By Melanie Patterson
The North Jefferson News
A faith-based group in north Jefferson County has expanded its vision.
In January, members of the former Greater Gardendale Ministerial Association agreed to change the name to North Jefferson Ministry Association. The goal is to encompass a larger area and more church denominations.
“The mission of the North Jefferson Ministry Association is to provide a network in which pastors from any denomination may come to add to, and glean from, one another by sharing ideas, thoughts and fellowship,” said Curt Sanford, new president of the association and associate pastor at The Church Revived in Gardendale.
Sanford joined the association last year and was happy to bring some new ideas to the table.
“It really kind of grew and took on a life of its own,” he said.
“I brought in a vision for our ministry leaders in the community,” he said, after being elected as president. “Our goal now is to simply say, ‘Look, we want to go across denominations and across north Jefferson County, not just Gardendale.’”
David Moerbe, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Gardendale, has been a member of the association for six years. He’s happy about the changes.
“I think it’s a definite move in the right direction. It’s what we’ve been trying to do for several years,” said Moerbe. “We’re looking at ways all the churches can work together to serve our community in ways that as individual churches, we can’t.”
Sanford has a clear idea for the association’s new direction. The objective even has a name: “Pastoring our Cities.”
The pastors will focus on caring for local governments, schools and businesses through “servant evangelism” projects.
In schools, for example, Sanford said the group wants to provide items like paper and pens that schools might not be able to afford during the current period of proration.
The group wants to provide prayer, leadership and organizational skills for schools, businesses and local governments, but “also elbow grease and sweat,” said Sanford.
“We just believe there’s evangelism we can do that has a practical Christian basis with no strings attached,” he said.
The ministry association has grown in just the few weeks since the changes have been implemented. Sanford said there were only four or five members last year, and Moerbe said the group now includes more than 10 churches and at least 15 members.
Members represent several denominations, including Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Independent.
Dr. Rudy Guess, pastor of Gardendale-Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church, pointed out that there are changes in the association, but the group will continue some successful programs.
Two of them are the annual Thanksgiving dinner and Easter sunrise service.
“We won’t change those,” said Guess, who has been in the association since 1999 and has been president at least twice. But he said the association’s expansion provides the opportunity for more churches to participate in those popular events.
“Those two will hopefully be enhanced by others participating,” he said.
Membership in the association is free and is open to all pastors and ministers in the north Jefferson County area. It meets the first Tuesday of every month at different locations sponsored by individual churches.
To learn more, call Sanford at 631-4404 or email him at curt@tcronline.org. Also visit the association’s Web site at www.northjeffersonministers.com.
