Steve Ayers became a pastor at Hillvue Heights Church in 1991 with just 30 members but has grown into a megachurch, attracting 5,000 people to its Sunday services.
"The evangelistic success of Hillvue is nothing short of miraculous," Kentucky Baptist Convention executive director Paul Chitwood told Kentucky Today.
"We celebrate every soul saved and pray God gives a harvest of 10,000 more."
Ayers said he was confident that even more people would decide to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
"I'll be talking about Jesus until my last breath," Ayers said. "We have one message that Jesus Christ died on the cross to save sinners, that He's risen from the grave to give us new life. We don't have a system at Hillvue; we have attitudes.
"The first attitude is we believe God created every human being and every human being is worthy of grace. The second attitude is we meet people where they are to invite them to come where Jesus will take them. We can't save people, but we can share the cross and resurrection with them so that they might know Jesus will save them."
After surviving an explosion that nearly killed him two years ago, he has increased his efforts to evangelise because "truly, at your last breath, nothing else matters."
"I think we have a great awakening at Hillvue yet to come," he said.
"This is the beginning. It's crazy. I'm more excited now than when I first arrived here. It's amazing to watch people come to Christ. It never gets old."
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