Mobile black, white churches share facilities

For two years, leaders of Orchard Baptist Church, Mobile, prayed for God to do a new work in them. Located in a predominantly black community, the church longed to reach out to their neighbors but did not know what to do.
   
Then Pastor Everett Childers heard that New Generation Church, a recently established black congregation, had been meeting in the Mobile Baptist Association office building and didn’t have room to adequately accommodate its 90 worshippers. 
   
Using conference rooms as meeting spaces and a copier room for a children’s class, New Generation desperately needed a new facility.
   
Concerned, he immediately placed a call to New Generation pastor Charles Dent and suggested that they use Orchard Baptist’s extra space for church services and meetings.
   
After months of prayer and joint meetings, both churches began sharing the campus by alternating Sunday School and worship times.
   
“In January, we claimed Isaiah 43:19, and we’ve been asking God to do a new thing in our church,” Childers said. “We never dreamed it would be this, but this is the door that God opened for us and it has definitely been a new thing.”
   
He said that Orchard viewed New Generation as “a group of people who have the same Savior and (are) working for the same cause.”
   
“We thought we have the facilities and they needed space, so we made a Kingdom connection and invited them to join us and share our facilities,” Childers added. “Our congregation has had open arms. We have been really willing to do whatever it takes to help facilitate their needs. They have just reciprocated and it has just worked out well.”
   
Since Orchard averages about 200 people during Sunday morning worship and owns multiple facilities on 27 acres, there are many areas available to New Generation, including classroom space and a parsonage they are currently using as office space.  
   
“They have worship from 8–10 a.m., while we’re in Sunday School,” Childers said. “At 10:30, we go to worship, and they have Sunday school in our facilities. On Wednesday nights, they have their own Bible study program while we’re having ours.”
   
At times, the two churches hold joint worship services where both pastors preach.
  
“You can tell God was working,” said Dent, noting that New Generation’s membership has grown tremendously. “We didn’t go out fishing for this. He was fishing and He caught us and brought us together. It is really peaceful, fruitful and productive.”
   
As president of region seven of the Inter-Baptist Fellowship, Dent is accustomed to working for race reconciliation.
   
“It’s amazing how I became the president of this and now I’m living it,” he said. 
   
“I think God is giving us the opportunity to remove that old cliché that the most segregated hour is Sunday morning at 11 (and) to recognize that Christians of all colors and creeds can come together and worship. We are watching the awesome power of God dealing with racism.”
   
From the beginning, church and community members have responded well to the union, according to the pastors.
   
“It’s challenging comfort zones,” Dent said. “Our comfort zones become our safety (net), and I just feel in my heart that God is moving people out of those comfort zones to make disciples of all races and nations. It’s an awesome experience.”
   
On Aug. 13, the churches plan to sponsor a block party, and even though they look forward to other community ministry work together, neither pastor knows what to expect in the future.
   
“We are just going to leave the future to God,” Childers said. “This is a God thing, and this is as far as He’s led us.”
   
He hopes this cooperation may encourage other churches to share their facilities with other groups or new church starts.
   
“This is a way it can be done,” Childers said. 
   
“We’re not saying this is the only way, but God just worked this out for us.”