ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 23, 1996 TAG: 9604230071
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
Harvest Baptist Church in Blacksburg is bursting its seams. Since its 37-year-old pastor, the Rev. Ernest Baker, came four years ago to the building on Lucas Drive off Giles Road, worship attendance has gone from about 135 to 200 most Sunday mornings.
That's because, Baker said, he preaches - and church members live - a clear and consistent message that the Bible speaks literally to every daily issue. Baker has found that message one that families with growing children want to hear.
Harvest Baptist speaks to Blacksburg residents who have missed the essential message of the Gospel, Baker and church secretary Connie Sankey agreed.
The target of church leaders is as clear as a bull's eye.
On an attractive bulletin board in the big room that serves both as a worship center and a play area for children in the church's Wednesday night Awana Club is a statement describing the town as a mission field:
"The predominant religion [in Blacksburg] is a strange mix of liberal, social gospel christianity with a one-world mystical New Age system. Most of the inhabitants of this region have never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel."
Residents, the statement continues, have been "sidetracked by materialism, intellectualism, charismatic philosophy and general apathy."
Harvest leaders are intent on bringing a personal Christ to those "sidetracked."
Baker said they are doing it successfully through two major ministries:
* The Awana Club for children 4 through 14, an international fundamentalist Christian organization with some of the same characteristics of the more familiar Boy and Girl Scouts.
* A vibrant college student program.
Teaching the children brings in young adults who Baker said are seeking firm values in a world of ambiguity. Guiding college students results in Harvest's brand of "graciously fundamentalist" Christianity being carried through a whole generation.
In the Awana Club, children are divided by age and gender for meetings each Wednesday night during the school year from 6:30 to 8:30 to play competitive games, memorize Bible verses and learn the importance of service to older people, Sankey said.
The older children rake leaves, clear snow and do other practical chores free for those who need help. In large families like Baker's - he and his wife, Rose Marie, have five children with a sixth on the way - there's a lot of opportunity for children to teach younger children within the age groups, he noted. Though the Baker children all are home-schooled, the church's many programs provide an extended community.
Harvest is not as large as some independent fundamentalist congregations, Sankey said. Its size makes it easy for people to become acquainted and deeply involved in the church as a big family.
A lot of attention also goes to personal friendship with Virginia Tech students.
Sankey told how her boss in the early hours of a day last fall drove down Interstate 81 to Ironto to rescue some of the church's young people who had run out of gas driving to Blacksburg. Each fall, church members help new and returning college students unpack and settle in.
On Tuesday nights, as many as 30 students are in the Bakers' home for Bible study.
Church members also ``adopt'' students; about 20 visit at least monthly in the homes of church members, Sankey said. The two staff members and the youth pastor, Kraig Nuttal, a Piedmont Bible College intern, counsel the students to try to prevent some campus tragedies brought about by youth who may not yet know how to live with the pressure of being on their own.
Though the doctrinal position of church members is similar to that of the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Christian Coalition political group, Baker said he has come to believe that overt political action by church members is not as effective as trying to change the public's attitudes.
Before elections, the church makes materials from the Christian Coalition and Concerned Women of America, both conservative Christian action groups, available to members. Baker said he urges people to vote but discourages open partisanship.
There are other ways to make Blacksburg a better place, the pastor said. He and several other church members belong to the Rotary Club of Blacksburg, where "we try to work for the good of Blacksburg." That might at times, he said, involve promoting an anti-abortion agenda, "but political action isn't a major emphasis with me."
Baker said his call to the university town, which came through a contact in West Virginia, delighted him because he had worked with college students in Michigan and Pennsylvania after his education at Washington Bible College and Capital Bible Seminary.
Though he subscribes to many of the principles of evangelical Christian schools, Baker said the next goal of Harvest won't be to start a school, but to enlarge its modest brick building, which dates back about 30 years.
Standing on 7 acres in a residential neighborhood near downtown, the one-story church is well-kept and easy to enter but is in nearly constant use for such activities as international Bible classes, a mothers' prayer group and a 200-child vacation Bible school.
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. Many Harvest Baptist members laud theby CNBRev. Ernest Baker for his clear and consistent fundamentalist
message. color.