Mt. Olivet Baptist Church

Senior Pastor, James E. Martin       Associate Pastor, Ron Bronski

Question #1.  What principles and practices used by these churches have been most successful in attracting and evangelizing unchurched people?  

Another means of outreach employed by Mt. Olivet is urban ministries.  “We believe in reaching adults through their children and so we have an after school program that reaches out to first through fifth graders,” explains Bronski. “And we have a literacy club that meets on Thursday nights which helps kids with their schoolwork and motivates them to read.  It’s a one-on-one program so that they are hooked up with one Christian with one child.  Through that we try to meet their parents and invite them to come to church.”

Question #2.  How do these churches welcome and follow-up unchurched visitors and new converts?

Mt. Olivet is known for its welcoming atmosphere, strong worship services and good teaching by Senior Pastor James E. Martin. “We try to keep a real non-threatening environment--not putting any pressure on people when they come in.  Also, our ushers do a great job of welcoming people,” stated Bronski.  One new Christians described Mt. Olivet this way, “The church is friendly.  I felt right at home here, I felt like I belonged here the first time I came." 

Those who make spiritual commitments are followed-up by small group leaders who seek to develop a personal relationship with them and include them in the group. “We try to plug them into a cell leader.  He in turn will call them.  They get personal contact and follow-up.  It is pretty aggressive.  It is not just a one-time phone call.  It’s more the beginning of a relationship.”

Question #3.  How do these churches provide an opportunity for new people to gain a sense of belonging?

Mt. Olivet has recently restructured itself as a cell church in order to increase its effectiveness in fulfilling the Great Commission.  It seeks to form strong relationships within the church and to reach out to unchurched friends and family.  Pastor Bronski states, “We rely so strongly on our members reaching out to others, we are hoping that they have a relationship before they ever come to a worship service.”

Question #4.  How do these churches see that people are discipled into fully devoted followers of Christ?

Ongoing discipleship and personal care are provided by personal mentoring within the cell group.  The groups meet together each week to study questions written by Pastor Martin that relate to the sermons from the previous weekend.

Mt. Olivet provides the fundamentals of the faith through going around the base path. Bronski explains, “The on deck circle is for anyone who wants to know about our church.  It’s our membership orientation, which is offered twice a month.  If they decide that they what to become a member then they can start the path.  First, we’ll see if they have been baptized, if not, we encourage them to be baptized.  Then they go through Class 101, Foundations, which is six lessons that are fundamental things for the Christian faith.  During the Encounter weekend they will go off and deal with issues in their life.  Advanced Discipleship, Class 201, is 12 weeks.  It continues to cover fundamental issues for Christian living as well as the mission and vision for our church.  Network is our spiritual gift discovery class. Then Class 301, Leadership Training, is a 12-week class to prepare people to lead a cell.  Finally, the Contagious Christian course will teach them how to reach others for Christ.  The classes can actually be taken in any order, we just want to be sure that they are in the classes.”  Classes 101 and 201 are offered twice a week—Sundays and Wednesdays.  Contagious Christian and Network are offered once every other month in a Friday evening and all day Saturday format.