What We Believe & Practice
Palisades is a multi-cultural, multi-generational
collection of people who follow Jesus.
We recognize that people are imperfect, and since Christianity is composed of people, it can be messy. You may have had bad experiences with Christians, and if so, we are truly sorry. We sometimes don't live up to our calling. We believe the real issue often isn't the messiness itself, but our struggle to acknowledge it. Jesus showed grace to the humble and messy, not to the arrogant.
At Palisades, we strive to humbly acknowledge our failures, "trust in the Lord with all our heart", and not "lean on our own understanding". We unite around what the Apostle Paul proclaims as the matter of "first importance": Jesus is risen from the dead. That same Jesus further proclaims that at the end of the age, He will "make all things new".
We want to be faithful, holy ambassadors, but recognize that despite our best efforts, we are still... messy. We don't want to celebrate our messes, but we also don't want to ignore them. Not only do they exist, we are not capable of cleaning up our own messes. Messy people trying to clean up a mess just creates an even bigger mess. We need something greater than ourselves to fix our errors in belief and failures in action. We are humbly relying on Jesus to make us and all things new.
What is the Church of Christ?
The Churches of Christ find their origins in the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement of the early 19th century. This movement, led by Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell, sought to restore the practices and beliefs of the early Christian church, emphasizing the authority of the Bible and the importance of Christian unity. The movement grew out of a desire to break away from denominational constraints and return to a more simplistic, New Testament-based faith.
We believe the Bible was written for us, but also acknowledge that it was not written to us. This is why Christian Churches sometimes struggle to unite on some doctrines. To alleviate this problem, different creeds have been proposed through the years but even this practice often became difficult and divisive. The frustration with the complexity and difficulty of creeds fueled the early restoration movement and gave rise to the phrase "no creed but the Bible". While creeds have not held a large place in our movement's history, most Churches of Christ would affirm the content of the Nicene Creed. We affirm a resurrected Jesus and believe his followers will share in that resurrection story in the age to come.
Churches of Christ are individually governed which adds yet another wrinkle of variety in many secondary doctrines and practices. This means the beliefs and practices at one Church of Christ could be considerably different from another location. This variety has made it difficult to define the standard beliefs and practices of the Churches of Christ. With that said, there are some things that ordinarily typify these Churches practically:
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The practice of weekly communion to both memorialize and proclaim the good news of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
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A celebration of the acapella music tradition. What this looks like from Church to Church may be different but congregational, non-instrumental singing remains a hallmark of most Churches of Christ. We believe this Church tradition is worth saving and is beautiful when implemented well.
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A Congregational leadership structure that consists of Shepherds, Deacons and Ministers.
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A high value set upon the ordinance of Baptism.
What about Palisades?
As early as the 1870s, a small group was meeting with some regularity in homes in the young mining community of Birmingham.
Through the efforts of a tent meeting in the summer of 1895, G.A. Sharitts and others formed a congregation of about 22 members which rented a third floor loft, known as Fox Hall, at the corner of what is now 4th Ave and 19th St N in downtown Birmingham. The congregation met there for the next 15 years with the support of Sharitts, Justin "Mack" Barnes, and John T. Lewis, who came to work with the congregation in November of 1907.
At that time, membership in the congregation numbered about 30. This number grew to about 100 in two years time. In September of 1909, the church bought a lot on Charles St in West End for $800 and built a frame building there at the cost of $2250. The congregation moved into the new building in 1910. This was the formal beginning of the West End Church of Christ.
In 1913, the West End church purchased a building from a Presbyterian church in Woodlawn. In doing so, they planted the Woodlawn church, now known as Deerfoot, with Lewis serving both congregations from 1914-1917.
Beginning in 1921, the West End church matched dollar for dollar the efforts of the city's African-American Christians, which resulted in the establishment of more than eight congregations in Birmingham. Almost from the start, the West End congregation was a leader in the efforts to plant churches in the greater Birmingham area, continually promoting the heritage of congregational cooperation instilled in the hearts of its members by John T. Lewis and others.
In November of 1926, shortly after James Shepherd came to preach at West End (1926-1930), a building fund was established for a new West End church at Lomb Ave and 7th St SW, which was completed in 1927. Over the next decades, West End steadily grew, reaching a membership of approximately 500 in the late 1930's, and continued its efforts to promote growth in other area churches.
In 1941 West End purchased the Simpson Methodist church building at 7th Ave and 25th St N and established the Central Church of Christ, giving about 100 members to this new work. This new congregation began on June 1, 1941 and was self-supporting within a matter of weeks. In other efforts, West End provided members to help begin the Homewood and Shades Mountain congregations.
From the very beginning, Central became a thriving congregation, reaching a membership of about 700 in the early 1960's, and planting churches in Leeds, Montevallo, and Riverchase. One of Central's most well-known and influential works was Jimmy Fowler's "Messages from the Master", heard on radio stations in a number of cities.
By the late 1980's, it became apparent to both congregations that relocation would be necessary to effectively continue their ministries to the Birmingham community. After almost a half-century of separate existence, Central and West End decided to reunite to begin a new chapter, together in Christ. Property was purchased on Palisades Boulevard on the southern edge of Birmingham, and construction began on a building.
On December 2, 1990 the Palisades Church of Christ conducted its first service in the Shades Valley High School building. Edsel Burleson from West End, and Tom McLure of Central were co-ministers at Palisades until Burleson's passing in July 1992.
The congregation finally moved into its new building on July 5, 1992.
Since 1992, The most significant change one might notice is that Palisades has transformed from a congregation that was predominately white to a multi-ethnic ministry. Sunday morning attendance will typically be around 50% minority populations and have people groups from all over the world represented. Palisades prides itself on being a place of peace and healing for people from all circumstances and walks of life.