By Daniel Wallace and Jeff Brumley
First Baptist Church of Covington, Texas, averaged slightly more than 50 in attendance when the congregation decided to build a sanctuary that seats 150 worshippers — in a community of 269 people.
“We’re either crazy or have high expectations — maybe a little bit of both,” Pastor Eric Black said.
Experts say other small-town churches also can meet those high expectations, if they’re willing to transform their ministries and operations.
First Baptist, Convington’s, building project sparked growth and revitalization in the rural congregation north of Hillsboro for the first time in more than a decade.
Last June, the congregation held its first service in a new building that more than tripled the size of the old one. The 17,000-square-foot building includes a sanctuary, fellowship hall, preschool, nursery and youth room.
For the first three months in the building, the church averaged 120 people on Sunday mornings, four times the attendance in 2010 when Black became senior pastor. After the initial spike in attendance, 75 to 80 people consistently attend Sunday morning worship services.
The Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church are the only other congregations in the city located about 60 miles south of Dallas. Membership at First Baptist is drawn from throughout the region, including Hillsboro, Itasca and Grandview.
“If this church was serving Covington proper, it would be overbuilt,” he said. “We are really more of a regional church.”
A willingness to change
But can this Texas congregation’s progress be duplicated by others located in small towns?
They have a shot if they are willing to transform how they conceive and operate their ministries and even their very purpose for being, said church consultant George Bullard, president of The Columbia Partnership.
“The biggest challenge for any church that needs to transform is the willingness to do something,” Bullard said.
The risks First Baptist, Covington, took to effectively rebrand itself as a regional church and to construct facilities resulted from a willingness to envision themselves from a completely different perspective, he said.
“They were willing to reboot the church,” Bullard said. “They agreed to start over — to reinvent themselves.”
Sobering statistics
Experts and studies that focus on the health of American congregations say the forecast for congregational survival in a changing demographic landscape often looks grim.
For every 10 churches in need of significant change, six usually will take no action, two will undertake cosmetic changes and another two are willing to take the drastic steps needed to succeed, Bullard said.
Recent polling said these findings come at a time of steady, though gradual, decline in overall church attendance.
A Pew Research Center study published last September found that roughly three out of 10 American adults rarely or never attend worship services — an increase from 25 percent to 29 percent since 2003.
Meanwhile, the percentage who said they attend services at least weekly has dropped from 39 percent to 37 percent in the same period. A Gallup poll reported similar findings in December.
Denominations should respond by putting their efforts into helping only those churches willing to face these trends, Bullard said.
“We always advise them to focus on the four out of the 10 — the ones willing to do something.”
It also puts the pressure on congregations like First Baptist, Covington, to constantly work to ensure any successes they enjoy will continue.
“It’s important they aren’t making short-term fixes,” Bullard said.
Baptisms rising
The successes in Covington, so far, are the kind most pastors long for.
During the first three years of Black’s pastorate, he baptized 15 people. In the past year, the church baptized more than 40 people.
“Our youth minister has baptized about 25 youth,” Black said. “I’ve baptized children, youth and adults close to that number in the last year. And that’s just huge, because this congregation hasn’t baptized that many people going back the last six or seven years.”
Youth Pastor Jerred Hurt, who is from Grandview, has built relationships with the youth in Covington and the surrounding areas, and the students have responded to him, Black said. In a small town, the youth minister benefits from having grown up in a neighboring community as part of a respected family, he added.
Youth pastor built relationships
“A lot of the influx of youth have been because of his tenure in the community,” Black said. “We have a lot coming from Grandview, but he is also connected pretty well with youth here in Covington.”
Soon after he arrived as youth pastor, Hurt took the students on an already-planned trip to work with Mission Arlington. This summer, he plans to take another group to serve with the multifaceted ministry in Arlington, Texas.
Weekly youth assemblies on Wednesday nights have outgrown the new youth room. So, the students meet in the church’s sanctuary.
“There are just too many of them to fit,” Black said.
A wedding in the unfinished building
Even before First Baptist completed construction of its new sanctuary, one couple chose to have their wedding in the facility. With simple decorations — a half-dozen candles at the front of the sanctuary — Joe and Megan Jennings married in a room with bare concrete floors and exposed drywall.
When their first child was born recently, the church held a baby dedication ceremony for their son — the only infant in the church’s nursery at this point.
“That is something the church hasn’t seen in a while,” Black noted. “That has really brought some life into the church, to see a young family come together like that and to plug in to the life of the church.”
Soon after Black arrived as pastor, he led the church to rewrite its bylaws. The congregation redefined who could serve on committees, combined several committees with overlapping duties and changed the language regarding baptism to bring it in line with the church’s beliefs and practices.
But Black rejects any suggestion he should receive credit for the church’s renewal.
‘I lean on a lot of people’
“The good stuff that is happening here, most of it has come from outside myself — help from friends and colleagues in ministry, my dad, my father-in-law, who was a pastor for over 40 years,” he said. “I lean on a lot of people.”
The John D. Marbut Endowment, managed by the Baptist Foundation of Texas, provided funding for the new building at First Baptist Church.
Since the church moved into its new facility, members have responded to the challenge of financing the increased expenses that accompany growth. Offerings exceeded the church budget last year, and missions giving grew significantly.