Transitions - it's what the Rev. Dr. Stephen Burnette has seen occur at First Baptist Church of Barnwell during his tenure there.

The church will undergo more transition as it searches for a new pastor.

Burnette has accepted the senior pastor's position at First Baptist Church of Sumter. He will begin there the first week of August.

Burnette's last Sunday service in Barnwell will be June 28. He came to Barnwell December 1995 from Millbrook Baptist Church in Aiken.

Burnette publicly told his congregation during the June 14 service that he would be leaving, although he had been individually letting people know earlier. Burnette had also posted a note on Facebook on the Internet, he said.

First Baptist was a church that struggled at one time in attendance and interest from its parishioners. Now the church has transitioned to a mission-minded one, growing various ministries for the church, but also reaching out to the community at large too, he said.

Helping a church transition from one level to another is the talent Burnette feels God has given him, he said.

"My strengths are in transitional leadership where a church is at point A and needs to get to point B and sometimes they don't know where point B is," he said.

Burnette credits the congregation with the transitions that First Baptist has undergone and sees himself as a facilitator of change, not its agent, he said.

"That's the key to vision, they have to catch the vision," Burnette said.

When Burnette first arrived at First Baptist with his wife Annette, the regular church attendance was at about 180 people; there was one morning worship service and the staff included several church secretaries and himself, he said.

Burnette, now 53, has two grown children; a daughter, Adrian Swain and son, David Burnette.

Beyond that, the church then was experiencing a sense of low self-esteem and negativity, he said.

The task was to get the church to see itself as a better institution and challenge its growth both in numbers and in creating new ministries to help and appeal to people, he said.

"The sense of negativity is gone. It was a complaining church (then) because they were hurt," Burnette said. "My task was to free the laity up to do ministry so they could be a part of it."

Now church attendance is more than 400 and there are three Sunday morning services. The church now has a staff of 11, including Harry Adkins as music minister; Don Sanders, music associate minister; Lee Clamp, youth director; Kenneth Padgett, youth associate minister; Trina Burt, children's director and Tori Towne, the director of the children's development center.

First Baptist has also spearheaded several projects to help the Barnwell 45 schools through work teams for repairs or getting church members to be mentors in the schools, Burnette said.

First Baptist was also a participant in Renaissance Barnwell, a community effort to plan and enact future improvements in the Barnwell 45 school district.

Physically the church has transitioned into a campus as it acquired surrounding land and built the Merge, a youth-oriented social center which opened in 2007.

The church also acquired the old SCE&G office building nearby on Allen Street, which will eventually house the church offices. Future plans include a new children's ministry building, Burnette said.

The children's development center has grown from 10 children to about 180, he said.

"It has blossomed. It has a waiting list," he said.

Burnette praises the congregation for the transitions they have wrought.

"It's a congregation that does whatever it takes. It's a congregation that puts its arms around broken people. It's a place of grace - people find love and acceptance and other people who will help them find the kind of person they want to be. It's been a growth story number-wise but also a growth story in healing and growing people," he said.