Our Vision
Our vision is to be a gospel-centered community church in Homewood. This is our dream and why we planted Homewood Community Church. We believe the gospel (good news about Jesus) changes everything about us and our world and we want it’s message to be central in the life of our church. Among the many valid models of church planting, we want to be a community church. A family of believers in a place. Though not all our members live here, our place is Homewood, AL.
Our Mission
Our mission as a church is to join God in His mission. We believe God is renewing all things and we want to be a small part in that renewal. How? By loving God, loving our neighbor, and loving our place. This is our mission. That is how we think God will bring His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Love God
St. Augustine once said that God has made us for Himself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him. Our church exists to help others “reorient our loves” to love God more than anything else.
Love Neighbor
We believe human beings were made to be known and to know others. We think proximity, being actual neighbors, helps us love one another better. So we will make a big deal out of loving our actual neighbors.
Love Place
An old model of church was “the Parish Church.” It was a local church in a place that served those in it’s community regardless if they went to their church. We want to love and serve those in the geographical area closest to our church and where most of our people live.
Our Story
Every organization starts with a dream and Homewood Community Church is no exception. Our story starts with ongoing conversations between a few people who share the desire to love God and bless others in a place they had come to love- Homewood. Tom Franklin, the church planter, served as a campus minister with RUF at Birmingham Southern College for 13 years. During that entire time, he lived in Homewood and began to have a love and burden for place, for those who live in a particular community.
In 2017 the local church planting committee of the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) joined Tom in prayer as they explored the idea of a new church plant in Homewood. In 2018, Tom and Kristin went to the Church Planting Assessment Center and were approved by the local committee of Presbytery to pursue a new work in Homewood.
Over time, conversations about church planting led to gatherings, which led to parties for inviting friends, and eventually friends and neighbors locked arms to form a launch team. In September 2018, this team began meeting together at The Exceptional Foundation in Homewood to pray and plan a new church plant.
By God’s grace in February 2019 we launched Homewood Community Church with a public worship service on Feb. 17th at The Dance Foundation. In our first year we started a worship service, a vibrant and welcoming children’s ministry, we hired Lizette Crosson as the Church Administrator, we hired Josh Vigneulle as the Worship Director, we held our first Family Camp, we started 9 Community Groups meeting around Homewood on Sunday evenings, and we started an exciting mission/local benevolence ministry!
In February 2020 we celebrated God’s faithfulness in a One-Year Anniversary Service. Our invitation is to “come and see” what a community church might look like in Homewood. Our central message and heartbeat is the gospel of Jesus Christ- simply the good news that God has done something for us that we could not do for ourselves. Come join us as we seek to love God, love our neighbors, and love our place.