Steve Rohrlack, STRONG Team

STRONG TEAM Church Strengthening

Steve Rohrlack, Team Leader

Nestled in a neighborhood of homes originally occupied by families of textile mill employees, Dunean Baptist Church was once the center of the neighborhood. Like many other textile communities, the Dunean area has experienced several transitions following the mill's closing. The once-thriving church found itself struggling to gather 50 on a Sunday morning. With her longtenured pastor nearing retirement, Rev. Calvin placed a call to the local association. Conversations, assessments, and the recommendation of a partner church to help implement an intentional strengthening plan would follow.

The vision of Wayne Bray, lead pastor of Simpsonville First Baptist Church, was to come alongside a church like Dunean, helping them to prepare a succession plan of leadership and to invest resources to help strengthen the church. The new partnership utilized a revitalization residency program equipping Stephen Leopard to take the lead pastor role after a multi-year transition plan. This strategy included funds and resources for renovation of the facilities, allowing for new ministries to reach the community.

Much like the placement of a teenager with a new foster family, Dunean would retain her autonomy and name but has the full support of the partnering church as guided by the covenant agreement.

Church Life

• RESTORE conference for ministers and spouses offered a much-needed retreat for pastors, staff, and wives. This was one of the first large-group gatherings following COVID-19. • Eleven bi-vocational pastors attended the Timothy-Barnabas conference sponsored by the North American Mission Board (NAMB). • NextStep participants received Regathering specific consultations as they began the process of recovering from the COVID-19 shutdown. • NextStep training in the areas of communication, team building, conflict management, and leading congregational change resumed in August 2021. • Transitional Pastor training merged with Church Revitalization to elevate the level of preparation for this vital interim role.

Church Strategies

• More than 75 percent of the Associational Mission Strategists (AMS) were trained as church revitalization practitioners and consultants. • RE, an interactive cohort for revitalization pastors, launched in 2021. The process equips pastors to apply biblical principles and revitalization strategies in their specific context. • From September through August, 11 churches affirmed recommendations for revitalization or reSTART. Many more are still in the consultation process with trained practitioners to yield future recommendations aimed at strengthening the church. • Several fellowships were led through the process of reinvesting remaining resources to enable new churches to reach their communities with the hope of the Gospel.

Generations Group

• The South Carolina Baptist Discipleship Network partnered with the Baptist Association of Christian Educators (BACE) as part of their annual conference, making training available to every church leader (paid and volunteer) in the state. • The South Carolina Baptist Discipleship Network used connections through the BACE partnership to establish regional cohorts of leaders for ongoing networking, equipping, and support among SC Baptist churches. • Seventy-six Weekday Education Directors and 250+ Weekday Education teachers received state-approved in-person training. • Twelve VBS 3-in-3 videos were created for churches to use as training tools and resources in preparation for 2021 VBS. Additional area-specific training videos were provided to prepare and equip local church VBS teams. • A four-part Child Safety & Security video series was produced and made available to all SCBC churches. • Both SummerSalt & KidSalt made the successful transition to Charleston Southern University. While battling the summer spike in COVID-19, sixweeks of camp were offered yielding more than 300 salvation and call to ministry decisions.

Worship and Music

• Seven regional cohorts were launched in 2021 with a focus on the Advance Strategy. Resourcing for the cohorts comes from the newly created online curriculum. • The Worship & Music Office partnered with SummerSalt, providing worship leadership training during all weeks of camp. 200+ students attended during the five weeks of camp. • In partnership with our three Baptist universities, student worship leader training will be offered at the Baptist Allstate Weekend in 2022. Areas covered are choir, orchestra, and worship band ministries. • ONWARD, the one-day worship leader conference, was led by the worship team from Brentwood Baptist Church, Franklin, TN. Breakouts were offered for worship teams, production teams, communication teams, pastors, and staff. • Singing Churchmen & SeraphSong modeled authentic biblical worship by presenting worship concerts in local SCBC churches and mission locales as evangelistic opportunities to the community, and networking events for local worship leaders.

Prayer Requests

• Pray for the children and student ministries working through the regathering process as school begins. • Pray for churches without pastors and the committees working to fill these vacancies. • Pray for the launch of the Church Revitalization Network.