Breckenridge Texan

By Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan

Two Breckenridge churches have merged to become one, literally, as the members of Real Church and Bethany Baptist Church recently voted to unite as ONE Church, which will hold its official opening with Easter services on Sunday, April 20, at the former Bethany location, 1911 W. Walker St. The service will begin at 10:30 a.m., followed by an Easter egg hunt.

Additionally, ONE Church will host pastor Danny Brown of Eastland (formerly of Breckenridge) for a Good Friday service at 6:30 p.m. tonight, Friday, April 18.

Both Steve Spoon, formerly with Real Church, and Don Bearden, formerly with Bethany Baptist, will serve as pastors of ONE Church, with Spoon as the Lead Pastor. Others help with the programs for children and teens.

The short version of the merger story is that the Real Church congregation was out-growing its building at 516 N. Graham Ave. (aka the Industrial Loop), while Bethany Baptist was needing more church members and had started holding services in the fellowship hall rather than the larger sanctuary.

As Spoon and the Real Church were looking at spending up to $1 million on a new church building, he and his wife, Carey, began to look for other options. So, they met with Bearden and his wife, Doris.

“It was going to cost $850,000, to a million dollars to build a new building,” Spoon said. “And you know, we just didn’t know if that was the smartest way to use resources for that. And this auditorium, Bethany wasn’t using; they’re using the fellowship hall next door, which is beautiful. … So we met with Don and Doris on that Sunday and just threw this crazy idea out there. ‘Hey, what if we put the two churches together into one? What do you think about that?’ And they did not throw us out of their house, which we were incredibly grateful for.”

The Spoons had read a book about church mergers, “Better Together,” and they shared it with the Beardens. Everyone agreed that a church that needed more space was a perfect match for a church that needed more people.

“All things are possible with God,” Bearden said. “It’s happening all over the nation. Churches are merging all over.”

After the two couples agreed that a merger was possible, they continued to discuss the idea and talked to their congregations about it. “When we talked to the two churches, everyone was in favor. They thought this was incredible,” Spoon said. “It’s amazing that there’s been zero opposition towards this.”

So, the two pastors and congregations began making plans for the merger.

“So, to not be in debt is amazing,” Spoon said. “Neither church owes anybody anything, so that’s frees us up to, you know, pour into the community. That’s that’s a huge factor in both cases.”

Spoon said Johnny Griffith, the pastor of the People’s Church, had originally donated the church building at 515 N. Graham St. to another church, and now Real Church/ONE Church would like to donate it to another church or organization that needs a building.

“You can see that we’re standing on the shoulders of those who’ve gone before us,” Bearden said. “This building wouldn’t be paid for if it hadn’t been for the generations that preceded us.”

The longer version of how the two pastors and the two churches came together is a tale that stretches back more than 15 years.

“Steve and I can look back — 17 years ago — and see the hand of God,” Bearden said. “You know, hindsight is 20-20. We would never have dreamed in 1,000 years that this was going to happen. It’s not our idea. It was God’s idea.”

Bearden, who moved to Breckenridge in 2002, met Spoon, who moved here in 2008, at a Breckenridge Ministerial Alliance meeting. “He kept me from getting thrown out of a Ministerial Alliance meeting,” Spoon said with a hearty laugh. “Since then, we’ve had an ongoing friendship. It’s been amazing.”

As Bearden has pastored Bethany Baptist through the years, Spoon has served a couple of congregations, including LifeChurch, which then became the Real Church a couple of years ago. Spoon also serves as Stephens County’s Justice of the Peace.

While Spoon’s Real Church congregation includes quite a few young families with children and teens, the Bethany members are a seasoned group who have been serving God a long time, Spoon said.

Bethany Baptist was originally founded in the 1950s, and new sanctuaries were built in 1957 and, the current one, in the late 1980s. A tornado hit the corner of the building in 2001, and it was re-built then, Bearden said.

ONE Church members have been moving some equipment and other items from previous Real Church location, and Spoon and Bearden have had some services in the sanctuary on West Walker Street for the past few weeks. On Wednesday night, church members were there, working to get everything ready for the Easter Sunday service.

“People just want to help…” Spoon said. “The enthusiasm and the the spirit of everybody wanting to help. … It’s been so precious to see the receptiveness of like, ‘Hey, I want to be a part of something that’s going on, you know, changing.'”

To celebrate the official opening of ONE Church, Spoon said, they will have coffee, doughnuts and t-shirts and will welcome anyone in the community who wants to attend. The church has made arrangements with The Shirt Shop and other businesses in the area so that their parking lots can be used for extra guests. Afterwards, there will be an Easter egg hunt with 4,000 eggs.

“I think for the community, this is good news,” Spoon said. “You know, we need to hear some good stuff going on, not fighting, because there’s been zero of that. … You hear churches are dying, you know, closing the doors, not growing. So we’re excited to …  show that church is moving, church is alive.”

Cutline, top photo: Pastors Steve Spoon, left, and Don Bearden will celebrate the opening of ONE Church with an Easter Sunday service at 10:30 a.m. April 20. The church was created when Bethany Baptist Church and the Real Church merged recently. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)