Heaven on Earth: Three Churches Reaching One Community
Robinwood Baptist Church (RBC) has needed revitalization for decades and ensuring the church’s survival has defined my ministry as the Senior Pastor. Our church’s vision is to remove obstacles standing in the way of accomplishing our mission. Thankfully, God has made those obstacles abundantly obvious (Prov 29:18).
Census data reveals that in a three-mile radius of RBC, 50.7% of the population is Hispanic, 32.6 % is White, and 14.6% is Black/African American. Thus, based on our immediate context, planting a Hispanic ministry (in 2016) was crucial to our aging Caucasian church’s survival and mission. Ironically, as people departed our church over the years, God was not in the process of closing the doors but was opening the doors for the Spanish community around RBC.
God laid out a gigantic vision for revitalizing the church in 2018 and 2019 that involved the demolition of the Robinwood Christian Academy (RCA) building. The facilities at RBC are extensive, but they were also quickly dilapidating. After consulting with God in many of our prayer services, along with structural and geotechnical engineers (provided by the revitalization department of the SBTC), the church unanimously voted to tear down the RCA building sandwiched between the Sanctuary building and the Family Life Center (FLC) building. We also believed there was a spiritual undertone to the physical problems with the building.
The RCA building had been built for a private academy to be attended by the children of church members. Several decades ago, the church saw that the community was changing and becoming more ethnically diverse. However, instead of changing and adapting the ministry and outreach of the church (to reach the new incoming growth), the church sought to protect itself from the incoming diverse community. Therefore, we concluded that if we were to successfully tear down the severely dilapidated RCA building, it would serve as an act of repentance for RBC.
Step one of demolition was to remove all electrical work from the RCA building (electrical from the RCA building feeds the other buildings). By God’s grace, our English and Spanish congregations raised well over $50,000.00 and completed this first step at the beginning of 2019. The downside to our commitment to tearing down a “historic” building and making the shift toward a more bilingual ministry was that more of the remaining members who longed to see “the glory days” began to leave the church.
2019 Fall Festival
However, a glimpse of the upside also came in 2019 when we baptized 16 new believers in one day at one of our bilingual services. In fact, along with the Spanish Church, RBC baptized 36 new believers and ranked in the top five of SBTC churches for that year (who have 100-250 in attendance). The next step in the vision for revitalization became further realized in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like most churches, we held online services for a few months before returning to onsite worship with a congregation that was smaller in number. In the latter end of 2020, we became very concerned upon examining the financial numbers after returning from COVID-19. The Financial Administrator and I determined that if nothing changed financially, we would have about eight or nine months left until we could no longer pay the bills. I immediately called a leadership meeting that included Dr. Bob Dean, the Executive Director of the Dallas Baptist Association (DBA). Dr. Dean informed us of a “Next Steps Program” that involved seeking out God’s “next step” for RBC. We formed a Next Steps Team that included RBC en Espanol, which the church voted in and approved in October of 2020.
I led the Next Steps Team through prayer meetings and exploring our options with the DBA. In our Next Steps meetings, we recognized a large part of our community is African American (14.6 %). Although we did not realize it at first, we had neglected another large, growing ethnic population in our community. The Next Steps Team unanimously recognized there was a need for an African American ministry. Throughout this process, God brought an African American congregation to our attention who needed a space to meet named Trinity Love Church (TLC), formerly East Gate Fellowship International.
Pastor Larry Brice & Pastor John Croasdale
While RBC and RBC en Espanol had more than enough facility space, TLC never had a place to call their own and was leasing space from other locations with limited access to facilities. It became clear this would be a blessing for all churches involved and for the community. RBC and RBC en Espanol would get some much-needed financial relief, TLC would be getting an abundance of space they could use, and the three largest ethnic groups in our community would all be represented in one strategic location. Through God’s leadership in this process, we concluded that sharing ownership of our facilities with TLC was the next step for RBC. We also believe this union of churches was a way for our community to catch a wonderful glimpse of heaven on earth.
God brought about a wonderful surprise in this sacrificial process. We finalized an agreement that we would share 50% ownership of our facilities with TLC. God directed our attention to the Southern Baptists of Texas Foundation (SBTF). Not only did the SBTF approve our congregations for a joint loan, but they also included enough money for us to complete the vision of tearing down the RCA Building. What seemed like an impossible feat for so many years suddenly became achievable.
Pastor Larry Brice, Trinity Love Church
Pastor Larry Brice of TLC comments “Because Pastor John and I understand how important vision is to the mission, our churches are collaborating our efforts to; A) Witness to the community the word of God; B) Welcome the community by showing them that God is no respecter of persons, and neither are we; and C) Win the community thru outreach and evangelism.”
When asked what advice he would give pastors exploring the possibilities of partnering with another church, Pastor Larry Brice made these remarks. “Don’t be afraid of change. Change comes by choice, not chance, and you have to choose to partner with another church and live, or continue in your struggle and die. A partnership is not for every parish, but if it’s for you, pursue it and watch how it changes your ministry for the better.”
Our campus now has three congregations of believers (African American, Hispanic, and White) with one unified mission and vision, to reach everyone in her community for Jesus Christ. At last, we are well on our way to tearing down the Academy Building in partnership with believers of the ethnicities we seek to reach with the Gospel.
Pastor John Croasdale | Robinwood Baptist Church