Georgia Baptists on equipping families for gospel ministry

Cooperation is at the heart of being a Southern Baptist. And with over 46,000 churches across our country, state conventions are critical in mobilizing and supporting pastors and ministry leaders in each state. That’s why at the ERLC, we seek to come alongside these state directors and the churches they serve. 

On today’s episode, you’ll hear from Thomas Hammond, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, as he shares with ERLC Interim President Dr. Gary Hollingsworth about how Georgia Baptists are equipping churches to reach their families, friends, and coworkers with the gospel all across the state. Out of the 11.5 million people who live in Georgia, roughly 7 million don’t have a relationship with Jesus. That’s why, as Thomas says, Georgia Baptists see pastors as heroes, churches as the priority, and their state as the mission field. He’ll also talk about the encouraging growth they’re seeing across Georgia—from baptisms and church attendance to giving in local churches.

Episode Transcript: Georgia Baptists on equipping families for gospel ministry

Narration:

Welcome to The ERLC Podcast, where our goal is to help you think biblically about today’s cultural issues. I’m Lindsay Nicolet, and today we’re talking with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.

Narration:

Cooperation is at the heart of being a Southern Baptist and with over 46,000 churches across our country, state conventions are critical in mobilizing and supporting pastors and ministry leaders in each state. That’s why at the ERLC, we seek to come alongside these state directors and the churches they serve. On today’s episode, you’ll hear from Thomas Hammond, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, as he shares with ERLC Interim President Dr. Gary Hollingsworth about how Georgia Baptists are equipping churches to reach their families, friends, and coworkers with the gospel all across the state. Out of the 11.5 million people who live in Georgia, roughly 7 million don’t have a relationship with Jesus. That’s why, as Thomas says, Georgia Baptists see pastors as heroes, church as the priority, and their state as the mission field. He’ll also talk about the encouraging growth they’re seeing across Georgia from baptisms and church attendance to giving in local churches. Prior to becoming the executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, Thomas served as lead pastor of Alpharetta First Baptist Church. He’s a graduate of Augusta State University in Augusta, Georgia, as well as MidAmerica Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee. He’s married to Carrie and they have two daughters. 

Now let’s turn to Dr. Hollingsworth’s conversation with Thomas Hammond.

Dr. Gary Hollingsworth:

Well, I’m here today with my great friend Thomas Hammond, the executive director-treasurer of the Georgia Baptist Convention. And Thomas, first of all, just want to say how much I love you and thank the Lord for our friendship. I really enjoyed getting to come hang out for just a few sessions at the Georgia Baptist Convention meeting recently. And God’s just at work there, and it was evident with the spirit and just the enthusiasm. That’s a tribute to your leadership. So it’s hard for me often to be real serious with you, but in a serious moment, I just want to say thank you and thank you for taking time to do this as well today, Thomas.

Thomas Hammond:

Absolutely. We were glad that you were at the convention. Everyone was thrilled to have the president of the ERLC there. I know a lot of pastors wanted to connect with you and yes, you’re right. God is blessing the Georgia Baptist Convention of churches. We want to stay out of his way as he continues to use his people to do a great work across our state.

Dr. Gary Hollingsworth:

Well, that’s a good segue really to just a few questions I wanted to take a few moments to talk with you about. Specifically during this period of time of transition at the ERLC, I and our entire team are really focused on being very church-centric and serving alongside, partnering with our state convention partners particularly. So just a question there in light of what God is doing in Georgia, but I’m sure there have to be some challenges as well. So share with us just any challenges that pastors, particularly in Georgia, are facing related to the four primary areas that we deal with, which is life, religious liberty, marriage and family, and human dignity. What comes to mind when you think about the things your pastors are being challenged by?

Thomas Hammond:

Well, I would say family would be at the top of their concerns, and that would be the family unit. It’s obviously under attack, has been under attack for decades, even centuries, even going back as far as time. But it seems like the efforts are continuing to fortify and to increase against the family unit. I’ll say another thing in regard to that, a couple of issues in the family I’m concerned about would be the incredible access that young people have to pornography. It’s just rampant, boys and girls. The age of that exposure continues to get younger and younger. The other thing I would say would be the ease of sports gambling as a whole. But sports gambling is a thing that concerns me because you can actually just continue to bet and bet and bet on the next play. We’re just now beginning to scratch the surface of the impact of two decades of open pornography on the internet, how that’s impacting generations.

Thomas Hammond:

We have no idea what the gambling issue is going to be and won’t know for a number of years, but I believe it’s going to be horrific. So those are two things I think that pastors are dealing with, with the family unit being under attack. You know, the normal things that they are struggling with, with their folks, of course, would be how to handle unrealistic expectations. How to help their families have margin in their lives, how to not have these idols. I mean, the basic things that we’ve had in culture and society for forever. But those are two things, I think. The other thing would be congregational safety. We’ve seen violence and attacks on the increase year after year. And so I think that that’s an issue that we deal with quite often in Georgia.

Dr. Gary Hollingsworth:

You know, I’m really glad you brought that up, particularly Thomas, because some of the podcasts that we’re doing and conversations that we’re trying to have right now, we’re trying to really come with a listening posture, again, to leaders like yourself. I know you have your finger on the pulse of your pastors and what’s going on there in Georgia, and that’s one particular thing, church safety, that has not been on our radar as far as resourcing. And what we’re trying to do is listen and then respond because our goal is to make sure that we really find better ways to resource our churches. I think the ERLC, its original intent, again, was to serve as a primary, certainly a research arm, but also a resource arm. So that’s helpful. So believe me, I’ll take that back to our team and we’ll put that in the hopper.

Dr. Gary Hollingsworth:

If I might give a quick plug, Thomas, but your pastor wellness emphasis there in Georgia, of course, I’ve known about it. You know, you and I discussed that even as that was in its early days. And I want to say that I think what you’re doing to help your pastors and their families, you know, if a pastor’s family is not healthy, then very likely they’re not in a good position to help their families and their congregations be healthy and whole. So I think there is a trickle down effect of that. So I just want to applaud you for that emphasis. And I know that that also pays some dividends. If not today, it certainly will down the road.

Thomas Hammond:

Well, we’re seeing on an individual level, pastors are constantly coming up saying, if it weren’t for this ministry, I don’t know that I would be in the ministry. If it weren’t for this ministry, I don’t know that we’d still be married. Here’s the three mantras that we have in Georgia: Pastors are our heroes, churches are our priority, and Georgia’s our mission field. That kind of serves as the filter of everything that we do. How do we strengthen pastors? Because we know stronger pastors lead churches better to become stronger churches, and stronger churches are more effectively reaching their mission field. And the prioritization of churches is the resourcing, training, and equipping and then, of course, the mission field. But that’s our big initiative now, and we’re going to continue to do this until Jesus returns. And that’s how we’re going to get the gospel to 7 million people in Georgia who don’t have a relationship with the Lord.

Dr. Gary Hollingsworth:

Well, our pledge and my pledge, even during this transitional time of leadership i,s again, to make sure that we’re hearing where the needs are in the churches. And I love those three grids and we’re just going to join along with you in that. Let me move from the challenges. We know that pastoring is filled with challenges, but again, having spent the better part of a day with you at the convention recently. So just share, if you don’t mind, just a few of the things, what’s happening in the state that you can celebrate. We’ve already talked about a few of those things, but what are you particularly excited and encouraged about what God’s doing there in Georgia?

Thomas Hammond:

Gary, I, first of all, I’d say that the trend in baptisms going up would be number one. If you charted our baptisms since 2000, for those 25 years, you would see a continuation of a drop almost each year. We believe we hit rock bottom in 2020 with the pandemic. But since then, there’s been a renewed passion for churches reaching their mission field. And so, every year since then, we’ve seen a dramatic jump, even from 23-24, a 20% increase. So we’re seeing numbers back to where we were in 2015, 2016, and we believe we’re going to continue to see that rise, especially with Gen Z. We’re seeing a tremendous amount of openness of the gospel in reaching these young people. And we’re seeing a significant number of young people, meaning middle school, high school, and college age that are surrendering to the ministry. I’m talking in the hundreds every year for the last three years. So we’re very excited to see that response. Another thing that’s very exciting is overall in Georgia, church attendance is up. We haven’t experienced that for decades. And then the third thing I would say is giving to the local church is significantly up as well. So those are the three, what we would call vital signs that show health. And I praise the Lord for what he’s doing in Georgia Baptist churches.

Dr. Gary Hollingsworth:

Well, that’s so encouraging to hear, not just in Georgia. We pray that those are trends that are true in other state conventions as well. We just praise the Lord for that. And again, that’s a tribute, I think, to it certainly the leadership of the Lord, but you and your team and the quality of pastors, because it ultimately comes down, you and I both know, we’ve been at this long enough, that all ministry rises and falls based on the leadership. So thank you and thanks for sharing that. 

So help us at the ERLC, particularly with this question, because as we talk, again, we want to make sure that we’re hitting the mark, particularly when it comes to resources in some very practical ways. So when you think about, uh, what you need as a state convention leader, what your churches need, because we only exist to work in partnership to do exactly what you said, and that is to help our local churches fulfill the Great Commission. So talk to us real honestly, about some good things that the ERLC is already providing, but some things that we maybe need to provide or haven’t provided so that we can be better on mark to help you help your churches.

Thomas Hammond:

You know, I would tell you anytime that the ERLC can communicate as early as possible with cultural challenges and issues, that would be extremely helpful, helping pastors to navigate that through a biblical lens or through a biblical filter of being very well prepared and informed to preach on cultural issues. That would be fantastic. I think also keeping us updated on what the ERLC is doing to address social issues and cultural issues so that pastors can communicate that to the churches and just keep us updated as far as where we are with these resolutions and where we are with the assignments that the SBC continues to give the ERLC every year. I think those three things would be great. But first and most important would be helping pastors to navigate these cultural issues in a very biblical way.

Dr. Gary Hollingsworth:

Outstanding. And I’m sure you’re aware that we’ve provided and produced some guides. Some have been out there for a long time. We always try to keep those up to date. I would let you know, and you may have already heard about this, it, it has just come out really this fall. Our most recent guide is on artificial intelligence. Again, trying to be on the cutting edge of relevancy because I know that is an issue. And the sub theme of that is not just what is AI, but the moral, the biblical spiritual, how it can be utilized, the cautions that pastors need to be aware of, even in their own, we hear stories all the time, you know about sermon writing sermons and preparing sermons, and there’s probably a rightful place for AI. But I’m just saying that to let you and your pastors, especially there in Georgia, know that those are the kinds of things we want to really have our finger on the pulse.

Dr. Gary Hollingsworth:

And that’s just one such example of where we’re really trying to make sure that we are staying really relevant. 

So two final questions, Thomas, and we’ll let you go. You’ve been so kind with your time, but really as you look out into the future, I know we’ve talked about what God is doing and we’re talking about where we’ve been in the past, but even as you look into the near future, and I know we can’t do that too far, but what do you see in Georgia Baptists in the next 3-5 years especially, or what do you pray to see will happen there in Georgia? We just want to celebrate that with you.

Thomas Hammond:

Thank you, Gary, for that. You know, we are, as a convention of churches, just beginning to enter into what we’re calling an evangelism initiative for a lack of a better term or a lack of a name for it. It’s not that evangelism hasn’t been going on for years, it has been. And it’s not like we’re coming in with any secret weapon. We’re not. We just want to come alongside, I’m talking about the mission board now, come alongside the convention of churches to pour spiritual kerosene on the fires that are already burning. So this initiative right now in Georgia, 11.5 million residents, population wise, and from our best guesstimation, over 7 million of those 11.5 million people don’t have a relationship with the Lord. And so this initiative is to increase awareness, but also to provide resources, equipping, and the things that are needed for churches in this initiative. 

Thomas Hammond:

What we’re encouraging every church is to clearly define their church’s mission field and then to begin to develop strategies of how they’re going to minister to the needs of the people within that mission field. What are the new missions or ministry efforts they’re going to start to reach those needs? That in itself is extremely exciting just to see churches, if we can have an army of 3,500 churches that are looking outward, consistently and effectively. The other thing in this initiative is we have over a million people, right at about 1.4 million Georgians go to a Georgia Baptist Church. Our desire is to train that army to first of all know what the gospel is and then teach them how to clearly articulate it and remind them that it’s their responsibility to win their neighbors, family members, friends, coworkers. There’s a great deal of momentum in our state.

Thomas Hammond:

There’s a lot of excitement in this. So that would be the number one thing. There’s all this training that we’re laying out for 2026 and beyond is really and truly just building on this initiative, which, as I’ve been saying it, this is going to become the new normal that we’re going to be talking about not so much how many people you’re running, but how many people are you reaching. In the area of prayer, reaching Georgia is number one for us. There’s 7+ million people. By the year 2035, we’re going to have another million people living in our state. So we’re living in a very fast growing state. We want to stay very focused on reaching those that God’s bringing to us. So I would say evangelism efforts. I would say pray for our church planting efforts. Last year, we planted 27. I’d love to see us double that number next year and continue to plant 50 or more from now on. So church planting efforts. And then for churches to be faithful to do kingdom work, gospel work in cooperation with each other. We need to stay together and we’re going to need each other more and more in the days ahead for sure. 

Narration:

States like Georgia are working faithfully to equip families and individuals to live on mission right where God has placed them. And with more than 3,500 churches across the state, the potential for gospel impact is huge. Let’s continue praying for these churches as they seek to be salt and light in their communities.

Narration:

Thanks for listening to the ERLC podcast. Join us next time as we hear from the Baptist Churches of New England.