After being baptized himself by Pastor Larry Potter (right), Mark Marble baptizes his wife, Emily, at Bridgewater Baptist’s Hallstead campus on Dec. 21.
MONTROSE, Pa.—Bridgewater Baptist Church is 206 years old, and God has done a lot in those two centuries. But 2014 was a year to remember, as 89 people were baptized at Bridgewater Baptist. That doesn’t beat the church’s record though. In 1850, 92 were baptized, and in 1843, 105 were baptized in a Montrose creek (most in the cold temperatures of Palm and Easter Sundays). At that time, those numbers made up about 10 percent of the town, and the baptisms would have been called a revival, notes Pastor Bob Kadlecik. “To see just a fraction of that transformation in people’s lives is thrilling.”
In November, Bridgewater Baptist took two minutes on a Sunday morning to have everyone age 12 and older take a 10-question survey. What the church found was both sobering and exciting: 10–15 percent had not yet accepted Christ, and over one-third had not been baptized. In addition, 39 percent had been attending Bridgewater for less than a year, and 62 percent had attended for two years or less.
The most recent baptisms took place on Dec. 14 in Montrose and Dec. 21 at Bridgewater’s Hallstead campus. Four of those baptized on Dec. 21 were Mark and Emily Marble and their two children, who all accepted Christ earlier this year. At least 20 children, nine teenagers, and 38 adults accepted Christ as their Savior at Bridgewater Baptist Church in 2014.
“The greatest evangelistic inviters in the church are those who have just recently been saved,” Kadlecik says. “They have such a rich network of unsaved friends and family. In a county of 42,000 people, where 68 percent don’t attend any church, Bridgewater Baptist tries to be a church for people who don’t like church. Baptisms are incredible opportunities to bring some of those church-hating family and friends into a service to show them that church is not what they think.”
- Listen to the testimonies of some of Bridgewater Baptist’s members.
“The harvest is white,” Kadlecik says. “Pray for workers who will harvest it. Perhaps next year God will break the all-time Bridgewater record!”
