Troughs in a College Parking Lot: 59 Baptised in One Week in Small-Town Mississippi

Most of this season's baptism records have come from big churches and big beaches. This one comes from a small Mississippi town, a college parking lot, and a church that kept holding revivals for years when almost nobody came.

A Church of 80 and a Vision That Made No Sense

When Kipp Smith became pastor of First Baptist Church Poplarville almost ten years ago, the church was in decline, with about 80 members and, in his words, no vision forward. He saw the problem quickly: the church hadn't held a revival in years.

So it started holding them again. The first ones, in the church building, drew minimal attendance and few decisions. Smith says they "were still helpful in the life of the church" anyway.

Then came a picture he couldn't shake. "God gave me a vision of First Baptist Poplarville doing an event at the Brownstone Theater," he told The Baptist Record — a theatre seating about 850–900 people on the campus of Pearl River Community College. "That makes no sense whatsoever when you looked at the size of our church at the time."

The Night It Looked Like the Vision

About six years into the revivals, the church asked the college what the theatre would cost — and found it could rent it at a lower nonprofit rate. Three years ago it held the final night of revival there for the first time. After the gospel message, at least 100 people answered the altar call.

"As I looked around the room that night, visually, it was exactly what God had showed me," Smith said. "It was just a holy moment."

Since then, the church has seen around 250–300 salvations through its revivals, most of them on those offsite final nights.

Fire Trucks and Concrete Troughs

This August was the third year at the Brownstone, and the ending was new. The guest evangelist, Ronnie Hill, suggested setting up troughs in the parking lot for anyone who wanted to be baptised that night.

Smith doubted they'd get permission. The college president, Dr. Adam Breerwood, said yes. With help from the school's Christian coaches, two 12-foot concrete troughs arrived on the back of a flatbed, and the Poplarville fire department filled them.

"We had no idea if anybody was going to respond," Smith said. "You can't control that. You just present the message, and when it was all said and done, we baptized 52 that night."

Six more had been baptised the Tuesday before, at the church. And Hill had one more piece of advice: fill the church baptistry before Sunday, in case someone who missed the troughs still wanted to respond. The following Sunday, a young man came forward at the end of the service and was baptised in the clothes he was wearing. In one week: 59.

Athletes, Families and FaceTime

Smith describes children, whole families, college students and athletes — football, basketball and volleyball players — coming to faith and being baptised one after another. Two coaches who are church members, Michael Avalon and Seth Smith, had brought their teams; many of the players were saved.

Smith had worried parents would be upset to miss their kids' baptisms. Instead, almost every student seemed to have a phone out — dripping wet, on FaceTime with their parents, or holding the phone so a friend's family could watch live.

"We know the Lord is working all over," Smith said, "but it sure is fun to see it."

What This Story Teaches

It is tempting to read the number and skip the years. Don't. First Baptist Poplarville held revivals for roughly six years in its own building, with little visible result, before a single night looked like the vision. The 59 baptisms this summer stand on a decade of a small church refusing to stop asking God for more.

It also fits the wider pattern of 2026: a wave of baptisms driven less by celebrity events than by ordinary congregations — Biltmore Church's 458 in a day, Lakepointe's 882 in Texas — and by young people ready to respond on the spot. If your church is where Poplarville was ten years ago, start by asking — and keep asking. Our guide on how to start a prayer meeting for revival is a practical first step.