178: Church Spotlight: Unity in Action: Small Town Churches Collaborating to Meet Community Needs | with Carla Adams

In this inspiring episode of the Small Church Ministry Podcast, Carla Adams shares how four churches in her small Georgia town broke down denominational barriers to unite in community service and fellowship. 

Learn how these churches - including Baptist, Methodist, and others - overcame historical divisions to collaborate on events like Easter sunrise services, community giveaways, and women's conferences. 

Carla reveals the power of focusing on shared faith, the unexpected benefits of cross-church partnerships, and practical tips for small churches looking to make a bigger impact together. 

This episode is a testament to the strength of unity and the transformative potential of churches working side by side.

Connect with Carla Adams:
www.signsformysister.com
www.facebook.com/signsformysister
carla@signsformysister.com

Join our free Facebook Community: www.facebook.com/groups/smallchurchministry


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Transcript

Laurie Graham: 0:01

Hey, this is Laurie Acker, welcome to the small church ministry podcast. Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of the small church ministry podcast. You know, sometimes I do a lot of solo episodes in a row, but I just love being able to talk with people and have conversations. So you're getting a lot of guest interviews lately, because honestly, I'm just having a blast. And it is really cool to hear people in small churches who've done really cool things, who are excited to share their experience. Because one of the things that we've found is churches going, oh my gosh, I can do something like that, or getting inspired like, oh wow. I've always wanted to do that. And we're finding that the more we share successful, awesome stories, even when they're really specific to, you know, certain church cultures or certain areas, like today, we're talking small town. There is so much we can learn from each other. Sometimes missteps we can avoid, ways to celebrate together and ways that we can have similar results where we are serving in our small churches. So joining us today on the podcast is someone who has had a lot of fun with her church doing things that unite churches together in their small town, churches of different denominations, of different types of church cultures, just coming together and doing events. And we're going to before the end of the podcast, you're going to hear some, some of those reasons why people don't why people might be scared of doing things cross denominational lines, or you're joining with other churches, we're going to hear some of the things that Carla's experienced along the way and get some really great tips as long as well as hearing some awesome stories of what the result has been, even beyond what was expected or what was hoped for. So let me introduce you to Carla Adams, Carla, do you want to tell everybody how you found us and kind of just a little bit about, like, where you live and what your what's your, I don't know what your town is like.

Carla Adams: 2:09

Sure. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share with y'all, I am a big fan

Laurie Graham: 2:16

of you. Already gave away all. We already got a y'all, yeah, y'all, we already got it.

Carla Adams: 2:22

But, yeah, okay, it is from I am from Georgia, and the people I've traveled a bit so people from from Georgia don't think I sound like I'm from Georgia, but everybody else picks up on it pretty quickly. So I am from a very small town in Middle Georgia that has a lot of rural, rural roots, and they had, they did have some industry that, in the 70s kind of started heading out of town, and in by the 80s and late 80s, early 90s, most of the industry was gone. So we are, we are actually one of the poorer towns in the state of Georgia, so, you know, we have a lot of struggles with that, but we are a small church, and we are a city full of small churches. And in the past, we've just kind of all been doing our own thing by ourselves. And so this past year has been an interesting year.

Laurie Graham: 3:21

So you had some desire to bring churches together for events or programs. Do you want to tell us how that desire even came about?

Carla Adams: 3:29

Yeah, we It actually started last when we were preparing for last Easter. We have a small we have a park in the middle of our town, and our church started talking about, well, wouldn't it be nice if we did sunrise in the park? And we thought, Oh, that'd be really nice. And then we one of our deacons works with the pastor of another church, and he was like, Yeah, we're gonna do church in the park on Easter sunrise. And he said, Oh, that would be really nice. And then they started talking to another pastor, and it just kind of grew or very organically. So we ended up with two Baptist churches, a Methodist Church, and I believe they are Church of God or church of Christ, one of but you know, just so on the surface, we look very different. We we actually did something in our town that's kind of new for us. Being in Georgia, we actually crossed racial lines this time, and we started with the Easter sunrise service. And we had so much fun that we went on in did some some stuff at the end of the summer with different playing round robin, with the different churches and pastors preaching, each of the four pastors preaching at a different church for a Sunday evening service. And then it led into as the women we. All got together and we had a women's conference, and it's just been one thing after another, and it's been so amazing to see what God's doing with us.

Laurie Graham: 5:10

Wow. So the same four churches that got together for the Easter sunrise service, you're saying, they continue to connect and kind of mix it up with pastors in the pulpit and other activities too,

Carla Adams: 5:22

yes, and for me, it was beautiful to watch, because the four pastors just came together and they covenanted together that they would not look at our differences, that we would all look at Jesus, and we all look at the fact that we love Him and that we believe that he is our salvation, and we would go from there, and we would build on that foundation. And it has been amazing. It really has

Laurie Graham: 5:48

okay. So you've said amazing. I want to know specifically what you have seen, you know, because a lot of times when we combine with different churches, we we hope to see some friendships kind of develop, maybe, or just, you know, as you said, a little more focus on how, how same we are, but oftentimes it doesn't carry over to anything longer term. So what have you seen? What's been the value of these types of events?

Carla Adams: 6:13

So for Easter, sunrise service, we had 145 people in the park. Our church is 80, and we are mostly an older congregation. So many of our congregation, for our church, don't make it to the early sunrise services because of their age. So it's not even like our church was the biggest part of that. And it started with that, and then we I've we also had a ladies tea that that spring, just like a month later, we had a lady's tea, but one of the other pastors daughters sang at the sunrise service. And I went up to her, and I said, That was beautiful. Would you please come and sing as part of our lady's tea? And she was very gracious. She accepted, and several of those ladies from that church came to our ladies tea, and we met some really, started making some really good friendships. Matter of fact, her mother is the pastor's wife, of course, and she and I introduce each other as our our as our sister from another mother and we, you know, we just have bonded from that moment on, and we have really started working together and supporting each other in our various In our each, each of our churches, and also just building some friendships that normally would not have occurred because of just being on different denominational lines. And then from that, we all in everybody, had such good feedback in their churches that we did want it to end. So the pastors all got together again and said, What can else? What else can we do? So we set aside. It was either, I think it was in the month of August. So in the month of August, there was four Sundays, and so each church hosted a Sunday evening, and the pastors played round robin. So my pastor preached in the church of Christ Church, and then their pastor preached at the other Baptist Church, and then the other Baptist Church preached at his their pastor preached at the Methodist Church. So it was just, it was beautiful. And of course, the Methodist pastor came and preached at our church so and each time we had a good representative representation of the members of each church that came to all of those and after the church service, we had a fellowship at that church, And we stayed for coffee and cookies and cake, and we we probably all stayed for about an hour, hour and a half each Sunday night, and just enjoying fellowship with each other as different churches coming together.

Laurie Graham: 9:15

So let's talk about this a little bit. The timing is this really started not even a year ago, and you've already mixed in a lot of different ways. And these four churches have existed, coexisted together for how long, 10 years, decades, a long, long time, and never had done things before in the

Carla Adams: 9:34

past. The two, the the Methodist church and in my church, the First Baptist Church have been in our churches over 160 years old, and the Methodist Church is pretty close to that in time. And then, wow,

Laurie Graham: 9:50

okay, I just have to stop you and say, like, this is like, this is culture editing, like you're saying these, these churches are over 100 years old. Have never, ever crossed lines. Plains. You know you mentioned racially, but also denominationally and and just like the feel of every different church is so different. So you've got these four churches. Do you have plans to invite other churches? Have you seen other small churches around, even curious at all we

Carla Adams: 10:15

have, and we've done more, like with some of the ladies groups have shared events with the Presbyterian Church in our and so we've done some things with the Presbyterian Church, and we've done something with the Episcopal Church, but never on this on this level. So,

Laurie Graham: 10:35

yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. So to me, as you're sharing, to me, this is such a slice of heaven, right? Like, I mean the things that we are so concerned about and so different with and and, and the way that we kind of stay in our own little church bubbles to me, there's just so much more breadth of cooperation. And also, you mentioned you are in a really, kind of an economic a really struggling part of of your of your your state or your region. Have Have you guys done anything to like, I guess, serve your community together? Are there thoughts around that?

Carla Adams: 11:13

So we in October, oh, I forgot to say, in November, we also had a ladies conference. So and at the ladies conference, each of the either a pastor's wife or someone from one of the churches led a breakout group. So we had the ladies from all four churches there, and each of us took apart so that was really nice, too. But in October, our church hosted a community giveaway where we had household items, laundry, soap, dish soap, bath, soap, paper towels, just those kind of things. And some people from the each church came and they didn't provide items for the giveaway, but they came and helped. They were there to help us give away to the to the community, and we had a good turnout from that. And then one of the other churches actually is fairly new, less than 15 years old, and in the last five to six years, they actually moved into a school that was no longer that had been decommissioned. It was a middle school, and elementary school that shared a campus, and the church moved into that and they have enough room where they have a whole wing that they've turned into emergency housing for women and children who have been who either are evicted or have been, you know, are on the street. And so some of us go and help with that. Some of us help to go and get it up and running. And because we were turning just playing classrooms into little havens where there's beds and there's it's painted and it looks like a little apartment. And it was just amazing who came together in the community to donate things to furnish those rooms. And they also that church also has because they have the room, they also have a thrift store. They also have food distributions that we kind of go and help with their food distributions. People, not just our church, but people from all, all four churches, all the other three churches, go and just help, trying to meet needs in our community and figure out how we can be the hands of feet. And it's just been amazing, because none of us worried about, oh, we're going to do this so that we get more people to come to our church. That that's never been part of it, but we have, but we have seen a few a little of that, but that was just never the reason. The reason was for us to fellowship as believers and us to see what God had planned for us to do for our community. Because, you know, we're stronger when we're together, when you have four small churches, yeah,

Laurie Graham: 14:09

I was gonna mention that, like, how much more could we do if we partnered more? Because a lot of times, small churches will say, well, our church is all older, or our church doesn't have this, or we have a building, but we don't have budgets, or we have a budget, we have no building, like we always hear that from smaller churches, because there's so many different kind of life stages of churches, you know, and and just, yeah, I guess life stages is the best way to say it, whether you're young or middle or declining and so many differences, and yet, the church down the street or the church across the street or the church a few blocks away often has a different set of circumstance, and a lot of times when we come together, we are stronger together. But there's a lot of obstacles in coming together, which I'd love to just unpack a little bit because some. Have tried this and it hasn't worked. A lot of churches have thought about this, and obstacles pop up right away, and they don't even get off the ground. And certainly this isn't ideal everywhere, with every set of people or every set of pastors, you know some some places this may not work well for but I just want to talk a little bit about why do you think it worked for you all and again, early stages. Can't wait to see what happens next year and the year next because this has just been a year like and it seems like there's a foundation that's positive, that's growing. But what do you think some of the factors are that made it successful? And I'll just go back to one you already mentioned, is that the reason wasn't to grow our churches. I think that gets in the way of us a lot of times, ego competition. You know, what happens if we combine VBS is they're going to join that big church instead of our church, or the one that has the children's pastor, you know? Like, we get that in our heads, right? So that was one thing I already heard you kind of mentioned. We didn't come thinking we're going to grow our individual churches. But what else do you think played into the success of what you're seeing?

Carla Adams: 16:05

Honestly, I think it was God's perfect timing in that our church was searching for a new pastor, and so we were, we had an interim but we were, we were interviewing. We were we were praying. We were looking, oh, I can't even believe I forgot to tell you this. So we actually had a fifth congregation, because we had a Hispanic church plant that their pastor came love it. Pastor came and joined and spoke at the in the park, and they came also. So can't believe I forgot to tell you that. So then that happened in Easter, and I was on the search committee. So we kept taught. We had we had looked and looked and looked, and we just didn't know, where are you sending us, God, what? Who are you sending to us, to to be our pastor. And it finally dawned on us, Pastor Rivera, who was the pastor of the church plant for our Hispanic church plant. We asked him to come, and so now he's our pastor. So here we have a First Baptist Church in rural Middle Georgia that is very Anglo to say the least, and he we now have a Hispanic pastor who was born outside of the US, moved here to the US when he was 10. Is was leading a Hispanic congregation. And so that congregation now is, it's still its own church, but it shares facilities with us as a small church. So we were just at a point where we were saying, Lord, what do you have planned? And in his perfect timing, he just unfolded, this is what it can be, if you will be obedient. And so we were ready, and it just everybody was just at the right place to hear it and to be obedient and to embrace it and just ready, yeah, you know, so it was very good. And to have, you know, it's a whole different thing when you have, I mean, many churches have a Anglo congregation that they share space with a different cultural group. So that's not that's not really anything that's new and great, but those the way it's all come together, because now it's like even within our church, we we blend together as the as between the two congregations, more than we would have ever done if we had not already made these first steps with the other purchase. So

Laurie Graham: 19:17

I really love that you mentioned like that you you were really open handed as a church like God, what do you have for us? What's next? Because there really is such a such a balance between strategic planning and visioning, right? And then just going, Okay, God, where? Because this doesn't sound like, this was like part of your master plan as a church. You know what I mean? And I, I love it when God does that, like, it's almost like you see something and you go, Oh, is that you God? You know, like, is that you and stepping into that and seeing the relationships that you've seen, I'm sure it's really exciting. What else were you just gonna mention this?

Carla Adams: 19:53

Oh, I was I was going to say one funny thing that, because it's not all been a bed of roses. We've had, you know, we've had our but this one, this was kind of funny while we were at one of the other churches. Our church was, you know, in our rotation, we were already starting to think about, oh, October is coming in Fall Festival and things like that. And the pastor's wife and I were talking, and we were like, Oh, well, you've got all this space. And, you know, we could do this, and we could bring our game, because we have a lot of games, we could bring our games. And so she and I had it already. We. Ready we, we kind of cornered the other three pastors and said, Hey, this is what we want to do. Are y'all on board? Before we take take it any further, all three of them agreed. And you know, then you kind of so we were moving forward, and then the deacons got involved, and it got all complicated. And so that was not, that was not a go, that didn't work as well as we thought it would go. But I was amazed at, you know, there was some there was some miscommunication, but we were all able to say, okay, you know, that was some miscommunication. We apologize, we apologize. What can we do? Let's okay. We'll we'll back up. Everybody's going to do their own thing, like we would normally do at our church, but this is still a good idea, and next year, we will start now thinking about what we're going to do next year, and there won't be any miscommunication, and we'll all know who's who's going to lead it and not let it bounce around between leadership groups.

Laurie Graham: 21:40

Yeah, well, it's so good, and I think it's really good to share that, hey, this didn't go great, and we didn't throw in the towel. You know, we had this discussion in the small church network not too long ago about, like, practicing like, nothing goes great the first time. Like, like, we need to understand just because something flopped once or twice, or just because there's an obstacle in the way it it doesn't mean we give it all up or that we need to. So, you know, just the commitment to unity and growth and and, you know, like doing more for our community than we could do alone. I just love the vision of smaller churches coming together, because this really is the picture of, you know, none of our churches is the church on their own right. You know, none of our churches is the church like God's Church is is all around the globe. And how cool it is when we can see people partnering together in these ways and having more impact and, you know, building some unity across, you know, things that were formerly divided, like, I love it. Do you have any good tips for people who are listening, who might be like, Gosh, I wonder if we should try something like

Carla Adams: 22:45

that. Be brave. Make the first move. Invite the other churches, don't wait for them to be the one to start it. Don't wait for perfect timing. Just say, hey, we were thinking about doing this. You think that's something that y'all can get on board with? That's kind of what happened with the women, with the women's ministry conference that we had, that we had last fall, is we already were in the work. And I just like, Wait a minute. We had so much fun all in August. Let's keep it going, you know, would you like to come and what do you want to do? You know? And that was a really important part. Is when you have four different churches, there has to be give and take, and you have to say, we have these resources. Do they match up to with what you were kind of thinking, or what would you like to see happen? We can't be one. You know is, I'm a very take charge kind of person. I have, I have the gift of administration. I see a need, and I work to fix it. But the flip side of that is that I could very easily just run it all, but I, yeah, I was very intentional in if I'm this way, probably the pastor's wife of the other church is going to have that little bit of gift as well. And probably I need to say, hey, what, what? Where would you like to come alongside? Is there would you like to lead this? Or would you like me to lead this? Or would you like to not do that at all? And let's do something different. We have to listen to each other, and we have to really look to see what gifts, you know, the Bible talks about God. There are many different gifts, but God puts each gift in the right place, for the right use, for his for the edification of the body and for His glory. And we've seen that we all have different gifts, but they all can't come from the same God, you know, and they're all for His glory, yeah? And that's been amazing,

Laurie Graham: 24:56

yeah? Well, I'm just grateful you came on the podcast to share your experience with these combining four, five, and I'm sure it'll be more in the future. You know, different denominations, different churches, together, not, not to eliminate all your churches, but to do things together, to to just, I don't know, just have greater impact. And I did have one other question I wanted to ask you, and I don't know that you've, you've seen this impact yet, or, or maybe you have, because it's, it's been new. But I can only imagine what people in the community who aren't part of churches, like the unchurcher people like looking. From the outside. Like, to me, this would be like, what, what's happening? We got the Baptist Methodist and the church in Christ. We got, you know, like, what's happening here? Like, have you noticed any kind of impact from the community? Or people even noticing? Like, wow, this is

Carla Adams: 25:45

different. They are noticing, um, you know, we we get questions about that when we are out in the community, they're like, Hey, What are y'all doing? Because I saw all the there was nobody over at y'all church, but they were all over the Methodist Church, and I thought I saw your card, if car ever at the Methodist Church, what were y'all doing? You know? So it's been a really good opportunity to say, Oh, would you like to come? Because we're having a lot of fun and and it's something new, and it in, it's peaking their interest, and we are seeing who

Laurie Graham: 26:19

I'm so glad you had an answer to that, because I wondered, I'm just like, I don't know. I would be kind of like, who's doing that or what's happening, and I and, you know, in a culture, in our current cultural climate, where we have seemingly more and more divisions popping up in every area, right? Like not just in churches, but everywhere. It's so cool to see some barriers coming down to talk to churches like you, who are are just coming together with others, majoring on the majors, minoring on the minors you know, just standing firm and what you know and love and keeping your priorities and and building relationships outside our normal little confined bubbles. So I just totally applaud you, and I'm just so excited to hear more, and I can't wait to see what God has for you guys in the future. Do you have any like plans for future, like your own vision, or things people have talked about, where do you see this going?

Carla Adams: 27:16

I think we really are looking for ways to continue to build on how we can serve our community and how we can, you know, because my benevolent the benevolence budget for our church is small, but so is everybody else's. But when we, when we look at what we can do together and come alongside this community that's hurting and really in need, that's been amazing, and I, I'm we're looking at one of the pastor's wives, and I are looking at doing some education. I'm a nurse, and she's a physician's assistant, so we're looking at doing education for different health concerns in the community, trying to find a way to because we have a large population that may or may not be able to access the healthcare systems and so trying to find ways to meet that need. So that's been a lot of fun. So we're just looking for ways that we can reach out to our community and love on them.

Laurie Graham: 28:25

So sweet. Okay, before we run out of time and close up this podcast episode, Carla, is there anything you were hoping I would ask, or any stories or anything you wanted to share before we go,

Carla Adams: 28:36

um, no, I think we've got, I think we've covered it all just I, I don't know if it's, I don't know if the impact in different states are in different locations or quite as much. I don't know that you can truly appreciate that in Middle Georgia, in a rural community, we have our African American brothers and sisters and our Hispanic brothers and sisters and our completely Anglo brothers and sisters all looking for ways to build relationships. And, you know, in this, in today's world, that's been amazing,

Laurie Graham: 29:19

yeah, yeah. And I think it's just a witness of Christ on earth. So I just, I think it's so beautiful, so well. Carla, thank you so much for being with us today. If anybody wants to reach out and talk to you or ask you some questions about this. And also, Carla writes for our website. So if any of you are ever on the small church ministry website, you've probably written read some of her posts about women's ministry especially, I know is one of the areas you you speak into. But if people want to get in touch with you, what's the best way to do that?

Carla Adams: 29:48

Well, I'm in and out of the Facebook community all the time. So that's I'm available through there, but also Carla C, A, R, L, A at signs for my sister. Is my email, signs for my sister.com sorry, Carla, at signs for my sister.com and then I have a signs for my sister Facebook page. So there's a lot of different ways they can reach out.

Laurie Graham: 30:16

Awesome. So you've got the blog, you've got the website, and also in our Facebook community, creative solutions for small churches, and we will make sure to post the links in the show notes. Well, Carla, thank you for being with us and just showing how your church is being a light in your community as they. Across a lot of divides and partner with other churches. And for those of you listening wherever you're listening from, please do the same this week. We'll meet up next week, but until then, be a light you