Church revitalization is an important topic due to the number of dying churches today. Many once-thriving churches are struggling to stay open or are being closed for good.
Eden Westside Baptist Church in Pell City showed that even if a church closes, it’s not necessarily the end. On Jan. 12, its River Campus in Leeds celebrated its 10th anniversary, having been revitalized from Cahaba View Baptist Church that began in 1939 but had closed its doors in 2013.
Eden Westside Baptist is one church with two locations, with Jacky Connell as pastor. The main campus is in Pell City, and its service is livestreamed to the River Campus each week.
The sanctuary was packed with a joy-filled church family watching a presentation of memories, celebrating those who had been baptized there and remembering how it all began.
Unexpected meeting
On Nov. 14, 2014, Connell’s assistant told him that he had a meeting he needed to attend but didn’t know details other than who it was with — Larry Fine and a former mayor of Leeds, Jack Courson.
After some small talk in Connell’s office at Eden Westside, Connell asked why they were there.
“I didn’t know what this was all about. Sitting on the couch in my office, Larry was crying — a 70-something-year-old man crying. He looked at me and said, ‘God sent us here to talk to you. Our church in our community shut down and locked its doors. God sent us here to ask you if you would come and pastor that church.’” Connell said.
Courson had bought the old church’s property “for pennies on the dollar” and wanted to get the church going again.
After Connell got over the shock of the offer, he reminded them he was currently pastor of a church. However, after thinking about it, he proposed three actions he could take. First, he could do nothing. Second, he could connect them with someone who helps with church revitalization. Third, he would be available for them to call anytime to ask for advice, saying that he knew what not to do.
Fine started crying again and said that wasn’t what God told him. Courson said that he was preaching anyway and asked if they could “satellite” him in, also offering to pay for everything needed until Easter. If no one came, they would simply lock it back up. If people started coming, then they could take over the mortgage.
Just before Christmas in 2014, Eden Westside’s leaders met at the church and prayed, dedicating it to the Lord. Then, with the help of the deacons and members, they got the musty building ready to open by the second Sunday in January 2015.
On that Sunday, church leaders came to get ready to open for their first service. While making final preparations, a man pulled up in the parking lot and asked what they were doing.
Mickey Pinson, the chairman of the deacons, led the man to Jesus in the parking lot — even before the church officially opened its doors. Since that day, Eden Westside River Campus has had 80 people join, with 15 baptized there.
Connell noted that the River Campus is a testimony to churches that want to quit but then see what God is doing there, and it’s birthing new hope for their own churches.
Necessary ingredients
He shared four things that are necessary for revitalization:
1. Commitment — Not giving up on God and recommitting to the mission of God’s calling, shown through service.
2. Change — Embracing the change that is a part of growth (not doctrine or the biblical message but the methods used).
3. Church — Believing that God can get life back into the church.
4. Continuation — Persevering and knowing that if the church dies, there are people who then won’t hear about Jesus.
The celebration closed with Chris Crain, executive director for Birmingham Metro Baptist Association, giving the church a plaque with an official resolution congratulating the church for 10 years of ministry.
Crain shared how, when he was a volunteer moderator for the association in 2013, he heard that Cahaba Baptist had closed.
“I remember the feeling that a lighthouse had gone out in this community. When I started in my role now, in 2019, I remember being invited to that (5th anniversary) celebration here. I’ll tell you folks, I really couldn’t believe what God had done to this place. I was just blown away,” Crain said.
The story of Eden Westside encouraged Crain to start an office of revitalization in the Birmingham Metro Association.
Earlier in the service, Rick Earnest, teaching pastor of Eden Westside, summed up the sentiment of the day.
“It’s not buildings that make churches. It’s people. You know when those folks who had been baptized stood up, there’s something that struck me.
“Even more so than the thankfulness I feel seeing the lives that have been changed by the love of Christ — those same people who stood up are serving in this church. They are not just people who God saved and are sitting. They’re serving. They are being the Church.”
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