Roebuck churches come together

Roebuck Park Baptist Church  (Birmingham Association) and New Life Evangelistic Worship Center have shared a unique relationship since last September when New Life began leasing Roebuck Park’s church property. Roebuck Park moved its Sunday services to Hewitt-Trussville High School in preparation for building a new worship center on Deerfoot Parkway.  Since September the churches have successfully coordinated their special events and weekday activities on the Roebuck campus.
   
The churches moved beyond this business relationship, however, Feb. 17. The two congregations, one predominantly white and the other predominantly African-American, planned a joint women’s brunch and worship time. The event, “One with the Father,” was planned by Roebuck Park’s Seasons Women’s Ministry leadership team. “February is racial relations month and we thought it would be great to start with our partnership with New Life,” Seasons worship leader Allison Willard explained.
   
Willard coordinated the event with New Life’s office manager, Sheila Waldrop, and Roebuck Park member Rheba Watkins Lee. Following a potluck brunch, the two pastors’ wives, Rondie Wilks (Roebuck Park) and Bonita Fomby (New Life), illustrated how much all women have in common once they get beyond the skin color barrier. Both women are pastor’s wives, have three sons. and love the Lord. Then the women gathered in the sanctuary for praise and worship led by Susan Goggins, Donna Smith and Willard from Roebuck Park and Cathy Cato, Sophia Cunningham, and Fomby from New Life. About 70–80 women joined their voices to sing praise choruses such as “Great and Mighty,” “I Exalt Thee” and “Shout to the Lord.” Mary Johnson from Roebuck Park played the piano, and Roselia Knox from New Life played the keyboard leading everyone in the opening chorus, “Come on Everybody.”
   
“We could have easily sung for another hour,” Willard said. “No one wanted to stop, yet we were all eager to hear Rheba (Watkins Lee) speak.”
   
Lee shared her sincere — and at times hilarious — testimony of how God led her, an African-American, out of her comfort zone to join Roebuck Park. Lee created the event theme “One with the Father” and chose the Scriptures, Psalm 133:1 and 1 Corinthians 1:10. In her message she shared how these verses are a call for Christians to break down any barriers whether they stand between races, classes, nationalities or genders. While no formal invitation was planned after Lee’s message, there was one public profession of faith, and many of the participants stayed behind after the event to pray together.
   
All of the event planners were excited by the number of women who attended in spite of damage and power outages following severe storms. Seasons co-coordinator, Kathy Blythe, didn’t let the lack of electricity keep her away: “I knew God had big plans for this day, and I didn’t want to miss it.”
   
Lee summed up the event’s success: “One of the Scriptures, Psalm 133:1, says, ‘Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity;’ that describes the meeting. It was sweet yet powerful. I personally left with a stronger desire to give Him more; and I also left with new friends who were bursting with genuine love.”