Johnny Williams left New Orleans one day before Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, but he had planned to leave long before the storm was on the radar.
“I’m from New Orleans and I pastored in New Orleans, but God had said my time there was up,” Williams said. “I was just waiting on my cue. Katrina was our blessing.”
He and his family traveled to Texas and awaited God’s guidance for the next step. Williams never thought he would be led to an Ensley pool hall.
A few months after arriving in Alabama, Williams and six other church planters were commissioned by Winewood Baptist Christian Fellowship, near Pinson, in Birmingham Baptist Association (BBA) in September 2007. And God began opening doors for their ministries.
Williams and his new congregation, Living Faith Baptist Cathedral, Birmingham, began holding weekly house-to-house Bible studies. Then an Ensley business owner asked him to lead a Bible study at his business, which Williams later learned was a bar and pool hall.
“The owner had about 18 of his customers there,” Williams said.
“That same night, he got saved and his wife got saved and he made a public announcement that this place would never be what it used to be. We held Bible study in the building for five or six months.”
After cleaning the place up, painting it, laying carpet and adding new chairs, that was where Living Faith Baptist held its services.
In late August, the congregation, which has grown and joined BBA, began meeting in the education building of Central Baptist Church, Birmingham, in BBA.
“Had not I passed that way, I would not be in the places I’m in now,” Williams said. “It’s opened up doors and made connections for me I could not have made by myself. … I thank God for the opportunity.”
Terence Davis, pastor of Abundant Life Church, Clay, is thankful for the assistance his congregation has received from the partnership with Winewood Baptist.
Davis said what he likes about John H. Davis Jr., pastor of Winewood, is that “he recognizes that it’s God’s church and it’s a corporate church.”
“He really believes we should all be about our Father’s business,” Terence Davis said, adding, “The membership numbers don’t really matter; what matters is how many people you have led to Christ.”
Currently under BBA’s watch-care program until October, Abundant Life is focusing on impacting the world for Christ.
“Too often, people come to church and go through the motions,” Terence Davis said. “We are trying to nurture a maturity in people that gets us beyond ‘temple worship’ and into the ‘holy of holies,’ where we are really in the presence of God.”
Like him, Pastor Wilton Cauthens said being commissioned by Winewood has helped establish his congregation, Christ for the Nation, Birmingham, which is now a BBA church.
“We knew what we wanted to do, but we had to have someone to walk with us and pray with us,” Cauthens said.
“Winewood understood what we were doing, and with their help, we were able to do it.”
Although sponsoring and mentoring the seven churches started by the commissioned church planters has been difficult at times, John Davis said the partnerships have been a blessing to his 96-member church.
“Our sponsorship is unique in that we don’t have a lot of money to help them,” he said, noting Winewood shares its office space and equipment, secretary and supplies when needed.
“The Lord has proven His point that He can take a small amount of resources and do great things. It seems like the less you have, the more God can do through you.”
Although John Davis is pleased with the church planters’ progress thus far, he still looks forward to helping them build self-sustaining congregations that plant other churches.
“They are our children,” he said. “I won’t feel really complete until those children bring us grandchildren.”
For more information on these new church plants or to help, contact John Davis at 205-853-9906 or jhd316@hotmail.com.
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