Our location:

8904 Pritchett Road
Gardendale, AL 35071

Our schedule of services:

Sunday, 9:30 a.m.: Bible study (all ages)
Sunday, 10:30 a.m.: Worship
Sunday, 5 p.m.: Worship

Wednesday, 7 p.m.: Bible class (with brief devotional)

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Questions about our worship, our teaching, our faith

As disciples of Christ, we strive to follow all the teachings of Jesus as he passed them down to his apostles, with the instructions to “teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) None of us are perfect, all of us have sinned, and all of us are tempted. We work and worship together in this church so that we can encourage each other to remain faithful to God, to resist temptation, and to actively engage in good works (Hebrews 10:24-25).

We believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, who is reigning at the right hand of God as our king, and as the head of the church – his body. (Ephesians 1:22-23)

We believe Jesus was the fulfillment of prophecies dating as far back as the beginning of the world. He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) and he is the way by which we are all called to enter God’s kingdom.

We believe that each of us is separated from God because of sin we have committed, but through the grace of God we have been offered salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus (Romans 5:6-10). If we have faith that Jesus is the son of God sent from the Father, that he died for our sins, that God raised him from the dead, and that he is now ruling with all power and authority, than we can be saved from our sins and be called children of God (John 1:12-13.

We believe that faith is more than simple acknowledgement of a belief. Faith is a willingness to trust God completely in all things, accepting all He has commanded, all the terms that He sets for accepting His grace, and submitting our will to His commandments, not our traditions or human theology. Because of that, saving faith is an active state of mind that calls me to obedience (James 2:22-24).

We are commanded to submit to baptism for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38), so that they may be washed away (Acts 22:16) and we may stand pure before God, acceptable to do the works God has called us to do in His name (Ephesians 2:10). We do not believe that simply being immersed in water apart from faith does anything for us – but neither does a profession of faith in Christ unless accompanied by an obedience to His instructions. If we are saved by the grace of God, then God sets the terms for that salvation in His gospel (Romans 1:16-17), which is taught in the scriptures, and it is my choice to accept or reject them (Romans 10:14-17).

We do our best to follow the scriptural pattern of what it means to be part of the Lord’s church in our worship, our teaching, and our daily lives.

Some commonly asked questions:

While our whole lives are to be given as a sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1), Christians have a special responsibility to assemble together regularly. If we “hold fast to what is good,” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) and our aim is to think on things that are pure and worthy of praise (1 Peter 4:8), and our goal is to love other Christians as Christ loved us (1 John 4:11-12), then gathering as Christians to worship God together is the natural outcome of our faith!

Meeting together to worship God is not a passive act, and it is not something we do in order to be entertained or to let others “do for us.”

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Hebrews 10:23-25

Our regular worship services are a support group for Christians trying to live godly lives in an ungodly world. We meet together to encourage each other, provoke each other, to correct each other in the spirit of love, and to forgive each other.

The Lord’s Supper was instituted by Jesus the night before he was crucified, while he had gathered with his 12 apostles for an early observance of the Passover feast.

During that time, he singled out two elements: the unleavened bread, and the “fruit of the vine,” or simply, grape juice. (Greek: genēma; that which is produced (literally or figuratively): — fruit, harvest; and ampelos; a vine (as coiling about a support) – Strong’s.) Jesus indicated that “I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. (Matthew 26:29)

When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church years later, he re-emphasized that this was to be done collectively by the church on a regular basis, and with the right frame of mind (1 Corinthians 11:23-33), not as a common meal, but as a memorial focused on Jesus and his sacrifice.

In Acts 20:7, the writer says “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread…” which implies that this was done regularly by the Christians on Sunday when they assembled together. As a result, we strive to follow the pattern and command given by our Lord and enforced by the apostles.

In Colossians 3:16, the apostle Paul instructs: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Scripture teaches that singing to each other about God and about spiritual truths has been part of God’s worship since worship first started, and it is an important part of our teaching and our encouragement to each other.

The First Century church historically did not use instrumental music, even though they certainly had the ability to do so. The first recorded example of worshiping with instruments in the church appears around the 7th Century, some 600 years after the church had been established.

Our goal is to worship God as He intended Christians to worship when the church was established, and as a result, we sing songs based on Biblical concepts and teachings as well as direct or paraphrased verses from scripture, with the goal of praising God and encouraging each other.

The Bible does not authorize the church to be a “fund-raising organization,” and we do not take up a collection for the purposes of building up our treasury. Scripture teaches that the New Testament church had an obligation to assist its members – whether locally or at times in other parts of the world – when dire need arose (Romans 15:25-27, Acts 11:27-30.)

In addition, we see examples of churches financially supporting men to teach the gospel locally and in other locations (Philippians 4:10-18, 2 Corinthians 11:7-9.)

The Kimberly church collects money each Sunday so that we can provide partial financial assistance to our full-time evangelist, who works with us in teaching the gospel both from the pulpit and in the community. We also use the funds to meet emergency needs of our members if they arise, as well as to maintain our building, pay bills, and purchase any teaching equipment we might need to continue to work and worship here in the community.

We do not solicit funds from visitors, and we do not impose a mandatory contribution on our members. All gifts are voluntary and from the heart, with members contributing whatever they decide they can afford each week (1 Corinthians 16:1-2, 2 Corinthians 9:6-8.)

Christians as individuals are called to “do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). We encourage each other to donate time, money, clothes, food, or any other charitable act whenever we can.

Because the money we collect from the church each week is set apart for the specific work to which the scripture directs it, we do not use money from our treasury to support secular charity work. We also do not use the assembly as a platform to promote those works, commendable as they may be. Our focus is on the work set before us in the Bible: to support the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We rely on our members to be lights to the world and positive forces in our community above and beyond what we do collectively.

We focus our work on spiritual needs, realizing that we can only do the work authorized by God in the Bible. The community has any number of useful services available to address secular issues, but the church is the only “pillar and support of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15.)”

The Kimberly church is made up of people who have been baptized into Christ for the remission of their sins (Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16) and added by God into the body of Christ (Acts 2:47, Romans 6:3-5). Each of us has agreed to work together in building the church here, encouraging each other to live in faith toward God, following Jesus in his example of righteousness, purity, and kindness to others.

Membership is based on a shared commitment to the work and worship of the church at this location, and all members are expected to participate in whatever way that their abilities allow, according to the pattern of the scriptures (Ephesians 4:11-16, Acts 9:26-28). Membership is always conditional on a willingness to do our best to live Christ-like, godly lives (Ephesians 5:1-12, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

All of us sin (Romans 3:23-24) and are called to repentance when we do. We encourage each other when we fall short, we pray for each other, and we hold each other accountable for our choices in life. But we do all these things because we love each other and want to remain faithful to God, and live worthily of the blessings of the Gospel.

Jesus’ prayer for his disciples was that they be one, as he and the Father are one (John 17:21), and we are not to have divisions or sects based on different teachings, teachings, or interpretations of God’s word (1 Corinthians 1:10).  The only division of the Lord’s church that we read about in scripture is based on the assembling of Christians together in a local area, with their own independent leadership structure.

We are not part of a larger denomination or “sub-group” of the Lord’s church. We use the title “Church of Christ” because it is a scriptural designation that describes our relationship to Jesus, but that does not affiliate us with other groups who use the same name. We also do not teach that there is a specific title by which the Lord’s church must be referred. The Bible uses a number of phrases to describe the church, but none of those are designated as “the” title or name of the Lord’s church.

Our worship services and teachings line up closely with many churches that also call themselves “church of Christ” because we share a common belief with them and a desire to follow God’s word. However, the name on the sign is not what determines whether a group is part of the Lord’s church. That is a right reserved only for the head of the church, which is Jesus (Revelation 1:17-20, Matthew 16:18, 1 Corinthians 3:11).

We have members who may have deeply held political viewpoints, or may be completely indifferent toward politics and the current social issues of our society. We believe strongly as the scriptures say that we are not “hyphenated Christians,” but rather that all of us are united in one culture in Jesus (Galatians 3:27-28, 1 Corinthians 12:13).

Our calling is spiritual, and our goal is to conform ourselves to the image of Christ. As Christians, we submit to each other in love, “that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another” (1 Corinthians 12:25). We do not permit divisiveness or “taking sides” against each other on political issues (Titus 3:10, Romans 16:17) – we’re all one in Christ, and that is the only distinction that should concern us.

We’re glad to discuss the work here, or set up a Bible study to talk about God’s word with you!

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