- [Josh] Are we okay to lay down some of our traditions,
some of the things we've done,
even some of the positions we've held,
so that God can use this place
to reach a whole new generation of people,
to reach a whole new demographic of people?
Whatever it takes, we're willing to do it,
because the alternative is,
you become a story of another church that's closed
when you could have been a story
of a church that relaunched, that replanted,
and now is reaching people that you
never would've dreamed of reaching
if you had just kept trying to go the same course.
(bright gentle music)
- One of our interim pastors began talks with Valleydale
about adoption process, if you will.
- Valleydale has a heart for church planning,
they'd already demonstrated that in other contexts,
but not as close at home.
And so they began thinking about that.
And then the people of First Helena,
this church is a 100...
Now it's 190 years old,
really was down to its last two months.
If you look at the Helena master plan,
the church isn't on the plan
because they expected it to go under
and it's a mixed use development, and it's not their fault.
Like it wasn't gonna work, it was gonna go under,
but God just had a different plan.
- [Jim] The first service...
We've been used to having 25,
it was at least a 100.
And then, I mean, it's progressed now that we have
two services and to walk down in the children's area
and almost get run over by kids is a great thing
to see because it wasn't that way for a long time.
- What he's done in the church has just been incredible
just from a small step of obedience.
We often joke that our biggest problem is we grew so fast,
so having that support system in place has meant everything.
I mean, I went from a ministry of about 10 kids
from fifth grade to babies
to well over a 100 in less than two months time.
- [Jim] I would encourage churches
that were in similar situation to ours
is to really investigate this and
if they're interested in growing in their community,
and if there's a church that
has a good steady reputation of adoption,
I think they'd be silly not to do it.
(upbeat music)
- I'm incredibly grateful for
the fact that Alabama Baptist gave to the Myers Mallory
missions offering because it does enable that,
that cohort training,
it offers that community, that network,
and it builds up just a stronger group of planters
so we can get to the work
and just make these new things happen.
(upbeat music)