For the past few months, Sunday mornings have involved a different sort of “commute” for Pastor Joel Dison.
At 9 a.m. he preaches at Springdale Baptist Church in the Tarrant area of Birmingham. He’s been pastor there since August when the church’s previous pastor stepped back from ministry.
When that worship service ends, Dison drives about five minutes to Pawnee Baptist Church, where he has been pastor since May 2015, to preach again at 11:00. He is joined at both services by Springdale’s worship leader Terry Preston and organist Judy Coffey.
On Wednesday nights, the two congregations meet jointly at Pawnee, and on Sunday nights they gather at Springdale.
So far it’s working, and as of Oct. 25, 2020, Dison officially is pastor at both churches — at least until this October. The one-year experiment is not a merger, he said, and it’s not “fostering” or “adoption,” terms churches sometimes use when they work together.
‘Something different’
“It’s something different,” he explained. “It’s a partnership. The concept we use is, `one mission, two churches.’”
Though October marked the formal connection, the two churches began working together in 2019. They had been part of associational church revitalization conversations – Springdale is in Birmingham Metro Baptist Association and Pawnee in North Jefferson Baptist Association – and that common interest led to discussions about how the two congregations might work together.
A few Springdale members joined Pawnee in D-Life discipleship groups, which met at a local fast-food restaurant.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and things got complicated. Dison had begun livestreaming Pawnee’s services in the summer of 2019 because the church, which averaged 30-35 on Sundays pre-pandemic, had a number of homebound members.
“When COVID hit, we never missed a beat as it relates to livestreaming,” Dison said. “We were already doing it.”
The situation at Springdale was much different. The church had no capability to livestream, so from March to May the 50 or so members had no in-person services or online presence, Dison said.
In June, Springdale members decided they would resume in-person gatherings but discovered the building’s sewer system had backed up into the church, a problem that would require extensive repair both inside and outside. Church leaders asked if they could worship with Pawnee, which had resumed in-person services, and of course Dison welcomed them. From June to late August both congregations worshipped together.
Not only that, but they held a virtual Vacation Bible School, distributing materials to neighborhood children, and also cooperated in distributing food boxes in the community.
It went so well that leaders began to think they might be on to something.
“While we were meeting together, the leadership of both churches were meeting regularly to talk about why God might be bringing us together like this,” Dison explained. “We saw we could do more together than we could do separate.”
Members of both congregations prayed and sought the Lord’s guidance for the future, not just in terms of leadership or programs but also outreach into the Tarrant area.
Community in transition
“Our community has changed a lot in the past 10 years,” said Gary Curl, a deacon at Springdale. “When I first came here we had 215 attending. Now that’s 40-50. Our church has an average age in the mid-70s. We’ve got to change that or Springdale won’t survive.”
Curl sees a growing Hispanic population in the neighborhood surrounding the church and wants to reach them. Dison feels the same way. Not too long ago the two congregations held an ESL (English as a Second Language) training event. They want to offer ESL classes, find ways to involve more children from the neighborhood in children’s and youth ministries, and maybe even start a Spanish mission church. They are working toward a joint children’s program on Wednesday nights and cooperative outreach efforts related to Easter.
Members of both churches have lots of ideas, though many are still in the praying, planning and preparing stage, Dison said. Still, outreach is something the two congregations can do together for the long-term, regardless of what happens in October.
Chris Crain, executive director of the Birmingham Metro Association, called the agreement a “win for both churches.”
“It’s a sign of spiritual maturity on the part of both congregations,” he added. “It takes a level of humility and passion for the gospel to want to share a team of leaders.”
And Crain noted Dison’s love of the community, where he moved after becoming pastor of Pawnee.
“To have a leader who is committed to the people of Tarrant and has proven that because he lives there is really exciting for both congregations,” Crain said.
Still, it was not an easy process, Curl noted, and both churches have had to compromise at times.
“People love their church,” he said. “It took a lot of prayer and leadership on the part of deacons and others at both churches. And we had a lot of conversations about what God wants versus what we each personally desire.”
Dison agreed.
“God did this,” he said. “God providentially orchestrated every aspect of the circumstances that made this possible. This was us being obedient to God.”
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