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Photo by Erin Nelson.
The Rev. Nathan Carden walks through the partial clearing of where the new Church at Ross Bridge will be built.
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Map courtesy of The Church at Ross Bridge.
The Church at Ross Bridge is currently located at 2101 Grand Ave. in the Ross Bridge Town Center (shown at the blue pin), and its future location is on 7 acres at 3200 Ross Bridge Parkway (shown at the red star).
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Rendering courtesy of The Church at Ross Bridge.
A rendering showing the planned first phase of new facilities for The Church at Ross Bridge, which will be at 3200 Ross Bridge Parkway next to the Sawyer Trail sector of the neighborhood.
The Church at Ross Bridge has been meeting in the Ross Bridge community for 11 years since relocating from Lakeshore Drive and changing its name from Aldersgate United Methodist Church. Now the congregation is preparing for another move.
Only this time, the church isn’t going far — just down the street by the Sawyer Trail sector of Ross Bridge.
In 2012, the Church at Ross Bridge started renting space in the Ross Bridge Welcome Center in the commercial section of the community. Shortly after former Lead Pastor John Mount retired from his role in 2017, the church decided to buy the welcome center and renovated the roughly 8,800-square-foot space to better suit the church’s needs, current Pastor Nathan Carden said.
That facility functions very well, but they’re running out of space, Carden said.
Map courtesy of The Church at Ross Bridge.
The Church at Ross Bridge is currently located at 2101 Grand Ave. in the Ross Bridge Town Center (shown at the blue pin), and its future location is on 7 acres at 3200 Ross Bridge Parkway (shown at the red star).
So the church recently conducted a capital campaign, seeking to obtain pledges for $3.5 million over the next two years to fund both the church’s ongoing ministries and construction of a new building.
The new facility will be on 7 acres just down the street, at 3200 Ross Bridge Parkway. The first phase is slated to be 18,000 square feet and include a sanctuary that seats 414 people, a couple of multi-use meeting rooms, a child care area, children’s worship space, lobby and gathering area, small kitchen, restrooms and outdoor playground, Carden said.
The plan is to break ground and begin construction in September and hopefully have the new first phase of the church building completed by the end of 2024, he said. The total cost of the first phase of construction is estimated to be $6.5 million, he said.
The church currently has about $500,000 in savings, including about $350,000 that can be used for construction, Carden said. The capital campaign the church just underwent includes a plan to bring in $750,000 a year over the next two years for construction and $1 million a year to fund ongoing ministry work, Carden said.
The congregation has been extremely receptive, already committing by mid-June more than $3.4 million of the $3.5 million goal, he said.
“I have been in pastoral ministry since 2004 and have had the privilege of serving in some wonderful churches,” Carden said. “However, I testify without hesitation that Church at Ross Bridge is the most loving, healthy and generous church I have had the privilege to serve.”
Warren Austin, a member of the church for the past five years who joined the staff in a part-time role of missions director in February after retiring from his other job, said the congregation has responded unbelievably to the capital campaign.
“I think our people were hungry for that building. They know we need space,” Austin said. “They know we need to stand up and follow God.”
The current sanctuary seats about 175 people at full capacity, and even with two services, sometimes extra chairs have to be brought in to seat everyone, Austin said. The new building will give the church the opportunity to grow so it can reach even more people, he said.
While attendance at many churches has dropped following the pandemic, the Church at Ross Bridge has continued growing, Carden said. The church has added about 200 new members in the past three years, with membership now at about 365, he said.
Average attendance is about 260 people in person and 120 to 140 online, Carden said.
While the new sanctuary initially will seat 414 people, some temporary classroom space in the back can be converted in future phases to allow the sanctuary to expand and seat 633 people, Carden said.
The church initially plans to keep its current building and use it for midweek youth and children’s activities and office space, but they eventually may sell it when future construction phases are completed at the new campus, Carden said.
Rendering courtesy of The Church at Ross Bridge.
A rendering showing the planned first phase of new facilities for The Church at Ross Bridge, which will be at 3200 Ross Bridge Parkway next to the Sawyer Trail sector of the neighborhood.
This is actually the 120th year for the Church at Ross Bridge, Carden said. The church was founded in 1903 as 11th Avenue Methodist-Episcopal Church, across from the UAB Highlands campus in Birmingham. After eight decades of ministry there, the church relocated to Lakeshore Drive in 1989, with many of its members having moved south, and renamed itself Aldersgate United Methodist Church.
Then in 2012 the church moved again to Ross Bridge and rebranded itself once more as a community-based church.
This past year, the Church at Ross Bridge — like more than 2,000 Methodist churches across the country — voted to separate from the United Methodist Church and become an independent Methodist church. While the United Methodist Church denomination has officially upheld bans on same-sex marriage and gay clergy, many U.S. congregations openly defied those bans, causing dissension in the denomination.
We are grateful for God’s faithfulness to us, and there is great enthusiasm in our congregation for what the future holds.
NATHAN CARDEN
“We cherish the many years of ministry we shared as part of the United Methodist Church,” Carden said. “But over the last two years, our local church leadership became concerned that the complex challenges and uncertainties facing the institutional church could echo into the life of our local church, placing our church’s health and vision at risk.”
After a thorough six-month discernment process, the Church at Ross Bridge voted to separate, Carden said. “We are grateful for God’s faithfulness to us, and there is great enthusiasm in our congregation for what the future holds.”
That enthusiasm is reflected in financial giving, too, Carden said. Since starting this capital campaign, the average household giving for the congregation has increased 92%, he said.
Carden said he is very grateful to be part of a church that is willing to invest in something it believes is important.
“It’s simple — we want to be a Christ-centered church that continues his ministry of hope and healing in the world,” Carden said. “We believe, and research indicates, that healthy local churches make communities more healthy. They foster strong interpersonal relationships with neighbors and contribute to the common good, especially those most in need. We want Church at Ross Bridge to have a positive impact beyond our walls in Hoover, serving the spiritual and physical needs of our community for current and future generations.”
