Jerry Taylor wants people to get out of the church.

Get out and serve, that is.

“Healthy church”

Taylor is the lead pastor at Bay Community Church, which has two locations, one in Malbis and one in Mobile.

Growing up as the son of a pastor, Taylor moved around a lot as a young child, and his father became pastor of Loxley Church of God when he was in third grade. After attending the University of South Alabama, Taylor settled in Baldwin County and had a successful career as a banker and contractor.

But he was always drawn to ministry, and at 45, he felt called to start a church in the Daphne area, where he, his wife and their three children have lived for 37 years.

“Our kids grew up here, and I just felt like I was supposed to plant a church in this community,” Taylor said.

He said he had a vision of a “healthy church” that would have a congregation that focused its efforts on the community around it rather than the activities within its walls.

“What we want people to do is take ownership and be the church, not just go to that church,” Taylor said. “I really believe God built all of us to give. When people aren’t giving—of their time, talents, whatever—there’s just something missing. Because when we give, that’s when we really receive.”

When Taylor started the church 14 years ago, 48 people came to the first service. More than 3,000 members now attend the two locations.

Taylor said he thinks the church has grown because of its service-minded mission and its relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. 

“I think the key to it is we’re very relaxed in what we do, and we’re very contemporary in what we do,” he said. “People find it very easy to take ownership and get involved.”

Outreach

What started as a service-minded church for the Daphne area now has a full-time pastor dedicated to outreach ministries.

The church initiated a few of the ministries it serves with, but most of its efforts are focused on existing organizations, Taylor said.

“There are a lot of ministries in Prichard, Mobile and South Baldwin that a lot of people don’t know about,” he said. “And we found those, and they’re good people, and they’re doing good things. So instead of reinventing the wheel, we just started helping them. We love coming beside people and helping—not trying to drive it, but just helping.”

And some of the community service performed by church members, or partners, as they’re known at Bay Community, is on an individual level. Taylor and the other pastors encourage their flock to remember the Bible’s teachings about kindness and generosity. Many members take these precepts to heart, helping people in need with “no strings attached,” Taylor said.

“The way to a person’s heart is to meet that physical need before you try to meet a spiritual need,” Taylor said.

Although the church’s first priority is serving the community surrounding it, Bay Community now partners with international ministries as well. 

“I always thought when I started the church that I needed to be faithful in my own backyard, in my community,” Taylor said. “In doing that, doors have opened for us internationally.”

The church works with ministries in China, African countries, Honduras and Thailand.

“We found people there doing cutting-edge mission work, and we’ve just come alongside them and we support them, help them and send teams over,” he said.

Growing pains

Bay Community’s Mobile location opened last year after the staff realized more than 400 people were driving to Malbis to worship and serve. It was hard for these people to get involved in a community where they didn’t live, so the church began discussing a satellite campus.

Now, Taylor preaches a Saturday evening service and three Sunday morning services in Malbis. The Mobile campus is equipped with technology that allows two of the three Sunday morning services, or “experiences,” as they are called at Bay Community, to be watched simultaneously on large screens. It takes 600 volunteers to pull off a service—just at the Malbis campus.

“Our DNA, so to speak, is not one location with a big building and all that—nothing wrong with that—but we’re multiple buildings because what I want to see is people involved in their community,” Taylor said.

The church has also begun to draw hundreds from South Baldwin County as well, and Taylor said the church plans to open another location in that area in 2013.

In January, the church will launch an online campus that will welcome people all over the world to worship online and serve in their own communities, and within a year, the church has plans open a Honduras campus.  

Leading a growing church has its challenges, and for Taylor, the biggest one is not being able to know each person who attends.

“That’s probably the hardest part—I don’t know everybody’s name—but I’m very relational, and I have a wonderful staff of 12 pastors, and they all do their thing, so that frees me up,” he said. “My time is really spent on feeding the sheep (the congregation) and leading my staff. That’s part of being a pastor—you want to see the sheep and touch the sheep. It is hard to do. I try, but there’s only so much I can do. I couldn’t do it without my staff.”

And his staff respects his leadership, said Jonathan Spuler, the Malbis campus pastor.

“I think service and ministry really are at the core of who he is because of his love and relationship with Jesus Christ, and it has driven him to build a healthy church—because the God we serve loves people, and we’re supposed to love people the best we can,” Spuler said. “I don’t think you can lose if you’re in a ministry with someone who has those values.”

As the church continues to grow, Taylor said he knows God is working through the church and lives are changing. That’s the best part of the job.

“I love to see people’s lives change. You just see life growing in them, and you see them maturing,” Taylor said. “A lot of times when I meet people, they’re in a crisis, and they’re trying to get out of it, and then you see them come out of that—it’s like a pastoral high.”