One church in Montevallo is keeping the lights on a little longer every Sunday. That’s to accommodate the second church family.
The members of University Baptist Church, Montevallo, still hold Sunday School and worship at their regular times of 9:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m., while members of the newly formed Word of Faith Baptist Church gather there for Sunday School and worship beginning at 1 p.m. Word of Faith Baptist held its inaugural worship service May 4.
Robin Norsworthy, pastor of University Baptist, said the partnership evolved out of her church’s effort to be more intentional in its ministry to the nearby black community.
"We know there are a lot of people we simply aren’t reaching in the neighborhoods around our church," she said. "We tried for a long time, but our service, which is pretty traditional, just doesn’t speak to everyone."
At the same time, Hattie Jackson-Harris, pastor of Word of Faith and a friend of Norsworthy, had been praying for an opportunity to start a church focused on ministry within Montevallo’s black community.
The two pastors began discussing the possibility of starting a new church to coexist within University’s facilities, and at the end of January, its members agreed to a shared facilities covenant.
The covenant states the church’s intention and theological motivation for sharing the building. Specifically it notes University’s desire to further the gospel in Montevallo, benefit from the strengths of another congregation and exemplify prudent financial stewardship by minimizing costs but maximizing ministerial efforts.
Jackson-Harris said Word of Faith’s goal is not to pull people away from other churches but to "reach out to unchurched people, a lot of whom are young, and bring them into a church where they can come as they are."
To reach that younger, unchurched crowd, she and Norsworthy believe the new church’s style of worship will be effective.
"University’s style is more conservative, while Word of Faith’s is more charismatic," Jackson-Harris said. "God never changes but to reach out to certain unchurched people, sometimes methods change."
Though the two methods of ministry are expected to change lives outside the church building, Jackson-Harris knows what she doesn’t want to see change.
"We don’t want them to change," Jackson-Harris said. "And they don’t want us to change. We want to celebrate the differences."
After a year, both churches will review the covenant to decide whether to renew the agreement. But Norsworthy said there is no timeline, and because the goal of Word of Faith is to reach out to the community surrounding University’s facilities, she added that she doesn’t expect the partnership to end any time soon.
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