Pastor Greg Laurie Describes Mass Baptism as ‘A Powerful Work of the Holy Spirit’
Other churches around the country have also experienced incredible mass baptism events—whether spontaneous or planned.
First Baptist Church (or Upstate Church) in Simpsonville, South Carolina, witnessed nearly 150 people baptized across the church’s six campuses in December 2023. While the event was planned, the numbers far exceeded the church’s expectations.
“Our hope was to have someone scheduled for baptism in every service on every campus,” said Senior Pastor Wayne Bray. “By Friday, Dec. 1, we already had 86 baptisms scheduled across all our campuses. This was overwhelming, but it gave us even more confidence to preach the Gospel on Sunday, expecting the Holy Spirit to move.”
Rather than an isolated baptism event, Trinity Baptist Church in Lake Charles, Louisana, experienced baptisms each week for more than a year in 2022. As the church was recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, church leadership was intentional, and “a continual emphasis on preaching the gospel began to take shape.”
“We don’t take it for granted,” said Senior Pastor Steve James. “For some reason God has chosen to smile on us. Our folks have been faithful to invite their friends, and so we just share the Gospel and give them opportunities to come to know the Lord and follow in believer’s baptism.”
As depicted in the movie “Jesus Revolution,” mass baptisms have been around for decades. Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, described how he was baptized at a large baptism event back in the 70s. Laurie went on to describe how those events years ago compare with the recent baptism at Pirate’s Cove Beach in Corona Del Mar, California, where 4,500 people were baptized.
“I was there and I was baptized myself at one of them. But this is different. First, it is much larger than anything we ever did,” he said. “The line of people to be baptized was half a mile long and people waited patiently for 2 hours or more and they did not seem to mind one bit.”
Laurie mentioned, “We have held baptisms at Pirate’s Cove, but nothing we have done comes close to this event we just did. It may be the largest baptism in history.”
