At Palmetto Pointe Church of God in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, baptism isn’t a once-a-quarter thing, or even a once-a-month thing. It’s an every-single-Sunday, every-single-service thing. A year and a half ago, Palmetto Pointe moved out of a small rented space and into its own larger theater-style auditorium facility. The church recombined its four services into one large one (they’ve since switched back to two as they’ve continued to grow), and they’ve chosen to offer not just a call to salvation, but an offer of baptism after every single service.
“We offer for people to be baptized immediately, very similar to the book of Acts, and people are being baptized every single week,” explains Lead Pastor Jamie Barfield. “It’s been something that’s really created a buzz inside of our church and an excitement around seeing people give their lives to Christ. There’s transformation that’s happening inside of our church, and when people see that and celebrate with them, it creates excitement that makes people want to invite their friends to it. It makes people want to pull in people in their life who they know need this moment to see what God can do inside of them as well.”
Angie Johnson-Cagle has been a member of Palmetto Pointe for 16 years, almost as long as the church has existed. She’s been there to witness just about every phase of the church’s growth and development, but what’s been taking place in the past year and a half has taken the church to new places.
“It has been unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” she exclaims. “It makes me emotional just thinking about how many people have flooded the doors over the last year and a half to two years. When new people are coming in, it’s so much more than a visitor here. We love people, we want people to become family, we want people to stay. We want to do life with people. And I believe people feel the love of Jesus when they walk in.”
The baptisms are a visual representation of the transformation that comes from that love.
“Transformations are happening literally every week right before our eyes,” Johnson-Cagle testifies. “It truly is incredible. And people hear about it through word of mouth. We actively invite people to come to church. We ask them to come into what’s happening here. And we share it on social media. And when we are actively inviting, it does create excitement. I know that if I have a family member who doesn’t know Jesus, and all of this is happening in this place, I’m going to do everything I can do to get them here, because I know transformations are happening weekly.”
Palmetto Pointe relies on personal invitations from its members, but it doesn’t hurt that Myrtle Beach is a fast-growing city with lots of new transplants moving in all the time. That creates a sizeable pool of people to reach at constantly, which they make sure to do through both social media marketing and outreach at every community event possible, Barfield says.
“Our face is at everything,” he says. “We are sending volunteers to every community thing we can. We love outreach, we love being in and a part of the community and trying our best to shine a positive light on what the church is actually doing for the community around us.”
And when a church like Palmetto Pointe maintains an active, positive presence in its community while simultaneously creating opportunities for transformative life change that is visible from the stage each week, it’s no surprise word has hit the streets that something different is happening within those four walls, and people want a taste of it.
“God has been doing some unique things with baptism inside of our ministry,” Barfield proclaims.