Woodcock Baptist

Woodcock Memorial
Baptist Church

816 South 6th Street

Nashville, TN 37206

615-254-9380

Pastors

Rev. David Long

Rev. Tony Langton

“To identify with the poor is to be close to God.”

Tony Langton and his wife Sara are members of Tulip Grove Baptist Church who serve as mission members of Woodcock Baptist Church. At the time that Tony was introduced to Woodcock, several members of Tulip Grove Baptist had been involved with the ministry work at Woodcock for several years. This included college summer internship work, reading to kids in the daycare, and youth group projects. In March 1996, another member of Tulip Grove took Tony with him to Woodcock. He indicated that the power of God came over him – he felt the presence of the Lord there. He and Sara had just completed the Experiencing God study by Henry Blackaby at Tulip Grove. They knew that God was calling them to do something but didn’t know exactly what they were being called to do. They both felt led to work with the poor and felt that Woodcock was where they were being led to serve.

They initially went to Woodcock as mission members for one year and started serving as a liaison between suburban churches and the ministries at Woodcock. Tony then felt God call him to full time ministry and felt led to help at Woodcock as part of their staff. A few months later Woodcock asked him to join their pastoral staff where they mentored him as a pastor. This has been a very rich blessing for them, and they believe much of the ministry here has been for their own hearts.

The people of Tulip Grove Baptist help to support Tony and his family and the ministries at Woodcock through the church budget and a designated account for Woodcock Ministries.

What is the Lord doing at Woodcock?

Ministry to the poor is fundamental. Whenever they lead someone to the Lord, they form a relationship with them and identify with them. Tony indicated that “to identify with the poor is to be close to God.” This ministry is a gateway to the mission field. The people who minister here get a feel for life outside the suburban mentality. Here people struggle to put food in the refrigerator. This ministry to the poor helps pull us out of the mentality of suburban living with all its allurements of comfort and materialism. The Woodcock church has a purpose to prepare its disciples for difficult times in the near future by allowing God to build character in them now which comes through brokenness.

Woodcock believes in their hearts that God is bringing revival to Nashville, and that revival has a lot to do with the poor. Crime, fatherlessness, addiction, abuse, homosexuality, prostitution, etc. are prevalent in this area of Nashville. Woodcock has attempted to establish cell groups in communities so that people will find healing. Many people are repenting of their sins in these small intimate groups where transparency is encouraged. One issue that is in these groups is the need to forgive which opens the door for God to capture hearts and move people into greater spiritual maturity. They are seeing some ‘mini-revivals’ in cell groups.

Services

Woodcock emphasizes cell groups but has corporate worship services on Sunday mornings. Sunday School is at 9:30 a.m. followed by Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

Cell groups provide prayer and discipleship opportunities that are traditionally provided by Sunday night discipleship training and Wednesday night prayer services at some other churches. Cell group meetings occur within the community may last one to two hours.

Every cell group is encouraged to have a time of prayer, Bible study, and fellowship.

There is a Prayer Meeting every Monday morning at 7:30 a.m. at Woodcock. It sometimes lasts until 10 a.m. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come to the Monday morning Prayer Meeting and leave whenever they need to leave. There is also a Ladies’ group that meets on Monday night at a member’s home.

History

Woodcock Memorial Baptist Church was established in 1955 as a mission church of Edgefield Baptist Church to minister to people in the James A. Cayce Homes in east Nashville that were built from 1941 to 1954. Rev. Clifford Horne was Associate Pastor of Edgefield Baptist and was the first pastor of Woodcock where he served for about 20 years. The church had several pastors after Rev. Horne. By 1994 the church was declining. That summer a tragic accident occurred at the Woodcock daycare which further attributed to the decline. By early 1996 there were only about nine members left in the church. There were discussions about closing the church, but a few of the women of the church did felt strongly that this was not God’s will. The church had sold the parsonage prior to this to help sustain the church financially. In 1997, the church merged with another fellowship from the White Creek community which has given the ministry the needed strength to continue on.

The church started two ethnic cell groups for Sudaneese and Haitian congregations which are now churches. A Sudaneese pastor meets with the Sudaneese congregation in a room of the church at the same time that the church meets in the main auditorium for worship. There are about 40 people meeting in the Sudaneese fellowship. The church also houses six of the “Lost Boys” from Sudan. The Haitian cell group led to a Haitian congregation with about 50 people. They meet in Woodcock’s mission center building at same time as the other congregations. Every other month all of the congregations meet together.

TGBC Plans Golf Tournament to Benefit Woodcock

The annual golf tournament to benefit Woodcock Inner-City Ministries will be held Friday, May 21, 2004 at Country Hills Golf Course in Gallatin. The four person scramble begins with lunch from 12-1 p.m., followed by a shotgun scramble at 1 p.m. The cost is $70 per player and includes lunch, gift pack, practice range, golf cart, and fees.

Players, hole sponsors, and anyone willing to donate prizes are needed. For information or to help, call Randy McIntosh, Lonnie Wilkey, Randy Reed, or Dan McLendon.