It’s all about people at Pensacola’s Myrtle Grove

PENSACOLA (FBC)–At Pensacola’s Myrtle Grove Baptist Church, it’s all about people and changed lives.

Brian Cravey is one of those changed lives. Five years ago, he was a "hard-to-get-along-with" tugboat captain who had never been to church.

One Sunday morning he got in his car, determined to give church a try. He drove around town until he came upon Myrtle Grove. There he received a warm welcome. Two days later, when church members visited his home and shared their faith, he received Jesus as Savior and Lord.

A career-ending accident just days after his baptism, he said, has given him time to touch other lives with his newfound love for God.

FBC photo by John Duncan

A vision to reach people in their community through FAITH has brought hundreds of new members to Pensacola's Myrtle Grove Baptist Church.

John White is another one of the changed lives. The father of four and foster father of two made a childhood salvation decision but then wandered from his faith. One of his daughters visited Myrtle Grove, and a team of church members visited White. The visit reminded White of his childhood commitment and of his spiritual responsibility in his children’s lives. After a sincere rededication, White leads not only his family but also his friends and even strangers to commit to Christ.

Myrtle Grove’s people-reaching philosophy brings nearly 100 athletes to the church every Friday morning at 6:30 a.m. for physical and spiritual food. At the weekly community-wide Fellowship of Christian Athletes get-together students feast on a full home-cooked breakfast followed by a Christ-centered devotional.

The focus on people began a new era when Ron Lentine was called as pastor of Myrtle Grove Baptist Church in 1997. The once-thriving church had experienced a significant decline in membership and financial support in preceding years. Remaining church members were discouraged but determined the church would survive.

"When I saw church members’ desire to be relevant and effective in reaching the community, ready and willing to do whatever it would take, God gave me a vision for the church," Lentine said.

Within Lentine’s first year, the church realized the mission field of reaching people that existed. Located adjacent to a large public high school, the church hired a youth minister and built a family life center as headquarters for reaching the community’s young people.

The church also "got in on the ground floor," of FAITH, a Sunday School-based evangelistic strategy. Seven members were trained in 1998. Now, in its eleventh semester, 225 people have been trained to share their faith. Hundreds of new members, including more than 40 in the summer of 2003, have been added to the church as a direct result of Myrtle Grove’s "strong outreach and soul-winning ministry."

In the past six and a half years, the racially integrated church has doubled its worship attendance. It has started a new Hispanic ministry, with more than 20 people coming on the ministry’s first Sunday. It has built not only a Family Life Center but also renovated and expanded its worship facility. It is organizing North American and international mission trips. It has started numerous outreach ministries, including a preschool learning center and a program for adults struggling with addictions. It has established a web-site, which includes the plan of salvation and receives as many as 300 "visits" daily.

And the church members are looking forward to its future, hoping to purchase a home and land adjacent to the church property.

The home is expected to be used for additional community-directed ministries. The church’s ministries, as varied as they seem, have one thing in common–they are all about people.

"Everything we do as a church is focused on leading people to Jesus and then training them to do the same," said pastor Lentine.