{"id":10581,"date":"2024-05-23T11:12:59","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T15:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=10581"},"modified":"2024-05-23T11:12:59","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T15:12:59","slug":"pastor-in-shock-as-1614-people-are-baptized-on-beach-god-saved-a-lot-of-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/05\/pastor-in-shock-as-1614-people-are-baptized-on-beach-god-saved-a-lot-of-people.html","title":{"rendered":"Pastor in Shock as 1,614 People Are Baptized on Beach: ‘God Saved A Lot of People’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Church of Eleven22\/Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over 1,600 people publicly declared their faith at The Church of Eleven22\u2019s record-breaking beach baptism. In an uncommon display of faith, The Church of Eleven22 witnessed a staggering 1,614 people publicly declare their faith through baptism at Hanna Park Beach in Jacksonville, Florida. Thousands of additional church members, friends, and family joined them in celebrating. This represents an increase of close to 500 from last year\u2019s event, where 1,126 people were baptized, making it one of the largest beach baptisms in American history.<\/p>\n

Pastor Joby Martin, the founder and lead pastor of The Church of Eleven22, said, \u201cGod saved a lot of people, and those people were obedient to take the next step \u2014 to go public with their faith and declare Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And just as amazing as the 1,614 people that got baptized are the maybe 10,000 people from our church [who] showed up to celebrate it on the beach.\u201d Martin said the event was \u201clike a big family reunion\u201d and celebration for the church. He said it has been \u201ca bit overwhelming\u201d to see so much spiritual fruit and to take part in so much transformation.<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cWe are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Today, we celebrated over 1,600 people proclaiming Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It doesn\u2019t get much better than that. The church is alive and well, the Spirit of God is on the move, and the\u00a0gospel\u00a0of Jesus Christ is still changing lives as it has for thousands of years.\u201d The preacher believes the stunning mass baptism is part of a bigger pattern of faith professions and baptisms observed across America right now. Martin said, \u201cIt just seems like God is doing a thing amongst his church. It was super neat for us to be able to celebrate what He\u2019s doing here with what He\u2019s doing all over the place.<\/p>\n