church experts — both pastors and Mississippi Baptist Convention staff — made it clear that my layperson input was valued.
“I was also deeply touched by the level of discouragement some pastors expressed in their survey responses as they struggle to mobilize their members to embrace a more active evangelism lifestyle. I now pray for pastors and churches with more insight and compassion than I did previously.”
As a result of the insights gained from the Evangelism Task Force, the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board created an evangelism resources website at resources.mbcb.org/evangelism. Churches can access free evangelism kits and video guides on how to share the Gospel to aid in effectively reaching their communities for Christ.
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