Coastal congregations expand during winter months

Several pastors of Baptist churches on the Gulf Coast say that while they don’t like stealing members from other pastors’ congregations, they’re happy to borrow them for a while.
   
It’s now standard for coastal pastors to expect and even depend on their church to double or triple in size during the winter with visitors commonly known as “snowbirds.” 
   
“Many snowbirds are considered a part of our fellowship because they come back year after year. They become a vital part of our ministry,” said Paul Smith, pastor of Romar Beach Baptist Church, Orange Beach, in Baldwin Baptist Association.
   
The peak of the snowbird season is from the second week of January until the end of February, a time when Smith said his church “comes alive.” Annual visitors come from all over, including Michigan, Connecticut, Illinois and Wisconsin.
   
When Hurricane Ivan destroyed Romar Beach Baptist in 2004, the snowbirds were quick to e-mail and call Smith to check on the status of the church, a building they had helped to build both financially and literally. Now they are becoming a vital part of the building process for the church’s new facility, which will be five stories including a first-floor parking garage. 
   
“We can count on them like clockwork,” Smith said. 
   
Don Taylor, a deacon at Romar Beach Baptist, agreed. “They’re a part of my family. We couldn’t exist without them; it’s just that simple.”
   
Taylor said the church’s “extended family” is so large that they have a different congregation every week. “We’ll have more visitors on one Sunday than most churches our size have in a whole year.”
   
Fred Andress, part of Romar Beach Baptist’s extended family, comes from Michigan to spend three months each winter at the church. He said being able to rejoin the congregation each year is “the best.”
   
“The church there is the best one I’ve ever seen,” he said, adding that he loves jumping in and being involved in the church’s ministries when he arrives every January.
   
Lloyd Stilley, pastor of First Baptist Church, Gulf Shores, in Baldwin Association, said the snowbirds in his congregation bring different stories, different accents and different ways of thinking, but they all share the same passion for the Word of God.
   
According to Stilley, the snowbirds that come each year — sometimes numbering in the hundreds — don’t just sit the bench. They join the choir, work in the kitchen and help with the maintenance of the facility. “It’s so utterly different than anywhere else I’ve served. It’s a blessing,” he said. “They just come and share in what the Lord is doing and bring their spiritual gifts along with them.”
   
At a time of year that is typically gray and overcast outside, Stilley said it’s anything but that inside the walls of First, Gulf Shores. With the welcoming of new visitors as well as the many snowbirds that return year after year, the ministries of the church are targeted toward this fluid crowd.
   
One snowbird couple that has been coming for 16 years now actually teaches a Sunday School class for the snowbirds during the winter months. The annual visitors have become “associate” or “nonresident” members of these congregations. According to Stilley, the snowbirds put tens of thousands of dollars toward First, Gulf Shores, recently completed facility.
   
“From our perspective, this is like a brother that you love coming back for a family reunion, only they just get to stay for months,” he said.
   
Salam Shorrosh, pastor of Lagoon Baptist Church, Gulf Shores, in Baldwin Association said his congregation welcomes the snowbirds back each year with open arms. “We love all over them, and they love all over us,” he said.
   
Shorrosh noted one instance in which the church’s pianist got sick suddenly and he asked the congregation if any of the snowbirds could play the piano. One of the visitors was a church pianist back home, and she filled in on the spot.
   
“We enjoy having them around and getting to know them better,” Shorrosh said. “Their contribution to our church’s life is humbling.”
   
Although coastal congregations feel a definite lull when the snowbirds leave, Taylor notes that it’s not long before the “sunbirds” start to arrive. “They are our ministry,” he said. “That’s why we’re here.”