In Spartanburg, SC, Hub City Church and Oak Grove Baptist Church recently merged, bringing together two congregations that were going through a revitalization process.

The merger came after seven years of existence of Hub City Church, when the church plant felt stuck and unsure of what was next. Through the revitalization process, Hub City Church connected with the STRONG Team at SCBaptist.

“Oak Grove, like many churches in the state, had faithful saints who continued to come and give but were not engaging in the community with the gospel anymore,” James Nugent, Director of Church Strategies at SCBaptist said. While meeting at a coffee shop, Nugent mentioned that Oak Grove had just voted to merge with another church in Spartanburg.

The pastor of Hub City Church, Jonathan Everette, brought some other leaders from his church on board to pray about the situation. All three people that he asked to pray about the merger said that they needed to move forward and take the next step. Hub City Church saw this as an opportunity to help Oak Grove church and bring the two congregations together.

“As many people were resisting, there were twice as many people who really wanted it. The merger just felt like God kind of put it in front of them and said, ‘Here’s what you guys are going to do,’ and they stepped in and did it,” Brandon Bell, Teen Hub Group Leader at Hub City Church said.

A Successful Launch

The merger of the two churches was a huge success. The first service had over 140 people in attendance, more than the combined number of both churches before the merger. The energy in the Hub City Church worked well with the more traditional Oak Grove church. The congregation is bigger than it has been in a long time, and there are many young couples and children attending.

The merger allowed the two congregations to connect with a group of people that they weren’t connecting with before and disciple people that they didn’t have an opportunity to disciple. The merger also allowed the church to incorporate things that appealed to both younger and older members.

“God took two churches, one that was eight years old and one that was 150 plus years old, and brought them together,” Pastor Everette said. The merger has allowed the church to continue to make disciples in the community and saturate the state with the gospel.

The church believes that the merger was God’s plan, and they are excited to continue to make disciples in the community and saturate the state with the gospel.