Struggling Baptist churches find new life beyond racial boundaries

In Murfreesboro, Tenn., the sign for Scenic Drive Baptist Church of Murfreesboro came down. That congregation had arrived at the end of their long journey. But for members of the new congregation, their journey had just begun. They raised a new sign for The Arabic Baptist Church of Murfreesboro, written in English and Arabic.

In Florida, Ridgewood Baptist Church, a predominately white congregation in a suburb of Jacksonville, Fla., ceased to be its own independently operating church. Ridgewood is now the Orange Park campus of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, a successful, African-American black congregation.

Those Baptist churches show how partnership in the gospel crosses racial boundaries and how financial difficulties for one congregation can be a financial gift to another.

Scenic Drive Baptist’s attendance had fallen to about 15 people on Sundays, and its bills exceeded the size of its bank account. Deacon Larry Montgomery voiced the grim truth: “We’re just not going to make it.” His novel solution? Sell the church to a growing congregation of Arab Baptists. Writing for The Washington Post, Stephanie McCrummen observed, “Not long ago, none of this would be happening. There would be no dying traditional Southern Baptist church and no Arab Southern Baptist congregation to buy it.”

But that’s just what happened. Born in Egypt, Raouf Ghattas came to the United States as a nuclear engineer. He eventually attended seminary, where he met his wife, Carol, who was from Murfreesboro. They worked in North Africa and the Middle East as missionaries to Muslims for almost two decades. When they moved back to the U.S., they were astonished to see how the Middle East had moved to Tennessee. Carol told her husband, “My little town of Murfreesboro has a mosque.” And the mosque was part of a large Islamic center. Outreach from a Baptist church neighboring the mosque seemed like the thing to do, and the Ghattases’ congregation grew. But then the pastor of the Baptist church retired, and the situation grew awkward. So the Arabic Baptists returned to meeting in homes, until they had—and took—the opportunity to buy Scenic Drive Baptist.

The story of Shiloh Church is different. Ridgewood Baptist Church had held services for over 100 years. Under the leadership of the Rev. Hal Fletcher, the congregation built a new sanctuary in 2008 on almost 15 acres. Fletcher died in a Philadelphia hospital just two years later at age 56. The congregation’s attendance fell, and its financial troubles increased.

At the same time, Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church looked to expand its ministry beyond downtown Jacksonville. H.B. Charles Jr., the church’s pastor, said he hoped they could find “a school auditorium or something to meet in” somewhere in Orange Park. But in conversations with the Jacksonville Baptist Association, Shiloh’s leadership learned of church facilities that could become available. The opportunity that materialized was Ridgewood Baptist Church.

Michael Clifford arrived at Ridgewood in 2012. Under his preaching, the congregation doubled in size, but the church still faced significant financial pressure. Clifford became increasingly open to partnering with another congregation. When Charles and Shiloh’s leadership toured Ridgewood, “we were blown away by the campus facilities and strategic location,” Charles wrote. “It was obvious that acquiring this facility and its debts meant this work could not be a traditional church plant. The leadership, membership, and resources of Shiloh would be required to make this work.”

So Charles and Clifford decided to unite their congregations, with Charles taking the helm.

“We were excited about the fact that our church, being a predominately black church, and the Ridgewood church, being predominately a white church, to come together and work together and have a new witness in our city for Jesus Christ and all of the racial tensions here and around our country,” Charles said.