Traveling south on I-59 from Gadsden to Birmingham, a cross appears on the hill to your right as you pass by the Deerfoot Parkway exit in Trussville.
The cross compliments church property sitting at 5450 Mount Olive Church Road — and for one Sunday (April 27) the 57,000-square-foot building and 23 acres will sit quietly as two congregations shift locations, swap out signs and revise their websites.
The nearly 40 remaining active members of Deerfoot Baptist Church held their final service in the building April 20, which also happened to provide another sentimental focus — Easter. The group’s story is far from over, however.
They are already set for the first service in their new rental location at 1935 U.S. Hwy 11 in the Argo area of Trussville and will be seeking a bivocational, or possibly full-time, pastor soon. Retired pastor Derek Gentle of Tallassee has been serving as a supply preacher for them.
In fact, the renewed vision and clarity of purpose resulting from a carefully moderated process of working through the recent difficult decisions seems to have sparked a new energy among members to fully invest in their communities, church leaders noted.
‘God was all over this’
“Prayer is what did it all,” said longtime church member Dianne Kovacich. “God was all over this. … The heart of our congregation is for one thing and one thing only — that is to glorify God, make disciples and love each other. We want to help our community any way we can. We are still ministering through all of this.
“We wanted to finish well at the Deerfoot Baptist campus. We put tons of prayer and lots of thought into all of this to do it the right way,” she said.
And the leadership of Deerfoot Church of Christ almost can’t believe how their story has unfolded, especially now that their church name actually matches their location.
The congregation’s first Sunday in the previous Deerfoot Baptist building is set for May 4, and with the size of the sanctuary they can now fit everyone in one service with no need for an overflow room like what they were doing at their previous Old Springville Road location in Pinson.
Those attending Deerfoot Church of Christ also can now say goodbye to the weekly struggle to find a parking spot. Attendance has been running nearly 350 on Sunday mornings in recent days with lots of strategic and creative maneuvering to make it all work. Now they have plenty of room to spread out and grow.
“We have set up 470 chairs in the auditorium,” said church elder Louis “Skip” McCurry, who noted the sweet moment he witnessed some of the Baptist church members assessing the work being done following the sale of the building in late March.
“Those members were elated to walk in and see the setup, to remember what it looked like when they once had around 500 in attendance,” McCurry shared.
A special bond has formed through the process of purchasing the property (which includes a cemetery to maintain), even though “we (Church of Christ and Baptists) don’t exactly see eye to eye (on some doctrinal issues such as baptism),” he said.
“But we do have this in common — we serve a living God and risen Savior, and we are trying to spread those things throughout the world.”
‘Light on the hill’
“Every member of Deerfoot Baptist said how blessed they feel that another church is taking over their building (especially with more new homes being built nearby),” McCurry noted. “We want to be a light on the hill and keep the cross burning bright.”
Richard Harp, minister for Deerfoot Church of Christ, added, “We are thankful to be stewards of the building, of the gospel, and to have a key to this community.”
The Deerfoot Baptist family appreciates the new opportunity for the area to see lots of life and energy seeping out from the property and for vibrant worship to flow from the sanctuary again, explained minister of music Ricky Buckner. The sanctuary had not been used in recent days because of the smaller number in attendance.
‘It’s God’s building’
Buckner has served Deerfoot Baptist off and on since it came into being in 1994 after 85th Street Baptist Church in the East Lake area of Birmingham merged with Mount Olive Baptist Church in Trussville (where Buckner was then minister of music).
He said the unanimous, peaceful and hopeful consensus of what to do with the property and the congregation’s next steps came down to giving it all to God.
“Knowing the church is not the building, it’s the people themselves, and realizing we could no longer afford to maintain property much too large for our current congregation size, we took the mindset of, ‘It’s God’s building,’” Buckner said.
“We watched as the people who put their lifeblood, the patriarchs of both original churches, realized it too,” he said. “There’s going to be God’s people in heaven, those who have surrendered their life to Him, not just Baptists.
“Once we lose a possessional attitude and realize we are just servants for Christ, then where God leads us to next is where we will be the church together.
“When we got to the point where we could rationalize in our mind that it’s not about us but about who we are in Him … and when we allowed God to take control, then we’ve watched as He’s now got a congregation in the building with a goal to have 500 people present on their first Sunday.
“That room will once again sing and praise God, and the congregation will be heading back out to a lost community.”
Financial details also ‘a God thing’
From that moment on, everything fell into place for both congregations and the stories of how God has been working in the most intricate of details will likely be shared for years to come.
Even the aspects surrounding the finances on both sides deserve their own feature presentation — “definitely a God thing,” Buckner said.
From the Deerfoot Baptist side of the story, 10 ministries will benefit from the sale because the congregation voted unanimously to put all the proceeds in a trust that will disperse funds equally to those selected groups sharing the gospel and helping improve lives around the world.
Recipients include Unforsaken Ministry, Real Love Ministries, Global Village Renewal in India, Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions to name a few.
‘Multiplied’ blessings
The tithes and offerings given to purchase the property initially has now been turned back into money that will be sent out to serve the Lord again, Buckner said. “God took our blessings and multiplied it.”
Both congregations welcome all who might drop by to explore their new settings and hear the powerful stories as well as catch the vision for how they both plan to reach their communities for Christ.
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