Green Hill Church and Victory Baptist combine for Christmas performance
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org
MOUNT JULIET — For the most part, Baptist churches avoid the “s” word (split) whenever possible.
But two Mount Juliet congregations — Green Hill Church and Victory Baptist — acknowledge that is what happened with their churches 21 years ago.
Members from Green Hill left and formed Victory Baptist just a few miles from their former church home. On the second Sunday the group met, Chuck Groover, a teacher and coach at Mount Juliet High School and former bivocational pastor of Hobson Pike Baptist Church in the community, came and preached in June of 2000. He soon became the interim pastor and in October he was called as bivocational pastor. Groover became the fulltime pastor a year later in June 2001 and has been there ever since. He will retire on Dec. 31.
Groover is well versed with what caused the two churches to part ways and he noted there were some ill feelings on both sides for a long while.
But, he observed, “time can heal wounds” and while there may have been issues related to worship and leadership style, the two groups were committed to sharing the gospel.
When Daryl Crouch was called as pastor of Green Hill Church, he and Groover developed a friendship and support for community-wide efforts in Mt. Juliet. The two had discussions about having joint services to celebrate the healing that was taking place.
The two churches actually began thinking about some joint ministry before COVID-19 shut things down in 2020, Groover said. Then, he added, Crouch resigned earlier this year for another ministry position in the community, so things were delayed again.
But, he noted that youth ministers from the two churches had conducted joint events over the past few years, but nothing on a churchwide scale.
Groover turned to Victory’s music/young adult and family pastor, Jason Harlin, who had a connection with Cameron Morris, pastor of worship and communications at Green Hill.
The worship leaders decided to bring the two churches “together once again to celebrate Christmas and bring the Good News of Christ’s birth to the community,” Harlin said. As a result, the two churches that split from each other 21 years ago joined forces to present a choir musical entitled, “Christmas Changes Everything.”
The first joint performance took place at Green Hill on Dec. 5 as the climax of the church’s annual weekend community outreach event called “Christmas on the Hill,” Harlin said.
The second joint performance took place at Victory Baptist on Dec. 12. The performances highlighted the adult choirs, children’s choirs, groups, soloists, instrumentalists and audio/visual teams from both churches, he added.
Harlin noted it “was a packed house” for the performances at Victory. For many folks, it was the first time they had been back together in more than two decades. “It was neat to see the power of God moving,” Harlin said.
For the two churches to come together was “a big deal,” Groover acknowledged. “We are excited about it. This was a great opportunity for our two churches.”
Groover said one of Victory’s members told him the Lord used the event to help the churches find closure from what happened 21 years ago.
He noted that healing did not happen overnight. In the years since the split, church members from both congregations would see each other in the community and at funerals. “It has been a process,” he said.
Joyce Everett is a former member of Green Hill who helped begin Victory Baptist. She admitted that when she left Green Hill, she “never looked back,” but she is excited to see the healing that has taken place. Everett recalled that when she left, a friend who stayed, told her that two great churches would be the result of what happened.
“I did not see it then, but I see it now,” she affirmed. “There are two great churches now.”
Fellow church member Jim Austin agreed. “I am glad to see the healing take place. We have been needing that for a long time.”
Cameron Morris, worship/music pastor at Green Hill, was not with the church at the time of the split, but he had been told what took place.
Having been friends with Harlin for a while when they served other churches, they met regularly after arriving at their current positions.
One day over lunch they were talking about what their choirs could do for Christmas music this year, Morris said.
Knowing of the history of the two churches, Morris said they thought it would be great “to bring the churches together and do a Christmas musical for the community.”
He said that though none of his choir members were at Green Hill at the time, the church still has members who were. They told me they appreciated what we were doing and were very supportive, Morris added.
He noted that choir members from both churches interacted with each other and friendships have been formed. “Healing has taken place,” he affirmed.
Both Harlin and Morris are optimistic that the joint services will continue in the future. “We look forward to doing this again,” Harlin said. “A lot of bridges have been rebuilt because of this,” he added.
“Being together at Christmas is a great example of the reconciliation that God can do in us,” Harlin affirmed. B&R