Summerville Baptist Church sits on a single campus along Summerville Road in Phenix City, Alabama, just across the Chattahoochee from Columbus, Georgia. For decades it has served as a gathering place for multigenerational Baptist worship in east Alabama, and its identity today centers on three connected commitments: staying close to Christ through worship, growing close to the church through small-group Bible study, and reaching out to the community through service.
The Shape of Sunday and Wednesday
The weekly rhythm at Summerville is built around two anchor days. On Sunday mornings, small-group Bible study for every age begins at 9:15 AM, with the main worship service following at 10:30 AM in the Sanctuary. The morning Bible study hour covers nursery through sixth grade on the lower level of the education wing, with classes divided into Nursery (birth through two years), Preschool (ages three and four), Kids Zone (kindergarten and first grade), and graded groups for second through sixth grades. Children begin the 10:30 worship service with their families and are dismissed mid-service to Kids Zone for age-appropriate teaching; younger children head to lil Kids Zone for kindergarten and first grade.
Wednesday nights keep families at the church together. A shared family meal opens the evening at 6:00 PM, and at 7:00 PM the adults gather for prayer and Bible study while students meet for youth worship in the Youth Hall and children's ministries begin on the children's wing. Students also have a youth hangout on Sunday evenings at 6:00 PM.
A Christ-Centered, Multigenerational Approach to Worship
Music ministry at Summerville is deliberately generational rather than stylistic, aiming to bring children, adults, and seniors together in praise rather than splitting the sanctuary into separate streams of music. The Sanctuary Choir and Praise Team lead congregational singing each Sunday morning, drawing from hymns, worship songs, anthems, and seasonal selections. Children's choirs rehearse on Wednesdays at 5:30 PM, and the Sanctuary Choir rehearses Wednesdays at 7:00 PM, allowing families with kids in choir to stack into the same evening. Each spring the elementary-age children present a children's musical as part of the church's worship life.
Discipleship in Every Stage of Life
Summerville structures its ministry around four age groups, each with its own Bible teaching and community rhythm.
Children
Luke Wilson, the children's pastor, oversees a ministry designed to help children from birth through sixth grade come to know Jesus, understand Scripture, and follow Him day by day. The nursery provides age-appropriate spaces for children from birth through age four with a secure check-in system and care available during Sunday School, Sunday morning worship, and Wednesday evening activities. On Sunday mornings, children start in the sanctuary with their parents and are dismissed to Kids Zone for teaching. On Wednesday nights, the same age-group structure continues with storytelling, crafts, memory work, and a Bible lesson drawn from The Biggest Story curriculum. Summer programming includes Vacation Bible School during the week after Father's Day, Merge Kids Camp for second through sixth graders, and Thursday Kids Hangouts throughout the summer.
Students
Isaac Gilbert leads the student ministry for seventh through twelfth graders, with the conviction that students are not just the future of the church but part of it now. On Sundays, students attend Bible study groups at 9:15 AM, worship with their families at 10:30 AM, and gather for a youth hangout at 6:00 PM. On Wednesdays, they share the family meal at 6:00 PM and gather for student worship in the Youth Hall at 7:00 PM. The ministry emphasizes biblical teaching, small groups, and service opportunities built around Ephesians 4:12-16's picture of every believer being equipped for ministry.
Women and Men
Summerville Women's Ministry offers two weekly Bible studies so women of varied schedules can join: a Tuesday morning gathering at 10:30 AM in the Upper Room and a Thursday evening gathering at 6:00 PM in the Conference Room, both centered on Bible study, fellowship, encouragement, and discipleship. Men's Ministry gathers on Thursday mornings at 6:00 AM for breakfast, fellowship, and Bible study, with additional fellowship and service events throughout the year built around Proverbs 27:17's image of iron sharpening iron.
Senior Adults
Steve Pace leads the senior adult ministry, after many years of leading Summerville's worship and music ministry. Senior adults keep connected through the Keeping Young covered-dish luncheon on the third Thursday of each month at 11:30 AM in the Fellowship Hall, as well as through the Amen Choir, a community choir of senior adult singers drawn from churches across the area that rehearses Mondays at 10:30 AM at Lakewood Baptist Church. Many senior adults also serve through Food Closet, Hospital Bag, Living Water, Meals on Wheels, Sunday School, church committees, and missions.
Outreach Rooted in Practical Love
Three ongoing outreach ministries give Summerville members regular ways to serve their neighbors in Phenix City.
The Food Closet opens each Tuesday morning from 9:00 to 11:00 AM, stocked and staffed by church volunteers and funded by member contributions. It provides food assistance, spiritual encouragement, and basic referral information to individuals and families in the area.
The Hospital Bag Ministry equips volunteers to deliver bags of bottled water, snacks, tissues, and other small comforts to families and friends waiting with loved ones at Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital, along with conversation, prayer, and a reminder that someone cares.
Loving HIS Kids partners with a local elementary school to send bags of food home with children over weekends, serves foster children and families with school supplies, backpacks, food, and fellowship opportunities, and at Christmas provides gifts and paper products for children at the Alabama Baptist Children's Home in Dothan.
A Long-Distance Partnership in Rwanda
Bibleway Rwanda sits at the center of Summerville's missions story. The church's relationship with Bibleway Baptist Church, led by Pastor Jean Baptiste Tuyishimire, grew from a desire to help a sister church in Rwanda gain a permanent place to worship. After the Rwandan government required new standards and closed thousands of churches in 2018, Summerville helped underwrite an eight-phase construction project. The new building has passed government inspections and received its occupancy permit; a final water well remains before the facility can open, and the congregation continues to pray with the Bibleway family through the last steps.
Supporting Women Entrepreneurs Through ROSE
Summerville is also connected with the Rose Women's Foundation (ROSE), a global Christian community that empowers women in extreme poverty through gospel-centered Micro-Enterprise Business Training. ROSE has supported hundreds of women in launching small businesses and has helped lift over a thousand children out of poverty through that work.
What Summerville Believes
The church's statement of faith centers on the one true God existing eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; on humanity's broken fellowship with God because of sin; and on salvation through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection. Scripture is held as the inspired, authoritative Word of God and the final authority for faith and practice. The church is described as the redeemed people of God, a body that works best when its members serve together in unity, with the glory of God as its goal and love as its motivation.
Leadership
Robert Goodman has served as pastor since the fall of 2005, working alongside his wife Donna and their four children. Isaac Gilbert joined the staff in August 2017 as student and discipleship pastor after more than fifteen years in student ministry; his wife Stephanie and their three children are involved in the church as well. Steve Pace, a Mercer University and Southwestern Seminary graduate who has served Summerville since the summer of 2005, transitioned from leading the worship and music ministry into the role of senior adult pastor. Luke Wilson joined as children's pastor in January 2023, and his wife Joah and their three children are part of the Summerville family.
Planning a First Visit
Visitors do not need to call ahead. Sunday morning begins with Bible study at 9:15 AM, followed by worship at 10:30 AM. Children's ministry, including nursery through sixth grade, runs alongside both hours. Wednesday nights open with a family meal at 6:00 PM and split into student, children's, and adult Bible study and prayer at 7:00 PM. The church livestreams its worship services on Facebook for anyone who cannot attend in person. For more information or to help the office prepare for a first visit, the church can be reached at 3500 Summerville Road, by phone at (334) 298-4416, or by email at info@summervillebc.com.