ROANOKE, Texas — Two pastors serving in the same town met up at a coffee shop one day to get acquainted. Bruce Barber was the veteran pastor of the 150-year-old First Baptist Church in Roanoke. James Sercey, a young church planter, pastored Cross & Crown Church, which was meeting in a local elementary school.

Two hours later, the pastors — and their respective congregations — began an unexpected journey.

First Baptist Roanoke was stable but not growing, and Barber knew it. With 45 members by 2024, the historic church was doing all the right things to recover but seeing few wins. On the recommendation of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s (SBTC) Jeff Lynn, Barber and a team from First Baptist Roanoke began participating in Regenesis, the SBTC’s church health and renewal process.

Even so, church leaders began to realize turning the corner might not be feasible.

When Barber came to the church in 2005, it was running about 65. Roanoke’s population was under 5,000.

“There was one red light. Two cars was a traffic jam,” Barber said. “[The church] grew, grew, grew the first seven years. Then people started moving to be near children or [for] jobs. We were about 150, then dwindled. We’d be stable, then slowly decline, then stabilize.”

The congregation was also aging.

“Roanoke is a small Texas town engulfed by the Metroplex,” Sercey said. The planter and his wife, Callie, saw nothing but potential for the gospel in the burgeoning Denton County community which had more than doubled in size since Barber’s arrival.

The Serceys planted Cross & Crown in 2022 as a Send Network SBTC church, with Grapevine’s Church at the Cross as its sending congregation. They began meeting at Wayne A. Cox Elementary, where they still worship on Sundays.

Fast forward to January 2024 and the pivotal coffee shop meeting, where Barber and Sercey quickly established a rapport, bonding over shared stories ranging from baseball to their respective calls to ministry. When the conversation turned to their churches, both recognized their similarities.

Their trajectories were markedly different, however, with Cross & Crown younger and growing.

“Our conversation was almost over,” Barber said. “I realized that our congregation was 98% age 50 and above, and his was the opposite. I could see [our congregations] fitting [together].”

Without warning, surprising words “popped out” of Barber’s mouth, stunning both men: 

“We should merge.”

Better together?

Sercey had never considered any sort of merger. His meeting with Barber had been solely for the purpose of getting acquainted. But both saw the potential. 

They decided to first make it a matter of prayer, especially since Cross & Crown was embarking on its annual month of focused prayer that February.

By mid-February, they began talks in earnest.

“A series of meetings and conversations took place between Bruce and me for months,” Sercey said. “First Baptist wanted to see Regenesis through, and they finished the process in May. We continued praying, thinking, trying to decide if this was something possible before sharing details with our whole congregations.”

“We approached people who will shoot straight with you,” Barber said, adding that if reservations were voiced in smaller meetings, the issues could be addressed early on.

Among those Barber went to were Steven and Amanda Cunningham. Steven had joined the church in 1999, eventually becoming its bivocational worship leader, whereas Amanda had grown up at First Baptist. Not only had she and Steven been married in the church, but so had her parents and grandparents. The Cunningham children were raised there. Amanda had participated in Regenesis.

When Barber approached them with the idea of merging with Cross & Crown, the Cunninghams were initially silent. Then Amanda spoke up: 

“What are you waiting for?” 

Similar conversations occurred at Cross & Crown, and in August 2024, Barber and Sercey told their churches what they and leadership had been praying about.

Mission matters more

For the merger to work, Sercey noted, it had to be about mission rather than survivability or sustainability. It wasn’t about a church plant getting a facility or an aging church finding a way to continue. Instead, the merging members had to rally around the Great Commission in Roanoke, he said.

A feasibility team, including the two pastors, deacons and other leaders from both congregations, began working through details. The central question: how to continue the rich legacy of First Baptist Roanoke over the next 150 years.

“We didn’t hire a consultant,” Sercey said. “We prayed. We listened to counsel. The leadership of our sending church and the coaching I regularly receive as an SBTC church planter were very helpful.”

After prayerfully working through critical details — such as Cross & Crown eventually being housed in First Baptist Roanoke’s building after it is renovated, and both congregations existing under the Cross & Crown name — Sercey insisted Barber remain on staff as an elder and associate pastor. Barber preaches quarterly and does hospital visitation, among other responsibilities. Steven Cunningham remains involved on the worship team.

“It’s hard to imagine life before the merger,” said Lindsey Lott, a founding Cross & Crown member who also serves on the worship team. “There was a big hole [in our church] that they filled.”

Shared cultures

Sercey said he is glad the former First Baptist Roanoke members have joined their new Cross & Crown family in the experience of worshiping at the school while they wait for renovations to be completed.

“They get our culture. They will have the same memories,” Sercey said.

All the former First Baptist Roanoke members — with the exception of some who are homebound — have become part of Cross & Crown, the pastors added.

“I think the merger is the hand of God that brought our bodies together,” Lott said. “The grace and humility shown from both sides … especially FBC Roanoke … leaves me at a loss for words. So many of them set aside their preferences.”

“We sit in awe of what God has done,” Barber said. “We had to let God work.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Jane Rodgers is a correspondent for the Southern Baptist Texan (www.texanonline.net), the news journal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. This article originally appeared in the Southern Baptist Texan.)