Homewood Church of Christ sits at the corner of West Oxmoor Road and Lakeshore in Homewood, an inner-ring suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. The red-brick campus is easy to spot from the parkway, and the building has been the congregation's home since October 1986. Inside, the schedule runs on a simple rhythm: worship at 9:30 Sunday morning, Bible class for every age at 10:50, and Connect Groups scattered across the metro area during the week. Children and teenagers make up a sizable slice of the life here, and so do the dozens of ministry partners the church serves through a monthly food pantry, hospital apartments near UAB, and short-term mission trips to Honduras and Rwanda.
From a Brick-Veneer Building to West Oxmoor Road
The Homewood congregation first gathered in a small brick-veneer building in September 1951, and by the following September early records show sixty-two members. In 1955 the growing group moved into a larger facility on Central Avenue in Homewood, where they stayed for two decades. A 1976 relocation took the church to another building that is now the Homewood City Library, and in October 1986 the faith family settled into the current West Oxmoor Road property. The church frames that location as more than convenient: leaders describe it as uniquely positioned for local outreach, and a base from which to carry the message of Jesus both locally and globally.
Sunday Morning: Worship, Then Class
The pattern on Sunday is straightforward. Worship begins at 9:30 a.m. in the main auditorium and is livestreamed each week for those who cannot attend in person. Communion is observed weekly as part of the gathering. After a brief break, classes for every age meet at 10:50 a.m., giving parents and children a shared hour of study before everyone heads home or to a Connect Group for the afternoon and evening.
Guests arriving for the first time are greeted at the door by a First Impressions Team and directed to a guest services table in the foyer where volunteers can answer questions about Sunday school classes, Connect Groups, and service opportunities. The church sits at the intersection of West Oxmoor Road and Lakeshore, just minutes from downtown Homewood and a short drive from Mountain Brook, Vestavia, and the UAB medical campus.
The Children's Wing: Infants Through Fifth Grade
Homewood Children's Ministry, known around the building as HCM, is built around a clear conviction: parents are the spiritual leaders of their homes, and the church exists to come alongside them. The goal, as the ministry describes it, is not to fill family schedules with more activities but to partner with parents in leading their children to know, love, and follow Jesus. To that end, HCM provides age-appropriate worship and learning experiences, Bible teaching, and chances for kids to serve others.
Sunday morning at HCM starts with check-in at one of two stations, one in the foyer and another at the nursery desk. The church uses KidCheck, a secure check-in system, so every child is matched with the parent or guardian who drops them off. Infants through 3K are cared for in the nursery wing in rooms 121, 122, 126, and 127. Children in 4K and kindergarten meet downstairs in room 134, while first through fifth graders head upstairs to rooms 204 through 210. Children's worship, designed for 4K through first grade, runs alongside the main service, and Bible classes for older elementary children follow at 10:50.
Midweek classes for HCM meet on the first and third Wednesday evenings from February through April, with infants through 3K in the nursery classrooms and 4K through fifth grade gathering in the Children's Worship Room upstairs at 6:30 p.m. Families also work through a Hide It In Your Heart booklet of twelve verses each year, picking up a copy for each child at the HCM check-in desk and using it for family devotion at home. A tween ministry for fourth and fifth graders focuses on building godly peer and adult relationships, with unique service and social activities that bridge the move into the student ministry. Morgan Ary oversees the children's ministry team and Brooke Burgess handles the weekly email; both can be reached through the church office for parents who want to plug in or serve.
Students in Sixth Through Twelfth Grade
The student ministry, HSM, gathers teenagers from more than ten high schools and eight middle schools across the Birmingham metro. Its three-word statement is Love, Connect, and Serve, rooted in Jesus' greatest commandments to love God and love others. Wednesday nights are the centerpiece: students meet in the teen area from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. for a time of teaching and small-group connection.
Throughout the year HSM organizes a full slate of summer activities. A Honduras mission trip kicks off June, followed by Vacation Bible School, two IMPACT weeks split by grade (IMPACT Jr. for younger students and IMPACT Sr. for high schoolers), Serve Week, and a Beach Blast retreat before the school year starts back. HSM families can stay connected through a weekly email update from Bethany Faucett, text reminders by texting HSM to (205) 551-5652, and the ministry's Instagram at @hsministry_. Adult leaders and chaperones are required to complete a background check before serving.
College and Career, Marriage, and Man Church
For university students and young professionals in Birmingham, the College and Career ministry meets for Sunday morning class at 10:50 in various rooms around the building, then gathers again on Wednesday evenings for a devotional at rotating locations around Homewood. Game nights, coffee, bowling, and ice cream outings fill out the social calendar. The group can be reached at universityministry@homewewoodchurch.org (the address is spelled exactly that way on the church's materials).
The Marriage ministry builds around small groups, retreats, and marriage-focused studies, including a connection to the WinShape Marriage program. Man Church, abbreviated MC on the church's menu, exists for men from sixth grade on up. Its purpose is to give men a place to talk honestly about the pressures of home, work, school, and community, and to disciple one another toward being better husbands, fathers, sons, coworkers, friends, and Christians. Periodic gatherings draw men from across the congregation.
Faith@Home and the Six Highpoints
Faith@Home is the umbrella under which the church walks alongside parents through the major spiritual markers of a child's life. Six Highpoints shape the curriculum: Baby Dedication, Entering Kindergarten, Baptism, Adolescence 101, Parenting and Technology, and Senior Sunday. Each milestone includes a teaching class for parents, take-home resources, and follow-up reading.
The Parenting and Technology track has been a particular focus in recent years. After a Tech Sunday in October 2022 featuring Joseph Mankin of Hillsboro Church of Christ in Nashville, the church hosted a two-part class for parents, one for families with children from birth through second grade and a second for parents of third through twelfth graders. The classes produced a stack of practical handouts, from a sample family cell phone agreement and rules for a thirteen-year-old joining Instagram to guides on regulating screen time and talking with kids about puberty. A December 2019 visit from family minister Johnny Markham of College Hills Church of Christ produced a similar library of resources on launching into the teen years. The Parent Cue app is recommended for ongoing daily support.
Outreach: The Jonesboro Food Pantry and Hospital Apartments
Outreach is one of the pillars of the church's Vision 2030, and the structure around it is unusually organized. Each month volunteers drive into the Jonesboro community in Bessemer to serve families experiencing food insecurity, distributing meats, fresh produce, canned goods, and other non-perishables, and offering spiritual support alongside the groceries. The church also welcomes people to its own building each month for an on-site food distribution.
Underneath the Outreach umbrella sits the Racial Unity Action Team, which works for racial unity, reconciliation, and understanding within the church, among other bodies of believers, and across surrounding communities. The team grounds its work in Revelation 7:9, Ephesians 2:13, and Ephesians 4:3. Each spring the church also gives $50 to every household and asks members to spend it serving someone else, plus at least fifty minutes of their time, often adding their own money and hours. Past partners have included the Family Guidance Center, Inspiritus (Afghan refugee support), the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, the Lovelady Center, the Wellhouse, Church at Birmingham, the Literacy Council of Central Alabama, Grace Klein Community, Regency Retirement Village, Lifeline Children's Services, Oxmoor Valley Elementary, Jonesboro Elementary, Hall Kent Elementary, LegacyWorks, Agape of Central Alabama, and STAIR.
Hospital Apartments are a quieter but deeply practical ministry. The church provides free housing for patients, families, and friends who need extended stays at Birmingham medical facilities, with units conveniently located near UAB and Children's Hospital. Inquiries go through the church office at 205-942-5683.
Missions in Honduras, Rwanda, and Beyond
Every summer a team travels to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to work alongside Torch Missions. The trip includes building houses, delivering food bags, visiting orphanages and hospitals, and serving with local churches. A separate partnership supports Drs. Jared and Jenny Brockington, who met at Abilene Christian University and earned medical degrees at Kansas City University before serving in Malawi, Kenya, and then again in Malawi with a focus on medical care, medical education, and discipleship. The Brockingtons relocated to Birmingham in 2022 to practice at Cahaba Medical Care's West End clinic, and in 2025 they joined a team building a teaching mission hospital called Hospital Yojoa in rural Honduras.
In East Africa the church walks with the Miller family. Matt and Andrea, both Harding University graduates, spent more than eleven years in Togo before moving in January 2012 to Rwanda, where they partner with Africa Transformation Network and founded Virunga Valley Academy, an international school in Rhuengeri. Every two or three years a team from Homewood travels to Rwanda to encourage the Millers and participate in English teaching classes, children's day camps, and daily life with their neighbors. Letters and packages for the family can be sent to B.P. 94, Musanze, Rwanda, East Africa.
Connect Groups Across the Birmingham Area
Connect Groups are the primary way the congregation lives out its identity as more than a Sunday gathering. They meet throughout the week across the Greater Birmingham area, organized by life stage, neighborhood, and shared interest. On Sunday evenings many of the same groups meet in homes around the city, giving members a smaller, more intimate setting to study, pray, and do life together. Chris Richardson serves as the Connections Minister and helps newcomers find a group that fits.
The Bible Recap Journey
In addition to its own teaching, the church has adopted The Bible Recap as a congregational Bible-reading plan. Members read a few chapters chronologically each day and follow along with a short podcast that summarizes and applies the text, using the English Standard Version as the reference translation. The plan can be followed in print with a 365-day reading plan PDF, inside the YouVersion Bible App through the Homewood Church of Christ organization page, or via The Bible Recap podcast and YouTube channel. Prep episodes help first-time readers avoid common pitfalls, and the church emphasizes that any popular translation will work.
Vision 2030 and the Seven Next Steps
The church's Vision 2030 organizes its life around five areas: Spiritual Formation, Connections, Devotion, Nations, and Generations, each anchored in a Scripture passage from Acts, Romans, and the Psalms. Underneath that vision sit seven Next Steps, the priorities the church believes shape a growing follower of Jesus:
- Worship Regularly, by attending and participating in a worship gathering every week.
- Connect with God, by developing a daily habit of prayer and Bible reading.
- Live Differently, by adopting a pace of life distinct from the world.
- Do Life Together, by joining a Christ-centered Connect Group.
- Give Generously, by living under one's means and practicing regular giving.
- Serve Others, by intentionally blessing someone every day.
- Tell Your One, by making a list of specific people to pray for and investing in one intentional connection each week.
A Day School, a Camp, and a Door That Stays Open
Two long-running programs sit alongside the ministries above. Homewood Day School provides a Christian learning environment for children from six weeks through 4K, sharing the West Oxmoor Road campus with the church. Created For A Purpose is a weeklong summer camp for girls that combines hands-on creative arts, like cooking, painting, sewing, and sculpture, with Bible teaching centered on being made in God's image. The camp typically runs in mid-July.
Giving to Homewood is set up online through PushPay, with options for one-time or recurring gifts by electronic check or debit card and separate designations for missions, community outreach, and the general fund. Sermons are archived online, and a livestream is available each Sunday morning and Wednesday evening for those joining from home. The address is 265 West Oxmoor Road, Birmingham, Alabama 35209, and the church office can be reached at 205-942-5683.