TUSTIN, Calif. - Tustin First Baptist Church baptized 12 people this year, compared to just one or two last year. Many of the 200 members get to church early on Sundays to make sure they get a parking spot.

That was not the case last November, according to a report in the Orange Country Register. Membership had dwindled to 50 and even the church's school secretary and her family stopped attending.

"I didn't feel like there was anything to plug my kids into," Natalie Eggen told the newspaper.

Prompted by the bleak outlook, the church took out an ad in a local newspaper, asking "members and all those we have had interactions with to forgive us, if we have ever been an offense, or neglected an opportunity, or not followed through on a promise to you," according to the report.

Copies were sent to people who stopped coming on Sunday mornings, inviting them to talk to interim pastor Paul Barnes.

The church's public apology "wasn't just a tactic to make our church grow, it was to make amends," longtime member Lahoma Ballester told the newspaper. "Maybe we had offended people in the past and maybe that was what was holding us back."

The Rev. Fred Snider, who took over as pastor in January, told the newspaper the church would not be on the mend had it not gone before the congregation on bended knee.

"The church was in the tomb and had to have the stone rolled away," said Snider. "It's dark and it's bleary, but Sunday's coming."