Stories

One unique aspect of the church is that from the launch date, the worship service provided an American Sign Language translator. “Just because of us having an interpreter, we’ve seen the increase in deaf people being able to come,” Terrell said.

“Because you’re short-term as an interim, some churches think you can only have short-term impact,” Saxon said. “But what I have found in so many churches, is that the interim pastor can almost be a catalyst for what is to come.”

For Booth, the funds cover things like programming and mission trips for students. “College students love food, that costs money. Or mission trips or the CONVERGE conference—it costs money to get there,” she said. “It’s so important that people continue to give. It really is making an impact even when you can't see it.”

“I think I’m the only Christian in my whole school—teacher or student,” she said. She easily could have pursued a career in education elsewhere, but her choice to live and work in Utah was intentional and driven by sharing the Gospel in her day-to-day life. “I’ve been able to share with people that I’m building relationships with,” Maura Santa said.

Of the 1,218 public schools in South Carolina, 670 have an SCBaptist church regularly serving them. The goal is to connect every school in South Carolina with a church that loves and serves them well, creating inroads to share the Gospel and make disciples locally.

For Howell and Ridge Church, those action steps turned into a churchwide missions strategy. “When we got back from Thrive training, we hit the ground running,” he said. “We had started planning our annual vision for our church, and missions was at the forefront of our minds.”

Although he felt the Lord close the door on baseball for the season, he did feel the Lord opening up a new one. With a schedule that was suddenly freed up, Powell felt the Lord nudging him to get the Bible study started.

Thirty years ago, Baptist missionaries from South Carolina traveled to Ukraine and helped a college student named Ruslan Antonov believe in Jesus. In 2022, Antonov was asked to pastor a Ukrainian-speaking congregation in Spartanburg, SC.

Wesley first heard about the Journeyman program through Camp McCall. "I heard about this program that I could go for two years to be part of a missions team, and I was like, 'What's the catch? Why would I not go towards that?'"

"The process of that residency not only loved on my family and me during this transition but equipped me and continued to prepare me for a lot of things that I didn’t know," Lawson said.

Because of the heavy international population, Carolina BCM saw an opportunity to help these students feel welcome but also to help reach the nations beginning in Columbia.

The pastors are beginning to see lasting fruit from their collaboration, citing a growth in baptism as one way they believe the Lord is working through the churches.