David and Gay Crowdis said they believe it’s not the size of a church’s congregation that matters but rather what that congregation does to serve its mission, regardless of its size.
David is the pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Cuthbert. His wife said the church is “off the beaten path” near the border of Randolph and Calhoun counties, which each have fewer than 7,000 residents. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the tiny church had a congregation of about 50 people. However, like many other Southern rural churches, it struggles with a shrinking population.
Rural churches across the Southeast are in decline as rural populations shrink. There’s also a decline in Christianity across the United States. A study by the Pew Research Center suggested that by 2070, less than half of the country’s population may be Christian. There is also a shortage of pastors in these rural areas.
Need to adapt
Jim Weaver is the Bethel Baptist Association mission strategist. He supports pastors and churches throughout southwest Georgia, including New Bethel Baptist. Five of the association’s churches are without pastors, he noted. Some of them, like Morgan Baptist Church, are actively searching for a pastor and finding success. Morgan’s church has received about 50 applications.
Others, he said, may be having a more difficult time due to issues such as housing and a lack of opportunities present in these areas.
For these churches to survive, Weaver said they have to adapt.
“The church is a living organism, and every living organism has to grow,” he said. “It’s not created to become stagnant, or it will die.”
Some churches share a pastor, who preaches a service at one church and heads to the next once that sermon is finished.
Others, like New Bethel, developed creative ways to keep their mission strong.
These days, David preaches to a small, aging crowd on Sundays at New Bethel. However, he said its members do more mission work now than they ever have and even more than some larger churches.
“The Bible says when two or more are gathered in my name, I’ll be there,” David said. “So size doesn’t matter to us. It’s not about us. It’s about what God’s doing.”
Thrift store
In 2022, the church started a Mission Mall, a thrift store made up of donated clothing, kitchen and dining ware, toys, books, movies and everything in between. They use the proceeds from the thrift store to help individuals and organizations within the surrounding communities. This year, they raised enough money to support a Mississippi nonprofit in building tiny homes in Honduras.
Gay said she got the idea to start the thrift store during the annual Highway 82 Spring Clean Yard Sale. She sold a few items and made more than $200. She said she doesn’t even know what happened next, but after sharing her idea with a few folks, donations started coming in.
Gay said the church hasn’t spent a dime on any of the items in its shop.
In its first year, she said, the store made about $6,000. In its second, she said she believes they made anywhere between $8,000 and $10,000.
They sell items for about $1 each — a bit more for clothing with tags or rare collectibles, but nothing is more than $10.
“I imagine people think our No. 1 goal is to sell things, but it’s really not,” she said. “It’s to help people.”
Reactivated
In two years, the shop has expanded in size, and the church has adapted with it. Its small congregation no longer uses Sunday School classrooms or adult teaching classrooms, so they’ve turned those vacant rooms into a toy room, a “Honduras room” and a menswear room.
Their closets are bursting with donated items. Gay said she’s in the shop almost every day organizing and sorting.
Money gained at the Mission Mall serves a large number of people and organizations throughout southwest Georgia. It supports a number of churches through the Bethel Baptist Association. They donate clothes to Rahab’s Haven in Albany, a center for trafficking victims and Rehoboth Ranch in Calhoun County, a rehab center for men. They provide monetary donations to the Calhoun County Family Connections. At Christmas, they help organizations like the Millennium Center, a drug rehab facility in Cuthbert and ASPIRE in Arlington. They donate ragged sheets and blankets to a nearby dog rescue operation.
In two years, the church has also become the local “go-to” for people in need. They’ve helped people who are hungry, homeless or have lost their jobs. They buy struggling college students computers and other school supplies. They bought a brand new bicycle for a man in Arlington who relies on a bike to get to work. They purchased a brand new garden tiller for folks at Rehoboth Ranch.
“God just has a way,” Gay said. “If there’s a need, somehow we’ll hear about it.”
She said the work has reignited the older members of the church’s congregation who are limited in what they can do physically.
“This makes them happy because they feel like they’re still giving back,” she said. “They feel that their church is very active. And, it is.”
The Crowdises also receive help from community members outside their congregation, including frequent shoppers, neighbors and a high school student who is completing community service hours.
“That’s how we’ve managed physically,” Gay said.
Supporting missions
The Mission Mall has been so successful in serving Randolph, Calhoun and surrounding counties that the Crowdises are using money raised to support missions work abroad. The couple has been visiting Honduras in partnership with the Forgotten Children Ministry, which supports people and children in Honduras who are living in poverty.
The two put together suitcases of supplies, toys and clothing to bring with them when they travel to Tegucigalpa — the country’s capital — each year.
One way the ministry supports this population is by helping to build tiny homes that cost about $3,000 to complete. The Crowdises decided they wanted to build a house and raised the money to build one in November. Word spread, and fundraising grew throughout the community.
“Between November and the end of February, this little community — the Bethel Baptist Association — raised enough money to build five houses in Honduras,” Gay said. “It’s been like a ripple effect. I get chill bumps just thinking about it.”
So Gay set a goal. She hoped to raise enough to build a sixth house through funds from the Mission Mall by the end of May. She turned 72 during the month, and she said it was her birthday wish. Mission Mall met he goal, and another house will be built.
Gay said in June, the funds received through Mission Mall will be donated to Rahab’s House and to Baptist Friendship House in New Orleans.
She said the New Bethel congregation does everything in good faith. While the congregation is small, its work extends much farther than its services. She said attending is how churchgoers are “fed.”
“But, it’s not just about attending,” she said. “It’s about how you go out the door and serve after you’ve been fed.”
The Mission Mall is open regularly throughout the week. Find out about items and hours on Facebook at facebook.com/gcrowdis.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Lucille Lannigan and originally published by the Christian Index.
