By Grace Thornton
The Alabama Baptist
Chad Holder said the bricks, chandeliers and pews that make up a church building can be very special to people — and he understands why.
“God has been there in that place, and He has met people there, and that is special,” he said.
But sometimes the time comes when God might be ready for a church to move to a new set of bricks and pews to start a new history and a new season, he said. That’s what happened recently for Sheffield’s York Terrace Baptist Church and First Baptist Church.
‘God was at work’
The two congregations merged in early March to become York Bluff Baptist Church. Holder — who had been serving as interim pastor of York Terrace — became the interim pastor of the new church. And they voted together to call the former First Baptist building home.
That just left one big question — what to do with the facilities of York Terrace Baptist, a place that was special to a lot of people.
But there was something already happening where those bricks and pews were concerned — God was at work, said Dowand Malone, pastor of the local Greater Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.
Malone’s church had been growing rapidly for the past few years and had been meeting in a donated building, but it was starting to outgrow it. Last year alone, they added 75 new members.
“We needed a bigger place,” he said.
And over time, as the merger was discussed, everyone involved began to sense that maybe York Terrace’s building should be Greater Fellowship’s new home.
Eddy Garner, director of missions for Colbert-Lauderdale Baptist Association, said it was “neat to see how it all came together.”
“As the York Terrace people and the First Baptist people talked about it and prayed about it, they wanted a Southern Baptist ministry to be in that building,” Garner said.
So in February, Greater Fellowship received a new building and a new family too — Colbert-Lauderdale Association voted for them to come under watch care. On the first weekend in March, all three churches held a celebration service together — and they gave Greater Fellowship the keys.
Great relationships
Malone said the churches have formed great relationships. At the end of the joint service, people were hugging and loving on each other, he said. “It’s really been helpful for both churches.”
He and Holder have become close friends. The day Greater Fellowship brought its truck to move into the York Terrace building, their church staff was moving out — and both groups of volunteers would take a load of Greater Fellowship’s stuff in and come back out carrying York Terrace’s stuff to load up.
It’s been a partnership all the way around, Holder said.
“Our mindset and our message are going to be, ‘We don’t care what you look like or where you come from — you’re always going to be welcome at York Bluff and welcome at Greater Fellowship,’” he said. “Find the one where you feel most comfortable, but you’re always welcome at both.”
York Bluff has already seen growth since the merger — in the first weeks they met, they had more in attendance than both the previous congregations combined. They’ve had to go online because of COVID-19, but Holder said he’s looking forward to the day they can pick up meeting together right where they left off.
“The spirit of the people has been amazing,” Holder said. “Only God could have done this.”
He said he would encourage any church that might feel God is leading toward a merger to step boldly into what they believe God is calling them to do.
‘More than imagined’
“If God doesn’t want you to leave, that’s great — stay right where you are,” he said. “But if He does, follow Him beyond the things it’s hard to leave — things like bricks and chandeliers. Ask God what He wants done and don’t be afraid to do it.”
Garner said the entire process has been a “wonderful picture of what can happen when churches work together.”
“I’ve been dreaming about this for five or six years, and God did more than I could have ever imagined,” he said.
Share with others: