The post below are the recent reflections of Irma Duke, a core leader of the Baptist Fellowship of Angier, on their new church’s first baptismal service.

“It wasn’t the Jordan River but it could have been.  It was that kind of high and holy experience.

We, the Baptist Fellowship of Angier, had our first baptismal service at Jordan Lake in August.  We started in a low-income area of Angier, NC, three years ago, feeling the call to reach out across cultural lines to the poor and neglected with ministry as our focus.  One of the first visitors to our church was a nine-year-old Hispanic boy who brought a knife to church!

Fast forwarding to three years later, that nine-year-old is a 12-year-old and he is being baptized by his mentor, a Campbell University student who has tutored him, has been a mentor to him, and has walked beside him through a number of crises in his family.  Alongside him are his older sister and her mentor, a Campbell Divinity student; and one of the 12-year-old’s best friends and his mentor.

The service was planned for the three youth, but immediately following the worship service, an adult who had attended the service because of his connection to one of the youth, accepted Christ and asked to be baptized.  He was baptized by the Divinity School’s new dean, Dr. Andy Wakefield.

This experience describes this new church’s ministry, a core group of adults from the community who are encouraging and mentoring a group of university and divinity school students who are in turn encouraging and mentoring a group of at-risk youth and children, giving them hope for life on earth and beyond.  Through after-school tutoring throughout the week; Summer and Youth Clubs this past summer using five university interns (including two who were supported by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship); English-as-a-Second-Language classes, soccer clinics, clothes giveaways and a variety of other activities, God is bringing people to us who have never attended church and have no relationship to Jesus Christ.

In addition, the church has been privileged to send a missionary couple to Turkey.  Having missions and ministry as our focus and believing strongly in the priesthood of the believer, we do not have any paid staff and do not own a building.  Instead, we use supply preaching and share space with an Hispanic church, helping them to pay their mortgage.

It has not been easy but God has blessed us beyond measure.”