Tonight, Heritage Baptist Church and Grace Baptist Church voted overwhelmingly to complete the merger of the legal corporations and become Bedford Road Baptist Church.
We are very excited about this step and the process that has brought us to it. We know the coming years will not be challenge free, but we know this is the way Christ is leading us as a part of His Church!
Here are a few of the lessons we learned along the way:
- Merging congregations is hard work.
- Things don’t happen quickly and you can’t force them. People have to develop relationships before they will respond.
- Start with good people. A merger of a healthy group of people and a toxic group of people will just produce more toxic people. We had a fantastic core of people on both sides who made this happen.
- Don’t be afraid of talking. We spent more time listening and talking with people in formal and informal settings than we did anything else.
- Lean on other leaders. This would not have happened if I had come in as a hired gun “fixing” everything. We have a solid core of elders who worked hard with other leaders and the congregation to shepherd the process in God’s time.
I am thankful that this has gone well for you all. I trust you have many wonderful years of ministry together.
Congratulations! I am sure that it was a slow but rewarding process. I also like your colors, they are almost the same as the colors we are using for our logo.