SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. (BP) — First Baptist Church was far from needing extensive revitalization when Wayne Bray arrived as pastor in 2015. But there had been a drip-drip of decline in the preceding years. The small-town church that had grown to 2,300 people in the mid-1990s was fewer than 1,700.

A few years after Bray’s arrival, the church began to grow again. It came through a focus on the gospel. Evangelism centered on truth and grace. There was a movement to focus on developing leaders.

Now known as First Baptist Simpsonville/Upstate Church, the congregation has grown to more than 7,600. It averages 4,300 in weekly attendance in 20 worship services at nine locations in three languages.

That enters megachurch territory, which typically means a large focus on the senior pastor.

This isn’t Wayne’s world, though, and the results have been excellent.

A church of disciple-makers

“God has been super-gracious,” Bray told Baptist Press. “That’s the obvious answer. But Saint Augustine said, ‘God provides the wind, man must raise the sail.’ People want to know what we’ve done. But our people have been willing to say ‘yes’ to God making us something new and taking us to a new point.

“We haven’t tried to manipulate the wind. We’ve just learned to raise the sails and let God work.”

Evangelism and discipleship are seen as inseparable.

“We don’t want to be just a church that makes disciples. We want to be a church of disciple-makers,” he said.

First Baptist’s highest baptism total was 167 before the 2022-23 church year, when it recorded 207. That number jumped to 421 for 2023-24.

The growth has come with an intention to be small. First Baptist/Upstate is one church with one budget and one deacon body across nine campuses. And although most services are contemporary, the sound of an organ isn’t unfamiliar, as there are also traditional worship opportunities.

All have live preaching brought by teaching pastors who meet every Thursday.

“We all preach the same text, walking through the same book of the Bible and we prepare the same major points for each week’s sermon. So no matter what campus someone is attending that week, they’re hearing the same general sermon,” Bray said.

The message is outlined by the team, but each pastor prepares the content himself.

“The beauty of it is we have family members who attend three different campuses in various parts of the upstate,” he added. “They are all able to discuss the sermon and series during the week even from different environments and campuses.”

Outreach 100 recently named First Baptist/Upstate the ninth-fastest growing church and the fastest-growing Southern Baptist church. The study is in association with Lifeway Research and the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

Grace and truth

Church leadership has also decided to remain apolitical in message, choosing to present what Scripture says on culture and political matters.

“In John 1:14 Jesus is described as being full of grace and truth,” Bray said. “That’s massive. Our people have responded well to that being at the heart of what we do.”

Growth may bring assumptions of compromising the gospel. However, Bray pointed out that First Baptist/Upstate has addressed cultural issues such as abortion and homosexuality.

“We preach in an expositional manner through the Bible. So, there is no avoiding certain issues. We’re not topical, but we make it clear where the Lord stands.”

Expansion has occurred through “church transplanting.” In 2006 First Baptist merged with Trinity Baptist Church, which was called the “West Campus” — until a new vision for a multi-site strategy in 2016 led to its relaunch as Upstate Church Harrison Bridge.

Since then, First Baptist/Upstate has merged with six other churches while launching two campuses, the most recent on Oct. 6.

The live preaching aspect necessitates gatherings among campus pastors with Bray.

“Instead of video we have a live person who is being mentored and raised up. We meet every week and prepare sermons together,” Bray said. “It’s an extremely detailed, beautiful process. I really love it because it’s an opportunity to invest in young pastors. I’m growing them up, and they’re challenging me to stay fresh and digging in the Word.”

To emphasize the church’s commitment to new mergers, up to 200 people from the main campus begin attending each new location. Among the six churches that merged with First Baptist/Upsate, cumulative pre-merger attendance was 198. Three years later that cumulative figure was at 2,015.

Being spread out may bring increased potential for detachment among members, but that has not been realized.

“This is the most unified church I’ve been a part of,” said Bray, crediting those leaders at each campus. 

The aforementioned focus on truth and grace helps protect that unity.

“I feel like it’s the only effective way,” he said. “Our hope isn’t in one political party or the other, one candidate or the other. We just stick to Scripture.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.)