What started as a one-time fill-in sermon by Rick Davis turned in to a full-time pastorate, a new mission for a church that was dying and a passion for reaching the lost that spread throughout the congregation.
In January, Davis was serving as pastor of the rural Fleetwood Baptist Church, Peterson, where he’d been for 18 years. But something in his heart was calling him to urban ministry, specifically multihousing communities in Tuscaloosa. He wanted to reach out to the 65 percent of the city’s most neglected population that live in apartment complexes, trailer parks, condo communities and so on.
The North American Mission Board estimates that less than 5 percent of multihousing residents are connected to a church. In Alabama that equates to being 10 times less likely to be connected to a church than for residents of a single family home.
“I didn’t know how that was going to play out or how God was going to (use me in multihousing ministry),” Davis said, but he resigned from his stable full-time position at Fleetwood Baptist and looked to God for direction.
Davis and about a dozen Fleetwood members had the same heart for multihousing ministry and began meeting and praying together regularly.
That’s Davis’ half of the story. The other half involves the former Graceway Baptist Church, located within one-eighth mile of approximately 2,000 apartment units in Tuscaloosa.
Planted in 1992, Graceway Baptist went through a few leadership changes and a change in neighborhood demographics. But after its last pastor resigned in early 2014 the congregation declined to only 10–12 members.
Jimmy Osborn, a charter member of Graceway who served as a trustee, deacon and assistant treasurer, said the church didn’t know where to turn.
Eric Boykin, missions strategist for Tuscaloosa Baptist Association, stepped in to preach for Graceway and discussed different options with the members as they looked to the future. At the same time, Davis had told Boykin he was interested in multihousing ministry and was looking for ways to get involved.
One Sunday morning in March, Boykin felt so sick he couldn’t get out of bed and had to find someone to fill in for him, so he called Davis.
Osborn said, “God moves in mysterious ways because Rick came that one Sunday and never left.”
After Davis preached in March he shared his heart for multihousing ministry with the members and how he hoped to find a place that would become a “sending center” into multihousing communities of Tuscaloosa.
By May, after several discussions, prayer meetings and seeking the Lord, Graceway members, Davis and the dozen Fleetwood members felt “God had brought two groups together to form one body.”
Graceway dissolved as a church and Grace Connection Church (GCC) was constituted in August. An official launch celebration was held Oct. 12 with 148 participants and GCC was voted into Tuscaloosa Association at its annual meeting Oct. 21.
GCC asked Forest Lake Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, to be its sponsoring church, something the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions encourages for all new church plants.
Osborn, now a GCC elder, trustee and assistant treasurer, initially was hesitant of all the change but eventually saw it all as “God’s doing.”
Now with 80–90 gathering each Sunday, GCC’s vision is to have a spiritual leader over each of the multihousing communities in the area (six apartment complexes and one trailer park). The members hope to set up Bible studies and ministries to reach each community and to launch the outreach in January with two ideas already in place: a Bible study/exercise group in an apartment complex where they have already been given access to the workout facilities and a Bible study for single mothers in a complex where 80 percent of the residents are mothers and their children.
GCC currently is active in one other multihousing community in the area and members are forming relationships with the managers.
“Doors are just opening more and more,” Davis said.
Because of the relationships formed, the largest apartment complex in the area gave GCC the apartment numbers of all the new move-ins for September. Funded by the association, church members made welcome baskets with information about the church and useful household items like a pizza cutter or a Frisbee for children. The complex’s management allowed Davis to hand-deliver the baskets, enabling him to meet the new residents.
Boykin will continue to meet and train GCC members as they strive to reach the mutlihousing communities around the church.
“There is hope for churches in transitioning communities; God has a plan,” Boykin said.
“GCC happened because a small group of people decided to change, to unify behind a new strategy, to get out of the building and reach out to people who were different from them,” he said. “I’m convinced that this is the hope of hundreds of inner-city churches that are dying because they have failed to adapt, change and re-emerge as a force in their community. The opportunity to replicate (what GCC did) is enormous.”
And Davis said he hopes to lead the church with a “vision centered around connection.”
“Our desire is to help connect people to Christ, connect to each other and connect to their purpose, or calling in ministry,” Davis said. “Our ultimate goal is to reach someone in these complexes with Christ and connect them to other believers in a study and eventually have them take over the study (in their community). … We’re not looking to grow a church, we’re looking to grow the Kingdom.”
For more information on multihousing ministries, contact Eric Boykin at 205-765-9154.
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