ARNOLD – Any pastor will tell you leading a church can be a roller coaster of ups and downs. For Exchange Church – a church replant in the St. Louis suburbs – that roller coaster had a few loops and, after the pandemic, one monster of a hill.
Formerly Starling Road Baptist Church, the congregation was replanted as Exchange Church with about 75-80 members in 2019. Some left during the replant process, but a core of 65 or so remained. The church threw itself into evangelism and ministering to its community over the next year, but in February of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
“We fit the model of what a lot of the experts said about the pandemic,” said pastor Jimmy Dunn, who had been serving as associate pastor of worship and families since 2018. “About 30 percent just didn’t come back [when in-person worship resumed]. By the time we got back together in mid-to-late 2020, we probably had 40 people left and were dwindling.”
But struggle doesn’t always mean God is ready for a congregation to close its doors.
When Dunn stepped in to serve as intermediate lead pastor in the summer of 2021, the church was considering its options. The easiest would be turning over its assets to Jefferson Baptist Association or possibly merging with its sending church – Canaan Baptist Church. The third option would mean more ups and downs: remaining open as an independent congregation. Six voted to merge with Canaan, and 12 voted to remain open and, in Dunn’s words, “give it their best shot.”
So remain open they did, but with an even smaller core.
Dunn began a sermon series on unity within the body of Christ.
“We needed that unity,” he said. “We needed to reset our hearts and be reminded of why we were there as a church. There are a dozen other churches around us. Why were we any different? We had to find that identity.”
To rediscover that identity, the church spent a lot of time in prayer, and settled on a straightforward, three-fold vision: elevating Jesus, equipping believers, and engaging in God’s mission.
It began with small things. With a group of only a dozen in the church, there were none in leadership roles beyond Dunn. No treasurer, no one to handle the building, no one.
“Every one of those 12 people stood up and took a role,” he said. “They’d never done it before, but they stepped up.”
The church went through its finances line by line, receipt by receipt and slashed what little fat there was.
Slowly, things began to recover. The women’s ministry, small though it was, was one of the strongest elements of the church. It began to bring in and ministerto more mothers. That brought in kids, which turned the focus to a children’s ministry.
“We maybe had three or four children,” Dunn said, “but we still focused on serving and supporting them.”
Facility upkeep was also weighing on Dunn, who knew the HVAC systems dating back to the 1970s were ready to go at any moment. A week after he voiced the concern, an anonymous donor gave $50,000 toward the project.
With a little momentum under its belt, last August the church decided to host a back-to-school event, with over 300 children and their families coming through to get school supplies donated by the congregation. And yet, none of those families returned to the church for an ongoing relationship or even visited a worship service.
“But we are planning on doing it again,” Dunn said. “Our mission is not to get something out of it; our commitment is to love and serve them anyway.”
Perhaps that love is making a difference. In 2022, the church recorded eight baptisms. This last Christmas saw more than 50 people in worship. Since Jan. 1, they’ve baptized another and seen a dozen new visitors who are now on their second or third return visit.
“This past Sunday, we had 55 people in worship, with 14 of our normal visitors on vacation or out sick,” Dunn said. “At the end of the month, we have six people scheduled for our New Members class. It seems like we’re having more weddings and baby showers than we’ve ever had.”
Numbers aren’t the mark of a healthy church, but after the ups and downs Exchange has experienced, Dunn said it’s hard to see the new growth as anything but the work of Lord.
“I believe He’s honoring our commitment to the Scripture and our community,” he said.