ST. MARY – In 2020 Trinity Baptist Church in St. Mary was experiencing declining membership and had an average worship attendance of around 30. However, the congregation wasn’t ready to close the doors.
The church’s biggest strength was it didn’t give up,” Pastor Ed Carter says. “It kept on going even though (the members) knew they didn’t have much strength or power left.”
St. Mary is about an hour and a half south of St. Louis.
Carter became the church’s pastor in August 2020. He led the congregation to pray about its future, then examine and evaluate the church’s programs against its mission of “pointing people to Jesus for salvation and life transformation.”
“It was a program-driven church,” Carter says. He says the church is now ministry driven.
ST. MARY – Pastor Ed Carter of Trinity Baptist Church, St. Mary, teaches Scripture online during a Tuesday morning Bible study on the church’s Facebook account. (Screenshot from Facebook)
“Anybody can have an event, and it’s just an event. But ministry is something that keeps driving a church to seek more of what Christ wants. Ministry is about something…that continues to build and strengthen and be effective for people to mature and grow in Christ.”
The church eliminated programs and activities, merged others, and started new ones that fit in one of five categories that supported its mission. The five themes are worship, discipleship, outreach/evangelism, missions, and fellowship.
“Every ministry that we have going on is about pointing people to Jesus for salvation and life transformation,” he says.
The church then began seeing lives transformed and membership growth.
In 2020-2021, Trinity had 12 baptisms, in 2021-2022 it had 14, then eight in 2022-2023. For 2023-2024, Trinity has seen 25 baptisms. The church now has almost 100 in Sunday worship attendance.
Carter says the church focused on discipling believers through a church program known as Fisher’s Fortune to become leaders in discipling others.
Fisher’s Fortune was started and funded in 2023 through the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Missouri Missions Offering.
Carter said the funds were to be used to send members on mission trips, but they first had to be discipled, and then become disciplers.
“Our main focus is about Fisher’s Fortune. What we do is make disciples, then we make disciplers, then we build them into leadership” that helps others become disciplers.
He used Lifeway’s Survival Kit to teach members how to give their testimonies.
“I had such great success of that with children that I used the revised adult edition. It worked successfully.”
He supplemented the Survival Kit instruction with a six-week course on evangelism. About a third of the congregation has gone through the program, and of those 12-14 have become leaders in helping others become disciples.
A catalyst for the church’s ministry and growth was also born from two tragedies.
In October 2021 a tornado swept through St. Mary, destroying 27 homes and the main business.
Trinity became the hub church for Missouri Disaster Relief recovery efforts.
“In three weeks we gave out 600 meals, and we ministered and witnessed to so many people. That’s when the church really began to grow,” Carter says.
Another tragic event in 2022 underscored for members the importance and immediacy of witnessing to non-believers. During a night revival meeting, Carter says the church learned of the suicide “of a young man who got saved and became baptized after being ministered to following the tornado.
“He had several addiction problems and depression. It hit hearts and hurt hearts because he was part of the family. We’d seen him get baptized just a few days before that.”
Carter thought the tragedy “would take us backward, but it took us forward.”
“From that moment on the church hasn’t stopped (discipling and growing). Our church is so on fire because every person now has the mentality that every soul is worth being saved.”
“With Fisher’s Fortune we’re trying to go and show that whoever they might be, their life has worth.’
Every October the church has its annual community block party with 190 people attending.
Carter said this year “we didn’t have any salvations but we had three families request the pastor to come and visit them. Four folks out of one family are going to be baptized.”
“Trinity Baptist Church is a church that’s seeking for people to have a life with Christ. We just love the Lord and pointing people to Jesus and worshipping Christ.”