A North Carolina church baptized 458 new believers at an outdoor event this month, setting a record in the congregation’s 137-year history.
Biltmore Church, which has seven campuses in North Carolina, posted on their Facebook page, “What an exciting and incredible day!! Today we celebrated 458 people publicly declare that Jesus is Lord of their life! Thank you Jesus for working in our community!”
The event was held on Sunday, September 13, in Fletcher.
In an interview with The Christian Post, Biltmore executive pastor Devin Goins said it is “very humbling for us” given that “baptism represents lives being changed and God being at work.”
“We see and celebrate all of this while being continually reminded that we do not invite God to be part of our story and that instead He invites us to be part of His story,” said Goins.
Church leaders said they have seen success at the annual outdoor event. In September 2023, 279 people were baptized at the outdoor event, and the event set a previous record of 389 one year ago, in 2025.
“For those who don’t know Jesus personally yet but saw others get baptized, our hope would be that it sparks a desire to ask questions about Jesus and stir a genuine curiosity about what it means to be a Christ-follower,” Goins added in his interview, and said someone as far away as New York who watches services online came to be baptized.
The church traces its roots to Fern Hill Baptist Church, which was founded with 25 members in 1889 on land that is now part of the Biltmore Estate.
