Great Soul-Winning Churches - Elmer Towns

years ago by the church. The first year there were 160 students. Kager indicated its phenomenal
growth came because: (1) Their teachers were committed to the task of education; (2) the school
is kept as a ministry; hence the rates are lower than most Christian schools; (3) the academic
records are higher than the city schools-the children score two years over the public schools on
the Standard Achievement Tests; (4) the 5 1/2-million-dollar new facilities testify to the city that
they mean business, the school is there to stay; (5) they have definite Christian standards and
disciplined behavior is part of the training young people receive to pattern their lives according
to the standards of God’s Word.
The school has facilities for 2,500 and, according to Kager, “We could have gone larger
if we had more teachers; our difficulty is finding those who meet our standards.”
Associate Pastor Leonard Willinger was saved in the Navy 13 years ago and immediately
came under Gray’s ministry. He graduated from Tennessee Temple College and Seminary and
has been in the church 6 years. He testifies, “Trinity Baptist is exactly the same today in its
standards as it was 13 years ago; the only thing that is changed is its size.”
To this day the church has 10 to 25 servicemen each Sunday, a Sunday School bus
picking them up and bringing them to the church. After the Sunday morning preaching, Bill
Montgomery takes all of the servicemen to his restaurant, where he feeds them, preaches to them
and, according to Willinger, “This restaurant has gotten more servicemen saved than some
missions to servicemen.” He adds that most of Gray’s preacher boys are sailors. The church has a
number of servicemen who are presently bus captains.
THE FUTURE
Last year the church received $1,100,000 (church and school combined). There were 937
baptisms-quite an accomplishment for a town that is well-churched, according to Gray, with 215
Southern Baptist churches and 40 Independent Baptist churches.
The church had been located on South McDuff Avenue since 1915, and three years ago
completed a four-story $500,000 educational building. Gray stated that he had planned to buy up
lots and remain there. Al Janney, pastor of New Testament Baptist Church, Miami, had been
reared in the church and knew the neighborhood as a boy. When he visited Gray he said, “This
building is great, but you might as well face it; you’re going to have to move. I was raised here
and this neighborhood is changing, so you might as well make plans.” Gray indicated he was
paralyzed at those remarks, but God spoke to him through Janney. As the conviction grew that he
should move, he shared his feelings with the deacons; some of them mentioned they already had
begun to wonder about the location. The church found 148 acres five miles west on Interstate 10.
Gray testifies, “The greatest miracle in 19 years seemed the faith of the people to vote a
six-million-dollar bond issue with not one dissenting vote. They had just built, and it was a
monumental decision to relocate.”
A spacious four-lane paved drive greets those entering the church property. The six large
sand-colored brick buildings look more like a government complex than a Baptist church. There
is open space between the buildings, concrete walks, a sprinkling of Southern pine trees and a