By Emily Williams
The buzzing and whirring emanating from the former Oakmont Methodist Church are the collective sounds of the finishing touches being put on the newly refurbished and renamed Trinity West Homewood campus.
Last year, Trinity United Methodist Church and Oakmont unanimously voted to merge the two congregations and now identify respectively as the Oxmoor campus and Oakmont campus. Oakmont held its last Sunday service Nov. 15 before closing for renovations, and the Rev. Jack Hinnen said he is excited to return to his congregation and begin the church’s new chapter.
“I’m ready to get back,” Hinnen said. “Trying to keep people together – when they don’t get together on a Sunday – on a regular week day is a little difficult. In the meantime I’ve been preaching and doing other things at the Oxmoor Campus.”
Hinnen said he expects that the major aspects of the renovation will be completed when the church resumes worship Feb. 14 and all that will remain are the finishing touches and the congregation.
“Any time you are rearranging a new space you end up with a few walls that need something hanging on them or people don’t know where the bathrooms are. By and large it’s just a lot of small things right now,” Hinnen said over the sound of floors being installed.
The remodel is one of the first major renovations for the 60-year-old building outside of sanctuary upgrades.
“We’ve upgraded all of our child care,” Hinnen said. “Everything is clean. We actually – and this kind of blows my mind because I didn’t grow up in a large church – but we now have a computer sign-in.”
Gone are the days of sending children willy-nilly down the hallways in search of a classroom. Hinnen said that the sign-in will help visitors and staff navigate the church with ease.
“The two primary things that we have renovated are the children’s wing – making it clean and brand spanking new – and also the sanctuary or the worship space,” he said.
The church now has a contemporary feel. Guests will be greeted in the vestibule with vintage pendant lighting from the church’s past, repurposed with exposed Edison bulbs. The sanctuary will boast newly stained wooden beams above as the congregation faces a back wall outfitted with natural wood.
“When you walk in, you won’t see any pews or ornamental fixtures that are normal for more traditional churches,” Hinnen said. “Part of that is because we really want to welcome people who do not feel comfortable in a church. I feel like we are really trying to reach people who don’t do the whole church-hopping thing. They don’t go to church because what they have experienced hasn’t worked for them.”
Hinnen said that many churches like Oakmont, struggling to grow, have been slow to modernize their places of worship because they lack the funds. With the help of the merger, Trinity West Homewood has overcome that hurdle.
“Our real goal in all of this is to provide a church for people who have no church home and have no relationship with Jesus Christ,” Hinnen said. “So, we want it to be a welcoming space for people who may not enjoy what a church traditionally feels like.”
When the doors open once more, Hinnen expects to see familiar faces from his previous congregation as well as members of a “seeding team” from Trinity who will help ease the transition.
“At the onset, we will have a lot of people who already know each other and who want to welcome guests from the community,” Hinnen said. “In the long-term, in my mind, a lot of those people will want to return to the Oxmoor campus.”
Hinnen’s main objective to increase the size of the congregation is to welcome individuals who are new to the practice of worshipping, and he believes their location is ideal for achieving such a goal.
“One of the things I love about this church and this community is that it is smack dab in the middle of all kinds of wonderful parts of Birmingham,” Hinnen said. “You’ve got the city just north of us. You’ve got affluency just east of us. You’ve got the suburbs just south of us. You’ve got industry just west of us. We’re right in the middle of this awesome opportunity to bring all of these people together right here.”
Another way the church hopes to attract new churchgoers is by better positioning itself to reach out to millennials – a generation commonly attributed with a desire to express spirituality through community service. The West Homewood campus is rolling out a new Sunday program called Project Serve, which will take place at 11 a.m. in the fellowship hall during the church’s traditional service. The first project will be creating warming kits to hand out to the homeless community.
“We’re going to be doing little projects like that so we can connect in the community,” Hinnen said. “Instead of just worshipping on Sundays, the idea is that we are going to actually be serving.”
In addition, the church plans to continue its successful fall festival, its annual consignment sale and maybe add an Easter egg hunt on the campus’ large back lawn.
“The great part about (this merger) for Oakmont is that the church will continue and thrive,” Hinnen said. “More than just getting by, it’s going to be able to be in ministry in the community.
“For Trinity, they were interested in thinking beyond 1400 Oxmoor Road, their address in Homewood. This is a wonderful way for the Methodist Church to actually show some togetherness.”
For more information, visit www.trinitybirmingham.com.