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Mother church
50-year-old Austin Village Baptist Church ‘birthed’ many other churches
By LINDA M. LINONIS
warren
A fire on July 19, 2001, destroyed the sanctuary and six classrooms of Austin Village Baptist Church. But it took more than the worship space.
“When news spread about the fire, we flew here,” said Shirley Toth, a member since 1969. “The sanctuary was engulfed,” she said.
Discouraged, the congregation eventually dwindled to about 25, Toth recalled. But devoted members carried on and eventually, their dedication and determination turned the church around.
“We learned from it [the fire],” she said. “And there was quite a bit of prayer.”
2004 marked a new beginning for Austin Village Baptist Church. A new sanctuary was dedicated and included the original pulpit and communion table, which were salvaged and restored after the fire.
Pastor Gary Summerland, who was retired, was at the church as an interim pastor and agreed to stay. “I believe God sent me,” he said. "This congregation accepted me like family.”
Pastor Summerland, a graduate of Houston Bible Institute, had previously served in eight other churches. “This is my calling,” he said of his ministry. “It’s about helping people.”
Slowly but surely, through faith and fortitude, the membership increased and now stands between 350 and 375 members. The church became more visible in the in the neighborhood through its community outreach and programs.
Coming back from the brink of nearly closing would have been a blow to the church, which changed from a mission to a fully organized church July 9, 1961. It took its mission of outreach seriously; afterall, members had founded 10 Southern Baptist churches in the Steel Valley Baptist Association and those churches produced another 30 some churches. Austin Village had “birthed” many other Southern Baptist churches and it didn’t seem fitting that this mother church would fade away.
Austin Village had started in a storefront in Austin Village Plaza. Cornelius Bright of Birmingham, Ala., now deceased, was the founding pastor. He was fulfilling a directive of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1950s to do outreach in northern states. “As we grow, someone breaks away and starts another church somewhere else,” said Jane Pierson, a Sunday school teacher and public relations chairwoman. She has been a member some 20 years.
Austin Village continues outreach, the community kind, through its food pantry. It distributes groceries every third Wednesday, averaging about 87, which account for about 247 people.
Pastor Summerland said the passage from Matthew 25:34-40 presents the idea that if you help the hungry, thirsty, strangers and prisoners, you are doing it for Jesus. ... “Then he will answer them, truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” That is the motivation behind the church outreach.
Pierson said the church also has a youth pastor, Jerry Palumbo, whose youth group involves third- through 12th-graders.
Kaleb McVicker, 14, is among the youth of the church. He said he will be helping with the vacation Bible school July 24-28 and recently attended the Youth Evangelical Conference in Dayton.
Kaleb said the youth group also has various fundraisers to sent young people to the summer youth camp at Seneca Lake Baptist Assembly in Senecaville.
The youth ministry leads services on every fifth Sunday of the month and on the last Saturday of the month, the group has an activity. “It’s fun to learn about God,” Kaleb said of his participation in the youth ministry. He also is involved in a door-to-door ministry, distributing fliers with information on the church.
The church also extends its ministry to Capt. Tim Griffith, a chaplain station in Iraq, by sending him “care packages” of supplies to share. “We consider him a member of the church," Toth said. He was ordained at Austin Village church.
The church also collects medical supplies for a team from St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Youngstown that goes abroad and also gathers school supplies for another such effort. The church, through its broader alliances, supports medical, educational and religious missionaries.
Pastor Summerland said it is faith that holds the congregation together. “Once saved, always saved,” he said of the Southern Baptist belief.
Paula McVicker added, “You can’t lose your salvation. We believe in the Trinity.” She is Sunday school director.
Toth said she first came to Austin Village at the invitation of a neighbor. “It gave me a whole new life,” she said.
“The church is an extended family. They stick with you through good and bad times,” said McVicker, a member for 34 years. “The church is more than the building, the church is the people.”