At this year's Mississippi State Fair, Baptists engaged in thousands of faith-driven conversations with visitors, leading to 373 individuals deciding to accept Jesus Christ.
Close to 200 volunteers from the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board participated in the multi-day event, marking their presence at the fair annually since 2021.
MBCB spokesperson Linda Burris informed The Christian Post, “We had 195 volunteers to participate in the State Fair Ministry. We made a record of 2,824 Gospel conversations with 373 of those praying to receive Christ.”
She noted that while the number of Gospel conversations has remained consistent each year, there has been an annual increase in the number of individuals professing their faith.
For follow-up, those who made decisions for Christ received a Gospel tract, a letter, and a booklet on discipleship from the state convention office.
Burris explained, “Our volunteers are assigned a number that they put on the cards of those they share with. A copy of the cards of the ones who received Christ are mailed back to the volunteer who shared with them. They are then able to make contact with them.” Additionally, the information is sorted by city and town, with local pastors receiving the details so that new believers can be contacted by nearby churches.
In recent years, mass gatherings across various venues, such as college campuses and coastal areas, have featured large public professions of Christian faith. For instance, during the summer, Harvest Ministries conducted the second annual Jesus Revolution Baptism at Pirate's Cove Beach in California, resulting in approximately 2,000 baptisms.
In late August, a Gospel outreach event at Texas A&M University’s Corpus Christi campus witnessed around 1,500 student attendees, with more than 60 being baptized.
New Life Young Adults Pastor Tarik Whitmore, an overseer of the Texas A&M event, shared with CP that organizers observed “many touched by the power of God.”
He recalled, “The night continued with students and young adults sharing testimonies in real-time of salvation, healing, deliverance, and being filled with the Spirit. The night concluded with a commissioning of those who wanted God to use them on their college campus — All declaring, ‘Here I am. Send me!’”
