Jarman Leatherwood says he can sum up his church’s story in four words — “from mortuary to miracle.”
The mortuary part isn’t figurative either. Five years ago, on the first Sunday that House of Hope and Restoration gathered together as a church, they met in a local funeral home. Leatherwood says he told the 30 or so people present that he believed the Lazarus story but if somebody came walking from around the other side of the wall, he would be the first one running out the door.
That didn’t happen, he joked — but God has still surprised him in the ways He’s breathed life into a ministry that started at zero.
“Seeing God do what He’s done it’s like — wow. How does this happen? Because God is real,” he said. “We started out literally with nothing, and He comes in and does all this.”
‘God sent help’
“All this” is taking a young church plant and growing the congregation into a thriving church of several hundred people in a low-income area of north Huntsville.
And “all this” is moving in the hearts of another congregation to give them a 250,000-square-foot facility for free.
“God sent help and He continues to do it,” he said. “We believe God called us here to give hope. Madison County has 400,000 people and more than 200,000 don’t go to church. That’s the burden we have.”
Leatherwood himself knows what it’s like to need hope — his father committed suicide when he was 9.
“People are hurting all over this county just like I was hurting,” he said. “Through God’s work in me I began to realize that for all of us some of your greatest misery can give birth to some of your greatest ministry.”
With that thought driving him Leatherwood got to work planting a church, but he was “all passion without the practicality,” he said. So he called Madison Baptist Association for help and the leadership there connected him with Lamar Duke, church planting strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
“From there, I went to the church planters’ training, and things just kind of catapulted,” Leatherwood said.
Duke was able to help Leatherwood secure the church’s first building outside the funeral home, and House of Hope and Restoration continued to grow.
“We had our first service there and 393 people showed up,” Leatherwood said. “In that building we baptized probably 40 people within a few months. It was just rapid growth — stuff started happening.”
But they still had space issues and Leatherwood’s connection with the local Baptist association put them on the radar of Highlands Baptist Church, a church in a changing neighborhood that was no longer filling its building on Sundays.
“I got a message from Pastor Tony Guthrie saying he wanted to meet with me, and I went over there and he showed me around the building,” Leatherwood said. “I told him we were a young church — I didn’t think we could afford a building like that.
And he said, ‘We’re going to give it to you.’ They had opportunities to sell it, but they wanted to continue the legacy of Highlands through a sister church.”
God’s vision
From there things took off, Leatherwood said. House of Hope and Restoration moved into its new home in January and the creativity in ministry started flowing.
“God just began to give vision,” Leatherwood said. “We have an auditorium there that we’re calling the Hope Center.”
In the Hope Center they’re hosting a variety of activities for local students — things like art and dance classes and talent shows. They’re also running mentorship groups to talk about topics like bullying and peer pressure.
And they’re feeding the community once a month and will soon bring jobs in by opening a child development center in the church.
“When you live in a place like that where morale is low, you realize God has given us a missions field where we can see life change and watch people grow up and allow God to use their gifts,” Leatherwood said. “All that God is doing is awesome.”
And it didn’t stop there. House of Hope and Restoration got a vision to use an ice cream truck to reach the community and one day Leatherwood happened to mention it when he was meeting with a city councilman.
“He jumped up and ran out of the meeting,” Leatherwood said. “And when he came back he told me he couldn’t believe I’d mentioned the ice cream truck. The city council and the mayor had been talking about wanting to do the exact same thing to bless the community.”
So they offered to pay for the church’s ice cream, gas and truck maintenance — and send a policeman with them as they went around the community.
“It’s incredible,” Leatherwood said.
Duke agreed. “It is just absolutely amazing what God is doing there,” he said.
To see Highlands Baptist — a church of 700 — get down to 23 but continue the work through this new church plant is a blessing, Duke said. It’s a win for a church plant like House of Hope and Restoration that’s struggling to find and afford space, and it’s a win for a church like Highlands that wants to see the work of God continue in a changing community.
Generously blessed
“Now there’s going to be life in those buildings — salvations, discipleship and ministry that wasn’t going on before. It’s putting the resources of God where the activity of God is. That’s what we want to see happen.”
Leatherwood said his church’s partnership with local and state Baptists has been vital to its ministry.
“We never wanted to be lone rangers,” he said. “We have definitely been blessed by the generosity of Highlands Baptist and those who have given to the Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering. We are constantly grateful.”
For more information on church planting contact Lamar Duke at lduke@alsbom.org or 334-613-2332.
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