Pastor Stewart Hendricks never dreamed he would be standing waist-high in a community swimming pool, baptizing a couple by flashlight. Nor did he intend to start a church with very little planning or money. But his favorite saying in recent months has become, “It was God’s plan.”
New Beginnings Church held its first baptism service in a YMCA swimming pool.Hendricks said the name for the church – New Beginnings – sends the message that everyone needs a new beginning and this is a place where they can find it. Whether people are married, single, divorced, young, old, or have made bad choices or suffered failure, New Beginnings welcomes all with open arms, he said. Church members take their motto: “Love All, Serve All,” to heart.
Hendricks and a small group launched New Beginnings Church in Pickens on Easter Sunday 2011. He said if it had gone according to his plan, he would have taken about a year to build up funds and prepare for the launching. But, he said, God’s plan was to announce the opening in January and begin holding services by Easter.
“What I felt was God saying, ‘Go,’ and that was the first week of January,” he said.
On Easter Sunday, 100 people met to launch the church at the Pickens Recreation Center. Hendricks said the center was gracious enough to allow them the use of the space for a reasonable price of $100. The catch was they had to unpack and repack their “church on wheels” every week.
But things were working out well. Each week Hendricks wondered if anyone would show up, and each week they did.
“God has blessed us with 10 baptisms and five salvations,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Later, East Pickens Baptist Church offered New Beginnings the use of its old facility, but Hendricks said they couldn’t afford it on their shoestring budget. Then, East Pickens agreed to let them use the building if they would pay the utilities. He said that came out to almost exactly the same as what they were paying at the recreation center.
“God just kept coming up and putting stuff in front of us that we needed,” he said.
New Beginnings held its first service at its new location on Nov. 20. Hendricks said church members are excited about the location for a number of reasons: They have ample meeting rooms for Bible study and the children’s program, and they have a kitchen that can be used for community outreach.
But the best part of the location is that they are now in a community, and they have big plans to reach out to that community, he said. “We don’t want to be another stagnant church, sitting on the corner feeding ourselves,” he said. “We want to become doers and not just hearers of the Word.”
Hendricks said he hopes to be able to plant more churches and eventually do some planting in Washington, D.C., and New York. But, as he has learned this past year, it’s all according to God’s plans, not his. “I don’t have a clue in the world what the future has to bring, but we’re going to hold onto God’s coattails,’ he said.