WEST POINT, Ky. (KT) – GracePointe Baptist Church moved Sunday’s service to the Ohio River and the result was a tidal wave of celebrations and emotions.
Thirty-seven baptisms and 31 professions were part of a Super Sunday that had Pastor Mark Bishop still beaming Monday afternoon after a day to remember.
More than 1,000 people gathered for Church by the River, including “hundreds of visitors,” the pastor said. An estimated 200 visitors were there along with regular church members from GracePoint and Beechland, the two churches that Bishop pastors.
An estimated 1,000 people attended a combined worship service of GracePointe and Beechland Baptist churches Sunday morning at Veterans Memorial Park in West Point, Kentucky. The churches gave away more than 75 visitor gift bags and provided lunch for everyone in attendance. (Kentucky Today/Robin Cornetet)
“Hundreds of visitors, people saved, and the baptismal waters were definitely stirred,” he said
Church on the River was a six-month undertaking, and it took dozens of volunteers to pull it off. The churches paid to rent the property and feed hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and drinks to anyone who stayed for dinner on the grounds — and plenty did. The Kentucky Baptist Convention and Kentucky Baptist Foundation’s evangelism fund helped make it possible, Bishop said.
The property was about 10 miles from the church building and Bishop said some of the senior citizens did not make the drive. But those who did come to Veterans Memorial Park saw people covering the two acres of ground. It was wall-to-wall people and Bishop said many of them he did not recognize nor did associate pastor Luke Lesmeister.
“We have had revivals at church where we had seven or eight baptisms, but we’d never done anything like that before,” Bishop said. “I led a guy to Christ at 6 in the morning. Him and his whole family came and got baptized.”
Bishop said the service started at 11 a.m. and it included full music with the worship team. He preached for 25 minutes, had a 10-minute invitation and finished around noon. From there they went down to the Ohio River and stepped into the murky water.
Pastor Mark Bishop prepares to baptize in the Ohio River after holding a combined service of GracePointe and Beechland Baptist churches in West Point Sunday morning. Thirty-seven people were baptized into new life with Christ before a gathering of 1,000. (Kentucky Today/Robin Cornetet)
“The water was a little cold, and the current was a little swift,” he said.
They gave the iteration for each baptismal candidate and Bishop and Lesmeister stood side by side in the water and both put them under the water and pulled them back up, making it a less backbreaking experience although Bishop admitted Monday he was “a little tired.” Each baptism took about two minutes, he said, bringing the baptism in the river experience to about 40 minutes total.
Bishop said the experience was met with excitement from both church members and non-church members. It was buzzing on social media with people commenting on it being a “powerful event.”
“People I don’t even know were on social media talking about it on Instagram and Facebook,” Bishop said.
Friends memorialize the day with a selfie before the start of the combined service of GracePointe and Beechland Baptist churches at Veterans Memorial Park in West Point. (Kentucky Today/Robin Cornetet)
The pastor said the 31 salvations were ones that they could identify but he knew there were most likely others. The youngest son of one of the men baptized came down to the water and said, “I got saved today during the service and I want to be baptized,” Bishop said.
The church presented Bibles and t-shirts to everyone who was baptized. They also fed the 1,000 who had gathered and rented the building and space. Bishop said members were saying “it was worth every penny.”
Bishop said Church at the River will be repeated next year, possible with a different name, but he has another dream. He wants to rent Iroquois Park in Louisville and do a Christmas Eve service.
His goal is to have $10,000 in gift cards to give away and have the Christmas Eve worship service with heated tanks available for baptizing. “I need about $25,000,” he said, “but that’s the dream.”
Bishop has been the pastor of both churches for about 15 months.