May 2024 | 9
Church Plant Baptizes Thirteen New Believers in One Day
By Stephanie Heading, managing editor
God’s work takes time. Just ask Pastor Jeff Deel. For the past 14 years Deel has been working in rural Morrow County planting two churches in tiny villages and ministering to local middle and high school students during weekly Bible studies at both Highland Middle School and Highland High School. On Sunday, April 14, Deel baptized 13 new believers at Word Baptist Church, Sparta. The majority of those bap- tized were students from Highland Local Schools. In 2010, while Deel was pastor of Glory Baptist Church, a church plant in Marengo, population 280, the principal of Highland High School asked him to do ministry in his building. Since then, Deel has faithfully taught a lunchtime Bible study at Highland Middle School on Tuesdays during three lunch periods and again on Thursday in three lunch periods at Highland High School. In January 2022, Deel planted Word BC six miles down the road from Marengo in Sparta, an even smaller village of 123 people. The church meets on Sunday mornings at Highland High School at 8:30 am. “We figured if people would come to an 8:30 am service they were probably serious about looking for a church home,” Deel said. “It was slow to begin, averaging no more than 15-20 people for the first year or so, but in 2023, things started to take off.” Word BC baptized its first person on August 12, 2023. Then on August 16, 2023, the Lord led Deel to attend a funeral that would open doors to even more ministry. The father of the Highland High School wrestling coach passed away. “The wrestling coach’s father was very involved with the Highland wrestling program, working out with the boys and taking pictures at the meets,” Deel said. “I knew God was telling me to go to that funeral because many of the wrestlers attended the Bible study I do at the high school, and I know they loved that man. I felt it would be a very emotional time for them, and it was.” After the service, one of the wrestlers was very emotion- al. A few days later he came to Deel’s home and listened to the gospel. “He didn’t make a profession of faith that day, but he started coming to Word BC every Sunday with three oth- er wrestlers,” Deel said. “It was the start of several high school guys driving themselves to the 8:30 am service.” Through several months of consistent attendance at worship and the high school Bible study, God spoke to several of the young people.
In March, five of these young men approached Deel and told him they had been talking about baptism. Over the course of the next week, two more families told him they also had been talking about baptism. “The North Ameri- can Mission Board Baptism Sunday had been mentioned at church and it initiated these discussions,” Deel said. Over the next three weeks, Deel counseled over 20 peo- ple about salvation and baptism and 13 of them were ready for baptism – six high school students, three mid - dle school students, one elementary student, and three adults. Deel got permission from the Highland Local Schools district superintendent and the high school principals to do the baptisms on-site, just outside the Highland High cafeteria where the church meets for worship. “I’ve baptized off-site before and the problem is not ev - eryone follows to the special moment being experienced by those being baptized,” Deel noted. “It was of utmost importance to do it at our worship location if possible. And the Lord opened up wonderful doors for ministry in our district.” In addition to his work in Highland Local Schools, Deel also serves as a teacher at LifeWise Academy which started in September 2023 in the Highland District. There are 200 elementary students and 32 middle school stu- dents attending. High School LifeWise will begin this fall. Word BC is now averaging 45-50 in weekly attendance. “For the last several months, we’ve just been praying for God to surprise us each week and He seems to do that very thing every week—through first-time guests, responses to the messages, or in other ways. We have been very blessed, and God is at work.” Pastor Jeff Deel baptized 13 new believers, mostly students, at Word Baptist Church, Sparta.
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