COLUMBUS, Ga. (BP) — The waters are always stirring.

Since 2015, Cascade Hills Church has seen at least one person baptized daily. No, that doesn’t mean a large number of baptisms in 10 years that average to one a day. It’s daily.

The pace has jumped over the last seven months, Pastor Brent Purvis told BP, to about four each day. All of it, he stressed, comes from unceasing prayer and a volunteer base on-call pretty much at any time.

A group of about a dozen, called Team 365, manages the baptism schedules through an app with a larger group of volunteers. Different times are available for the volunteers, all of whom are trained and about 90 percent laypeople.

“We give the ministry to the people,” said Purvis. “The last seven months have been a movement unlike anything I’ve ever seen. We have a thousand prayer partners that pray daily for my wife and I and the church and that God would send lost people to the church.

“When you have a thousand people praying for lost people to be sent to the church every weekend, God is going to move.”

Baptisms are conducted in a specifically designed outdoor pool featuring a waterfall that echoes Cascade’s name. It is visible from the highway but protected by tall trees and a hidden 10-foot fence.

Purvis, who became pastor in 2019 after his father, Bill, retired, led Cascade Hills to hold its Easter service this year at the Columbus Civic Center to have more space. Cascade Hills’ entire campus was converted for childcare, complete with approximately 600 volunteers.

The Civic Center seats 10,000. Chairs on the bottom level were removed to provide an area for those making decisions, leaving about 7,000 seats that were basically full.

An invitation for salvation came both on Easter and at a separate service for volunteers the night before. Sunday brought many decisions, but so did the night before, when a friend of a volunteer heard the gospel.

Two weeks before, two sets of volunteers walked through the civic center and laid hands on each seat, praying for the future occupant.

“We stayed there for a couple of hours, praying,” Purvis said. “Then we put a little note on the seat on the day of Easter saying it had been prayed over and we were praying for that person. The place was just saturated in prayer. That is why we’re seeing God move.”

It begins with prayer and moves to salvation. Candidates are vetted prior to baptism. Yes, those even take place in the winter. The pool is heated for cases when temperatures dip into the mid-20s.

All of it has created a “culture of evangelism” that has, in turn, led to a “culture of discipleship,” Purvis said.

“It’s amazing. Now it’s about personal discipleship that leads you to bring your friend and see them saved. We want to resource and guide people for that. Help them find their spiritual gift, get them in a Bible study and get them serving. Then you have a ministry of multiplication.”

Cascade Hills’ Easter theme reminded members that “everybody has an unchurched somebody.” Many brought a guest. One brought a dozen, another, 18.

The recent seven-month outpouring has seen an average of eight baptisms a day. The fuel for seeing such a response isn’t limited to churches like Cascade Hills, the pastor pointed out.

“Prayer changes everything,” Purvis said. “Be a praying church, a praying person. Stay focused on lost people, because the Son came to seek and save those who were lost. Why shouldn’t that be our mission?”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.)