134: How A Small Church Became A Hub For Disaster Relief, Racial Reconciliation, & A K-12 School | with Dr. Dawn Baldwin Gibson

When Pastors Anthony & Dawn Baldwin Gibson set out to plant a church, they had no idea they would be feeding thousands, helping to heal a community, and building a school. Not only have they built community partnerships in their local area, but they also help other smaller churches identify needs, mobilize volunteers, and find resources they need to serve their communities. 

Listen in as Dr. Gibson shares their church story of: 

• Transforming Lives,
• Strengthening Families, and
• Intentionally Impacting Communities

Get your free ticket to the Married to the Pastor Conference >> www.smallchurchsummits.com/ps2024

Connect with Dr. Dawn Baldwin Gibson:
www.peletahministries.com

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Transcript

Laurie Acker: 0:01

Hey, this is Laurie Acker. Welcome to the small church ministry podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of the small church ministry podcast where we believe that small churches are not doing less ministry, but they are doing very different ministry, I have a super special guest on the podcast today, Don Baldwin Gibson. And she, I can when I connected with her, I immediately started hearing about all the things that her church has done in their community. And I really wanted to have her on the podcast to really talk about that. Because I know sometimes churches that are small feel like well, we can't do very much. And to that we've got like the antithesis on the podcast here today. So Don, before we get started, do you want to just kind of introduce yourself give a little bit of a background before we dive into all these awesome things your church does?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 0:57

Well, first of all, thank you. All right, yeah, I'm so grateful to be here. You are such an inspiration. And I am excited to just share a little bit about what we've been doing here at peloton ministries, and that small churches have a serious calling to do great work.

Laurie Acker: 1:17

And I wish everybody could see your smile right now because they're not gonna be able to see you because sometimes people say, you know, one of the things they love about our ministry is when people are so excited about what their small churches are doing, and it's like, oozing, it's like oozing from you. So do you want to share just a little bit about about your church and you know, even your son's role and all this kind of cool stuff.

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 1:40

So you certainly So, my husband told me back in 2011, I came home from church, and he said he had been homesick and he said the Lord gave him the word peloton for a new church that we were starting. I didn't even know what peloton meant I had to go online. I had to google it to find out it was a Hebrew word for great deliverance. And our pastor at the time released us to go forth in ministry prayed with us. And we started doing work. While six weeks after we started, we got hit by Hurricane Irene. Wow. And so immediately, God was speaking to my husband, that we need it to just go out in the community and do what needed to be done. So if it was people needing food, if they needed dog food for their pets, whatever it was, that's what we were gonna do. And that's what we did. And so we kind of got known for doing disaster recovery work, because God's plan is perfect.

Laurie Acker: 2:43

Okay, I just have to stop because, you know, you you basically church planted right? Right, but you didn't say church plant, right. Like you said, we were released, and we went to work. And I love that because you know that that feeling of action versus planting, right, like planting is like, I'm all for church plants. Like it was just fun to hear you kind of say that, like, immediately when we were released, we went to work. So six weeks in to this church plant. You all were hit by Hurricane Irene. Can you tell me just a little bit about that. So I've never been in a hurricane. I'm a Midwest girl who's now in Tucson, Arizona. We've have no natural disasters out here other than an occasional microburst or dust storm and things like that. And I know that in the hurricane paths, sometimes you're in really devastating areas, and sometimes you just have a little flooding and some wind, you know, like there's quite a quite a degree. So when you say you got hit by Hurricane Irene, what what did that look like or feel like in your community?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 3:40

It was unbelievable, like when I tell you so we're a coastal community. We're right literally there where the Atlantic Ocean is. But where our church is located in New Bern, two rivers literally meet here in New Bern. And so we have the Trent River and the Neuse River and they meet here. And so you can imagine these are big, huge bodies of water. And this was the first hurricane it was, I think that was a category one. So we think, Oh, that's a small one. But they the storm surge was like 15 feet. It was crazy. Like, literally, we looked outside of the windows in our house. And it looked like we were a house. But wow. You couldn't see a road you couldn't see. Land. all you saw was just water everywhere.

Laurie Acker: 4:32

So you went to work. And you started to do in you know, doing disaster relief. And you said you kind of became known for disaster relief. So what has that looked like through the years with your church?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 4:42

So we kept right on working right. So initially, we were just like trying to meet the initial needs food, people need it somewhere to go, we were helping transport people, but then the long term happened and so somebody had to take over our counties long term. board to get people who didn't have insurance back in their homes. And so I took that over for our county.

Laurie Acker: 5:08

And wait a step.

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 5:12

So peloton was just known for getting in there and doing the work? Well, we matched up with this amazing Christian group called eight days of hope. And they came and they did. They brought about 2000 people in and stay for over eight days and redid houses at no cost. Wow. It was such a move. Oh, God, and people were just crying. People saw them in the stores, and they were praying with people. It was just, it was a move of God. And here we were this little church with like, 10 members.

Laurie Acker: 5:51

Wow, I was gonna ask I thought, you know, when people who are small church, sometimes, you know, in in our community, we talk a lot about micro churches and small churches, and then bigger small churches, because a lot of people in churches have 200 or 300. You know, it's so subjective, that that that is a small church to them. But you're talking about being a church of 10 people who became known for disaster relief, doing major things even work in your county. I mean, you're talking about like a government board. Right?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 6:23

Exactly. And we continue that. So as storms would come. So there's this thing we call blue sky planning. When there's not a storm and it's blue sky, we started doing work, like what do we need to do around food? Because in our, in our region, there's never more than three days worth in the whole route. And so when we started thinking about it was like, okay, so what do we do now, as we're, like, waiting for another storm? Well, when storms came, people would just call us they would be and it didn't matter whether they were in our home county, they were three, four counties away. And so we started doing this regional work to the point Laurie, we would go into other cities, and they would see a little church ban. And they would say, Oh, there they are, there's peloton they got to stop they got.

Laurie Acker: 7:17

So you have to have a church man and your church have like 10 to 15 people. And so you started I think, did you say 2011? Is that when you began? As a little so in the last, you know, 10 years or ish? Have you fed more than, like, 100 people? We have

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 7:38

more than a half a million people I've met Oh, I mean, our food bank awarded us like there's a date award, like in our first year. I mean, it just is wrong. And so when people see us, they'll say, how many hundreds of members? Do you all have that do this and we're like, we got 10, maybe 20 On a Sunday make. But we just always known that God is faithful. And we can't rely so much on what we see. We got to rely on who we know.

Laurie Acker: 8:14

Yeah, yeah. So you've fed over half a million people in the last 10 years or so. And your church has grown like crazy. And you're up to like, 500 members now, right? I'm just laughing you guys with Dawn. She's cracking up right now? Because you're still about

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 8:29

small, right? Yeah, I mean, like with the children, and you know, so our son and daughter in law, they've got three, and now are expecting their fourth. So if we take kids and put them in there, we might be close to 20. See,

Laurie Acker: 9:16

this is just so amazing to me. And this is so it's so beautiful. And not that every church of 10, or 20 is going to do what you do. And not that every church of 500 should be doing what you're doing. But here's the thing is that we put these limitations on our churches, like, oh, we only have 10 people, if we had more people, we could do more. Or if we had 20 people if we had more kids or more families. And this is why I'm so excited to hear your story because you are a church of 10 or 15 people who literally are changing your community. And so you've done the the food you've done the disaster relief, is this what's also linked to your community resilience, or is that something different? Can you talk a little bit about that?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 9:55

Sure. So we started somewhere during COVID. So in 2018, we got hit by Hurricane Florence, which really devastated our region. And so then like a year and a half later, we got hit by COVID. So we had so much going on, Anthony, my husband and I were talking and he was like, we just need to get everybody in one place like people are trying to go to this governmental agency to get help and then they're trying to go here. What would it be if we brought everything together in one place and we brought a fish Scholz governmental officials. And that's what we did. on a Monday, in March of 2022. We brought together a whole bunch of resources from the state, from the federal government and lists. We thought we might get 150 people to show up, we had almost 700 people show up,

Laurie Acker: 10:52

and why what was what were you doing that evening.

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 10:55

So we did everything we did healthy food distribution, people could get mental health screenings, they could meet with the Department of Insurance, they can meet with Department of Emergency Management, we have people literally almost 75 different vendors, housing, employment, whatever it was that people had told us, they need it. We got them all in that room. And it was an unbelievable, that, and then we had a community listening session where officials could hear from the community what they want. Wow.

Laurie Acker: 11:31

I'm just totally I'm truly I'm just blown away. And I shouldn't be because I hear more and more of small churches making incredible impact so many places. What do you think? And I know, you said your husband had a vision. What do you think keeps you serving in this way? Instead of getting to the Oh, woe is me part, we only have 10 people in our church like what keeps you in this place of community action and just just doing the work like you said it doing the work, we went to work, will keeps you there.

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 12:02

It is nothing but the grace of the Lord, because my husband just always was like, take your eyes off of what you see. I mean, talk about the senior pastor, he clearly was able to keep my mind focused, because I would get frustrated, like 1000s of people, but then 10 people show up for church on Sunday, what's that about? And I remember us having a conversation, he said Jesus would feed 1000s. But he discipled this group, the small group, so we eat out he was always doing it. So of course, you know, I've talked with you, my husband passed pretty unexpectedly for me back in November. And it's just like, a shame for everything around me. And here's how God is so faithful. Here I am in little eastern North Carolina, praying on our farm. Lord, I need a word from you. And I see this posting by Angela marks about this conference that's gonna be online for small churches. And I get up there, and I hear you talking about legacy. And that legacy is transformational. And that is sustainable. And it's not about one person. I mean, that just help God gives us what we need when we Yeah,

Laurie Acker: 13:25

yeah. And Don, they are not privy to our previous conversation. But your husband, the word legacy was really big to him, right?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 13:33

It was huge. Matter of fact, my, my, my daughter in law reminded me She just graduated this past weekend. And she had on her cap. She graduated with her master's in social work, she put a grad a legacy grab, because my husband had been talking about legacy so much, that it's not about one person. It can't be the only one person it can be about. It's Jesus. That's the only one. But for us, when we get caught up in trying to do it ourselves and get other people to do what we then we take the focus off of the miracle working power of the Lord Jesus.

Laurie Acker: 14:15

Wow, wow. Okay, I'm like on the edge of my seat right now, because I just want you to share more, and there is more. So the people listening, you know, people listening are probably like, wow, how does this church do that? And they're doing community stuff and disaster relief, but that's not all. You've done. You started a school? Do you want to tell them about the school?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 14:35

So we we did a racial reconciliation conference that we partnered with the city of New Bern, which is where our church and school are. And people we're talking about education a lot. And my husband was born and raised here in New Bern, and that last son that Sunday, we had an ecumenical service, and he was preaching, or you just preaching, and he stepped from behind the pulpit. He said, we're gonna start a school sitting on the front row, and I turned around and just say, and Anthony being so in tune with me was like, that's what we're gonna do, Don, we're gonna start a school.

Laurie Acker: 15:17

And that's the first you heard of it was from the pulpit.

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 15:21

That was my first app. And I said, just give me like a homeschool Co Op. I mean, what does that mean? That meant we were going to start a school so we took A year and my husband's background was mental health services. So we had this informed working part of it. And so we started a school and we started right there in our church. And it was like a Little House on the Prairie with all the classrooms like in one big room, we grown to we still we keep it small. And so we have 30 scholars, and we do just really great work around trauma work and making sure that kids get the resources that they need, and their families need. And so yeah, so we have a trauma informed grief sensitive pre K through 12th grade school, what

Laurie Acker: 16:14

in the world? Like I didn't even know you went that that far up. So is this a charter school, a private school?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 16:22

It's a private school. And we are just so grateful. Here in North Carolina, we have what's called the Opportunity Scholarship, we have disability grant funds. Also, we are one of four private schools in the state private schools in the state of North Carolina, that have been certified to do exceptional children's. We have our own program here.

Laurie Acker: 16:45

Oh my gosh, like, so beautiful. So how many years has that school been around?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 16:53

So it's we started the school in 2017. The joy, I think that Anthony would say is that we've had, we've helped others start their schools. So we've got several other pastors that we worked with that have now gotten their schools up, and they're running and doing great thing. That's

Laurie Acker: 17:12

and talk about multiplication and talk about legacy. Even Even if even if even when even in the middle of your local church not growing. And I think this is like one of the most beautiful things about smaller churches. Because sometimes I get a little flack, like if you're doing well, you would be multiplying, if you're doing what God you'd be. So you are multiplying. Like you, you have multiplied, but you're also multiplying your ministry, and you're teaching people, even other churches, how to how to make schools, how to build schools, and how to do what you're doing. And I just think this is, this is the ministry of multiplication. And I don't think it's bad when our local church grow. I think sometimes that that is a path, you know, sometimes our local churches grow. And sometimes we're just called to get to work. And can

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 18:00

I really say something that's gonna sound really crazy that my husband did?

Laurie Acker: 18:05

What with me? I don't know, I think I think it can go has

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 18:09

been closed our membership for a year, that we could go to churches, and help them figure out how to get grants. And so I do grant writing. And so he, we literally went into churches, and said, Hey, look at no charge. If you'll just let us use your space, we will teach your church and all of the churches around to start your own, like Community Development Corporation's ministry, 501, C threes, whatever it is, we will do that. And so Anthony was like, I don't want people thinking we're trying to come get their members because we're not. So we literally closed our membership for one whole year. So we could do that as workshops.

Laurie Acker: 18:56

Wow. I think that's amazing. I'm just gonna tell you, people are gonna want to get a hold of you and find you. So y'all, you can find her in our community, okay. You know, find us in the Facebook communities ask her this, this woman, you know, don don Baldwin, Gibson, they'll find her and, you know, how are you doing this? So, I do want to say, and I, I am saddened that I don't get to meet your husband on this side of heaven. Like, I imagine, like I just see you beaming every time you mentioned his name, and just like, and how amazing it is that his legacy is not just continuing through you, but through so many other people and churches and areas and the people that you're reaching. So what else have I not touched on that you'd love to share?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 19:47

Well, I just I'm telling you, I'm so grateful. I have I want to say something about what you said about legacy people take care of themselves.

Laurie Acker: 19:58

Oh, yeah. Let's talk about that. So Don's referring to the last, the last conference we had, we do free quarterly conferences in case you're listening for the first time. And at the end of April, we it was focused on children and and youth ministry. And we talked about building a legacy and how it's not just about these events right now, but but we want this to go on and on. And we talk about legacy programs and legacy people. And so don, go ahead and talk about that because I think that's something that that you also that's meant a lot for you and your life. So keep going with that.

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 20:31

My husband had this thought that if it stopped with him, then he had not done well. He just He He firmly believed. I think a lot of it was because God was already showing him What time was going to look like for him. And so I really got in a place where I was like, Lord, what is this? Like? What am I gonna do? And this is my best friend in the world. And I can't imagine this. And I had been praying and praying. And, you know, my husband would always say, you can have Jesus and a therapist. And so and so his background was mental health services. So you have to understand, yeah, he was into, like, being a trauma informed space. What does that mean? And so that's not what what's wrong with you, that's what's happened to you, or what we can do to help you is the legacy of that. But when I heard you talking about legacy, I mean, I was like, God, you are so amazing. Because here I have been praying and seeking you about, what is this? What do I do next? And when I heard you, Minister in such that powerful teaching way, I was like, and when you said legacy, people take care of themselves. We take care of everything and everybody else and not take care of the temple that God gave. Yeah, yeah. You know, there is safety in a multitude of counsel. Yeah. There's a reason why that Scripture is in the Bible. Yeah. And so I am so grateful, because we do we have to take care of our physical bodies, our mental and emotional selves. I heard somebody say, you know, I don't pour from my cup. I pour from my saucer. Yeah, yeah, my cup is for me. Yeah.

Laurie Acker: 22:33

And you know, the thing about that is, you know, when it comes to taking care of ourselves, I have learned so much about this just in the last few years of my life, because most people who think they're taking care of themselves, like when I talk to people in ministry, yes, I take my Sabbath day off, I take my weekends off, I have quiet times, but they are so crappy, and reactive. And I'm like, when we are reactive, like I've learned, that means we're not taking care of ourselves. Because when we really are taking really good care of ourselves, we're we, we kind of exude the people that God created us to be. So for me that's joyful, and creative and excited and confident and visionary and forward moving. And when I am not behaving or acting or feeling that way, I know I need to take a step back and take care of myself. Because if you catch me on a crappy day, I'm going to tell you right now, like, or an angry day, that it's not a reflection on anything that happened to me, it's a reflection, this is what I've learned. So I just want to say I've learned this, I used to think that I was taking really good care of myself, but I'd still get crabby or angry or all these things. And now I've learned to go Okay, wait a minute, what's going on in in me? Right? And so for you, Don, what is? How do you know when when you need to step back and take better care of yourself? Like, what is it for you? And also, what are some of the things that you do to take care of yourself? Because again, this, this is a whole nother podcast, really, because we think we're taking care of ourselves, right? So talk to us a little more about your experience.

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 24:03

I have a therapist, right now I have a grief counselor. And I meet with them every week. And both of them are Christians, and they do the work through their local churches. And so for me, because I have to remember my husband would always say like, if I would call him I said, Anthony, someone saw didn't show up and they were supposed to do XY and Z. He was like, wait a minute, who are we relying on? Are we relying on them? Or are we relying on the source? Gs? And so I would be like, I don't want to hear I'm being totally needed. And that's when I realized, wait a minute, Don. Yeah, you need more time in the world. You need more time to understand that God does the work. Yeah. He has me to be his hands and feet in this earth room, but he's the one that prepare with my way. And so I realize when I get to that snapping point, when I'm not smiling like I should, then I love something you said so much. Another something you said, which was how do you want to respond? How should you respond? And I was like, You know what? Somebody was beeping at me off the road today and I thought about what you said. And I was like, you know, I didn't I didn't do But anything that I shouldn't have done, but I was like, hey, and then they were like, Wait, do I know him? And so it's about recognizing, but I'm taking that time I'm getting in my time with my therapist, I'm getting in the grief counseling. I'm, you know, doing some coaching, where people are helping me to see how this brief walk is, and that sometimes I'm gonna be up, and sometimes I'm gonna be down, but how do I walk through that? You know, I gotta exercise more. So I got a boxing thing in my house now that I'm working on to get that frustration out. And it's, and it's about eating well, I just had my checkup with my doctor. And so there's some things I got to work on with my eating. But all of those are the things that heal thyself. Yeah. Yeah. So it's really taking that time and just pausing. Because when there's something else you said, Oh, my gosh, can I tell you I pages of notes? Which you said something about capacity when my capacity is here? And I keep on going? When? Am I really hearing the Lord? Yeah. And so a lot of it has to do with my own self awareness of dealing with Don's ego, dealing with the stuff that Don needs to deal before with it.

Laurie Acker: 26:57

Yeah. And I think that's the thing before because I really do believe when we're serving within our capacity, our work gets multiplied. When we are overstretched and just doing doing doing because we feel like we need to or we feel like we're called called and crabby, can we have a shirt that says called and crabby should not be a thing? Right? Like when we're when we're like that, and we're overstretching, I don't think the impact gets multiplied in the same. But when we're really like, you know, our hope and God versus our hope and other people showing up well, our hope and God versus our hope in our own even our own efforts, right. And so, there's so much there, oh, my gosh, I could talk to you forever. And we are going to have more conversations. And we will have you speaking at a conference soon. If people really are sitting here though. And we'll go back to kind of the bulk of the podcast episode to this time, you know, serving in your community disaster relief, you have a school you did you know these reconciliation movements really in your community, people who are, you know, in a rural place, or in another city or up in Canada or whatever, how do they get in touch with like, what God might be calling them to do in their community? Do you have any tips for that?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 28:09

Certainly. So you know, we talk a lot about mapping your area, and just what's there. And so it's this natural piece and the spiritual piece because the Lord knows what's needed in your community. The mapping helps me see like, if there are five food pantries are my block, I probably don't need to do a food pantry. Unless the Lord is just saying, I want this to be a different kind of food pack. Right? What's missing? What is it that God says is needed? Yeah. And sometimes it's just seeing what's right there. You know, why are all these kids just running up and down the road? I'm scared, somebody's gonna get hit. Well, maybe that's the Lord saying, we need a space for childcare in our community. And a lot of our states and municipalities have exemptions for faith centers. And so it's really just seeing and connecting the dots of what God is showing. Yeah,

Laurie Acker: 29:15

yeah. Yeah, I love it. It's, that's really the best place to start. Right is looking, you know, around you, I love that you talked about mapping their area. So if anybody has specific questions, and they would love to reach out to you and say, Hey, tell me more about grant writing, or I'd love to know, you know, all of this. What's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 29:33

They can send us an email. And so my name is Don Baldwin. gibson@aol.com I'm an old AOL duck. Yep,

Laurie Acker: 29:43

there we go.

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 29:45

But they can find us on Facebook. I pretty sure we have something on Twitter, which is now x. But yeah, they can reach out we are all about building connection. Yes

Laurie Acker: 29:56

and peloton. peloton church peloton Institute peloton what should they look for? And it's p e l e t h i had to look that up. It's a beautiful word.

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 30:08

peloton ministries.com They can find this on Facebook peloton ministries or Don Baldwin. So just hey, reach out. But wait a minute. We're in the network. So if you're in the network, it'd be really easy to find. There

Laurie Acker: 30:23

you go in the small church network. We'd love it. Don, it's such a blessing to meet you. I know you will be you've already been An impact in our community. And I know God will be using you more so so we're so happy to get connected with you. I'm excited. Any last words for people?

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 30:43

Connect it to small church? Let me know. And you didn't ask me to

Laurie Acker: 30:47

say it. And I'm not saying Are y'all.

Dawn Baldwin Gibson: 30:51

But let me just tell you what God has already done. I mean, people who don't even know me have reached out and been like, I know what it's like to go through this journey that you're on right now. And even while you were doing your live, somebody sent me a message and just said, I'm sending a hug your way. Listen, God did not intend for us to be Lone Ranger's. He intended us to do community together. And this is community. And so I would encourage you get connected here. And I'm like, what they don't charge. They should charge for that. Good. Y'all get some stuff for free. I'm like, wow, that conference was amazing. Let me just say, but anyway, yes. I'm so excited.

Laurie Acker: 31:39

Oh, good. Well, we're excited to have you. So y'all before you go, definitely take a look at the show notes. If you're not connected yet in our community. We have an amazing free Facebook community called creative solutions for small churches. And if you do want to join the network, just look up small church ministry.com/membership And you can get into a little more of a leadership kind of feel and a lot of learning and community. So it's on it was such a pleasure just being with you today. highlight of my day. All right, everybody, until next week, be light