CRAWFORD, Ga. — Tucked between Big Clouds Creek and Little Clouds Creek and surrounded by trees and grassy fields, is Cloud’s Creek Baptist Church. This remote church, established in 1788 following the Revolutionary War, is seeing revitalization and a changing attitude towards community and outreach.
When Pastor Blake Ivey was called to serve the congregation in 2019, the church had an attendance of 25. So far in 2025, it has averaged around 100 people.
Ivey said it’s important to reach out to the community and show that members care and are genuine and authentic. “I think that is a big part of what has set Cloud’s Creek apart. It’s their love for others, and their desire to see people connect to the Lord and see personal relationships with Him,” said Ivey.
This Easter Sunday, the church had 170 people in attendance, and 150 people came out for the 2025 Easter egg hunt. During the church’s 2024 fall festival, they made history with 250 people.
“What was so cool about most of our first-time guests on Easter was that they were guests that people brought.” Ivey said people invited their parents, or good friends and neighbors.
He explained, “It’s not just, ‘Hey, they’ve got a cool building,’ which we don’t, but it’s like, ‘Hey, these are our people inspired by the Holy Spirit with a desire for people to get to know Him’ and bringing those people to church.”
W. Thomas Hammond, Jr., executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, is excited to see Cloud’s Creek’s growth. “Cloud’s Creek Baptist is an encouraging example that every church can grow spiritually and numerically. Every church has its own mission field that must be reached with the gospel, and Cloud’s Creek has shown us what happens when we prayerfully and intentionally pursue our mission field,” he said.
To reach its local mission field, the church implements intentional and strategic community outreach initiatives every year. One of those is Impact Sundays. Now in its fourth year, Impact Sundays occur on the Sunday before the spring festival and Easter, and the Sunday before the church's fall festival. The church shortens services, and members divide into groups and go visit houses within five or 10 miles of the church. They deliver small gift bags, including information about the church and some snacks. They pray and visit with those they visit if asked.
“We are able to say, ‘We are your neighbors, and we care about you. We’re not just gathering here and ignoring you. We want you to know that we are here for you if you need anything,’” said Ivey. He said Sunday mornings are a good time to do this outreach because if people are at home on Sunday morning, they most likely don’t have a church.
He added that just pushing the culture of boldly going out to invite people has encouraged church members to invite family and friends to church.
Ivey explained that Impact Sundays were inspired by his childhood in Conyers while attending Rockdale Baptist Church. “I remember as a kid driving to church, and there were these houses you could almost hit with a baseball from the church’s property, and I was like, “I don’t think we’ve ever done anything to talk to those people.” And, obviously, I’m a kid, so I don’t necessarily know if that is true or not, but I always said I don’t want to be that.”
There are 1700 homes within a five-mile radius of the church, located in a county with one red light, has. The city of Crawford, as well as Colbert, Comer, and Lexington, are each 10 minutes away, and Athens is 18 miles east.
Ivey hopes Impact Sundays show casual, relatable, authentic, and real people with real struggles who are living for and have been changed by God, who want people to know him, who go to the Lord for strength and wisdom, and who come together to worship.
PJ Dunn, North Georgia Discipleship Consultant for the GBMB, believes Cloud’s Creek, which he last visited May 21, is growing because the church continually adapts. “You don’t exist for 237 years without constantly doing some sort of revitalization. They’ve reinvented themselves multiple times.”
Dunn said it is the congregation’s attitude of reaching people around them that is the key. On his last visit, he talked with a 29-year-old woman who attends the church, and she said a lot of people her age drive an hour to a church to feel like they can belong. She said Cloud’s Creek is a place they can stop at so they don’t have to drive an hour. “What a cool thing for her to say. She’s just like, it was nice to just have a church near me.”
Dunn said church members are just trying to be real and making small changes to evolve and it’s refreshing to see people do that.” He concluded, “I think it will help other churches in the area. They can say, ‘Hey, we can do this too. Surely, we have 100 people in our community that we can reach. We’re not that desolate.’”
Carmen Eller and her family first began attending three years ago, and right off the bat, they felt they belonged. “It was very genuine, loving, friendly, and inviting, and definitely heavy in the Word of God. And that is what we wanted. Somewhere that the pastor preaches from the Bible and gives you practical knowledge that you can use in your life, instead of it feeling like it was just being read to you. It connected with you about how to use God’s word.”
Fourth-generation church member Wesley Smith loves his church. “Christ is the center of my life, so being at church is an important part of that. The growth we have had recently has been positive. We have a family atmosphere, which is one of the best qualities of my church.”
He also feels a sense of belonging, and said the church is God-focused and people-focused, and he hopes it stays authentic as a God-centered church “that nurtures, and in a family-type way that is not found in the secular world. It has a warmth to it.”
Ivey is seeing a deepening of faith at Cloud’s Creek. He says there is a greater understanding of God’s Word, stronger relationships with Him, and renewed unity among church members. “It’s changing how they are living. And that is what is going on at Cloud’s Creek. It’s a deepening of shallow faith,” he said.
“It’s proof,” he declared, “that in the middle of nowhere, God can do a mighty work!”
