“If you feel you’ve been born into a life, a circumstance, or situation that has left you hopeless, this is where you want to be,” Justin Garrett, Discipleship and Outreach Coordinator of the Broad River Baptist Association, said. “We will introduce you to a Savior that will offer you hope that is everlasting.” 

The event that Garrett is talking about is the Love Your City Community Celebration Service, an annual event involving the uniting of local churches to share the hope of Christ with their communities. 

“Our services had always been geared towards gathering churches from our association as well as churches from other denominations to be unified in worshipping our Savior and proclaiming the Gospel,” Garrett said.

For the fourth year of the event, though, Garrett felt the Lord pressing to do something different than before. They came up with the strategy, “Pray for One, Invite One, Bring One.” This created strategic emphasis on praying for lost people by name, sharing the Gospel with them, and inviting them to the Love Your City event. 

Each church was encouraged to put up a visual board displaying the names of the individuals being prayed for by name. This was to serve as a reminder of their commitment to pray for the lost. Churches were also encouraged to partner with other local churches to host prayer events in preparation of the annual Love Your City service.

The night of the event, over forty churches were represented. Jon Reed, President of Georgia Baptist Evangelists, preached a message on the disciple Judas. “Jon challenged our understanding of what it means to truly follow and surrender your life to Jesus rather than just being associated with Jesus’ ministry,” Garrett said.

At the end of the message, Garrett said the front of the room was full of those responding to the Word that had been preached. Praise God for the faithfulness of these churches and associations to bring the Gospel to their communities!

Upcoming events such as this one can be found by visiting your local association’s website or social media page. A list of associations can be found at scbaptist.org/associations.