THE CHURCH
Campbellsburg Baptist Church in Campbellsburg, Kentucky
THE CHALLENGE
A rural church faces dwindling attendance.
ONE BIG IDEA
Have older church members start evangelizing through letter writing.
Following the pandemic, many attendees didn’t come back to Campbellsburg Baptist Church in Campbellsburg, Kentucky, and those who did felt discouraged. The longtime multigenerational church was declining, and members were mostly seniors. It suddenly became clear that the only path forward would be reaching outside its own walls.
“[I’ve been encouraging members] to start being more outwardly focused to those in the community they don’t know and getting concerned about their relationship with God,” says Pastor Wes Brockway.
The rural church, located northeast of Louisville, is comprised mostly of people in their 70s. At age 70 himself, Brockway is their peer, but his decades in ministry have shown him the biblical importance of evangelism for a healthy church. But how to convince a church of older people who have spent their lives “doing church” a certain way that it’s time to do things differently?
“What I’ve done is try to present the heart of Jesus as the Bible shows us: to seek and save those who are lost,” Brockway explains. He started with the deacons as the catalyst for other members taking part, encouraging them to begin door-to-door gospel messaging around town.
But last Easter, he wanted to find a way to include more of the older seniors who might be more physically limited. Brockway gave them a script, some stationery and stamps, and asked them to personally write invitations to 10 people each. The church mailed out more than 200 of those handwritten letters.
“They jumped right on it,” he adds. “We found a way for all of our people to contribute to the growth of the church, rather than cast them aside. I wanted them to see that as long as they’re on this earth, God can use them. That was a real coalescing thing, I think, to involve everybody.”
Despite some initial resistance, the church culture is slowly starting to shift to one of outreach.
“[Members] love their church, and they want to do something, so I think we need to be creative in showing them how they can do ministry. It’s incumbent upon us leaders.”