• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Lifeway Research

Lifeway Research

Enlightening today’s church with relevant research and insights

  • Research
  • Insights
  • Resource Library
  • Fast Facts
  • Search

Park Avenue Church Extends Its Reach through Partnerships

Uncategorized | Apr 12, 2016

In the mid-1970s, Park Avenue Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, was packed with nearly 2,000 people on Sunday mornings. But attendance dwindled as families shifted to new congregations in the suburbs.

The church was on the verge of closing when it began hosting Cross Point Church, a fast-growing congregation that became one of Nashville’s megachurches.

The partnership helped Park Avenue maintain its location near the heart of the city—a site well suited for nontraditional ministries, says pastor Patrick Hamilton.

The church helps immigrants learn English, offers a Celebrate Recovery program, and hosts an inner-city after-school ministry, providing space and utilities at no cost. This spring, the congregation plans to adopt a low-income apartment community.

Though attendance has rebounded to 125 after dipping to 60 two years ago, Park Avenue continues leasing half of its property to another church.

“Having two churches on one campus has been beneficial for both parties,” Hamilton says. “The power of God is mightily displayed through a small church.”

Read more from this issue at FactsAndTrends.net/SmallChurch. Subscribe to our print edition for free at FactsAndTrends.net/Subscribe.

This is one of the small church profiles from the cover story, “The Power of Small: Church Size No Barrier to Thinking Big.” 

Other profiles:

  • Bow Down Church Views Outreach as Vital to Ministry
  • Over Under Fellowship Serves Inside Out

LISA CANNON GREEN (Lisa.Green@Lifeway.com) is managing editor of Facts & Trends.

Related posts:

Churches Still Recovering From Pandemic Losses 4 Steps for Quickly Recruiting and Training Church Volunteers 8 Vital Steps to Prepare for Your Church’s Immediate Future

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us On…

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Popular

  • Most Popular Sermon Passages, Topics in 2021
  • 7 Reasons to Praise the Lord
    praise
  • 13 Things a Pastor Should Never Say to a Congregation
    pulpit sermon
  • 5 Signs a Pastor Needs to Take a Sunday Off

Join the Lifeway Research Newsletter

Lifeway Research: Enlightening Today’s Church with Relevant Insights.

Signup for email updates on our church and culture research.

Sign Up

Leader Resources

Bible
Clip Art
Classics
Clip Art
Current Events
Clip Art
Discipleship
Clip Art
Pastoral Ministy
Clip Art
Theology
Clip Art
VIEW ALL RESOURCES
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Custom Research
  • Resource Library
  • Search

Copyright © 2022 · Lifeway Research, a ministry of Lifeway Christian Resources