On Schillinger Road South in Mobile, Alabama, Creekwood Church of Christ assembles twice on Sunday and studies the Bible twice on Wednesday. The church sums up its own character with a three-part motto: conservative in theology, liberal in love, progressive in ministry. In practice that means a congregation that sings unaccompanied on Sunday morning and Sunday evening, teaches a wide range of classes for adults and students, feeds neighbors through a Meals on Wheels program cooked in its own commercial kitchen every Tuesday, and has kept young people in the Lads to Leaders leadership program for more than twenty years.
Two Worship Services on Sunday, Two Classes on Wednesday
The weekly rhythm is simple and well marked. Sunday worship is at 9:00 in the morning and again at 6:00 in the evening, with a 10:15 morning Bible class between them. Wednesday adds two study times, 10:00 in the morning and 6:30 in the evening. The church keeps office hours that match that rhythm: Sunday from 9:00 to 11:30 and again from 5:30 to 7:30, and 9:00 to 3:00 Monday through Friday. The invitation the church puts out is equally simple: please join us for worship.
The congregation follows a set worship pattern. Christians assembled on the first day of the week, observed the Lord's Supper as a central part of the gathering, sang spiritual songs, gave as they had been prospered, prayed together, and listened to the Word of God being taught. Every member is expected to assemble for worship each Lord's day, and unless providentially hindered the weekly appointment is treated as binding. In cases of illness the Lord's supper is carried to those who cannot come.
Music at Creekwood is unaccompanied. Acappella singing is the only music used in worship, on the reasoning that there is no authority for acts of worship that are not found in the New Testament. That same principle rules out instrumental music along with candles and incense. Singing is not a side activity but a shared work of the assembly, and leading singing is a named responsibility among the elders and ministers, so a visitor joining a Sunday service will hear a congregation singing without instruments.
Several classes run inside that schedule. Adults meet for Bible class on Sunday morning and on Wednesday morning and evening, and separate groups meet for students at those same times: the young adult group classes on Sunday and Wednesday, and the youth group has a Sunday morning and a Wednesday evening class each week. An elder carries the education ministry, and another elder handles the family and youth ministries.
Joining by Livestream, BoxCast, and Podcast
Both worship services are broadcast live. The church streams its services to its own broadcast feed, to Facebook Live, and to YouTube Live, and the same broadcast can be pulled up on the BoxCast app on an Apple TV, Roku, or Amazon Fire TV device. Year-by-year archives of the broadcasts are kept on YouTube, running back through 2020 to 2025.
Sermons are also available in audio form. The church publishes its messages through Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts, and RSS, so a week of preaching can be heard on a phone, in a car, or on a speaker at home. The livestream and sermon options cover both the live gatherings and the archived preaching.
A Plea for the Bible Alone
Creekwood is a restoration movement congregation, and the church explains its identity at length through the writings it publishes and quotes. The classic description comes from Batsell Barrett Baxter: members of the church of Christ do not conceive of themselves as a new church started near the beginning of the 19th century, but the whole movement is designed to reproduce in contemporary times the church originally established on Pentecost, A.D. 30. The appeal, in other words, is to restoration rather than innovation.
The distinctive plea, as the church puts it, is for religious unity based upon the Bible. It is a plea to speak where the Bible speaks and to remain silent where the Bible is silent in all matters that pertain to religion, and the objective is the religious unity of all believers in Christ. The basis is the New Testament and the method is the restoration of New Testament Christianity.
The church traces four independent strands that merged into one movement. James O'Kelly, a Methodist Episcopal preacher, withdrew from the Baltimore conference in 1793 and called on others to take the Bible as the only creed, and his influence spread through Virginia and North Carolina. In 1802 Abner Jones and Elias Smith led a similar move among Baptists in New England, deciding to wear only the name Christian. In 1804 Barton W. Stone and several Presbyterian preachers in Kentucky declared they would take the Bible as the only sure guide to heaven. In 1809 Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander Campbell took similar steps in what is now West Virginia, contending that nothing should be bound on Christians as doctrine that is not as old as the New Testament. Although these four movements began independently, they eventually became one strong restoration movement because of their common purpose and plea.
Organizationally, the churches are autonomous. Their common faith in the Bible is the chief tie that binds them. There is no central headquarters, no organization superior to the elders of a local congregation, no conventions, and no annual meetings. Each congregation is shepherded by a plurality of elders or presbyters chosen on the scriptural qualifications in 1 Timothy 3, with deacons, teachers, and evangelists serving under them. The tie that binds is a common loyalty to the principles of the restoration of New Testament Christianity.
On the substance of belief, the church is explicit. The sixty-six books of the Bible are considered divinely inspired, infallible and authoritative, and a pronouncement from scripture is the final word. The church accepts the virgin birth, holding that Christ unites in his person perfect divinity and perfect manhood. On predestination, God predestines the righteous to be eternally saved and the unrighteous to be eternally lost, but each person determines his own destiny, and the gospel message is for all. Heaven and hell are both eternal, and purgatory is rejected. There is no creed, no manual, and no discipline to which members give allegiance; the Bible is the only infallible guide to heaven.
On baptism, the church teaches that baptize comes from the Greek baptizo, meaning to dip, immerse, or plunge, and that immersion was the practice of the church in apostolic times, matching Paul's description of baptism as burial and resurrection in Romans 6. Infant baptism is not practiced. Only those who have reached the age of accountability are accepted, because faith must always precede baptism and the New Testament examples are always of people who had heard the gospel and believed it.
On the mechanics of church life, ministers of the church hear no confession and have no special prerogatives; they do not wear the title of Reverend or Father but are addressed simply as Brother, as all other men of the church are, and they counsel and advise those seeking help. Prayers are addressed to God the Father alone, with Christ standing in a mediatorial position between God and man, so all prayers are offered through Christ or in his name. Financial support comes through the first-day-of-the-week giving in which members lay by in store as they have been prospered; this free-will offering is the only call the church makes, no assessments or other levies are made, and no money-making activities such as bazaars or suppers are engaged in.
Six steps outline the response of salvation in the church's own framing: hear the gospel, believe, repent of past sins, confess Jesus as Lord, be baptized for the remission of sins, and live a faithful Christian life. A longer treatment of the same theme, written by Bo Danklefsen and published by the church, presses the point that obeying the gospel is part of the response for salvation. It reads Romans 6:3 and 4 as the way obedience is demonstrated, being baptized into the death of Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. Another teaching by Mark Dunagan explains the origin of the church: it belongs to Christ rather than to men, it is people rather than a building, it began at Pentecost, and each congregation practices what was revealed through the apostles without any earthly structure beyond the local congregation.
Elders, Deacons, and Four Ministers
Creekwood names five elders, each with a written area of responsibility. Ricky Butts covers community service, facility management, family ministry, Lads to Leaders and Leaderettes, worship ministry, and youth ministry. Mike Eddlemon handles administration and finance, community service, and evangelism. Greg Hall carries congregational development and evangelism. Chris Presley is responsible for evangelism and fellowship, technical matters, young adult ministry, and zone ministry. Glenn Sargent serves in education ministry and zone ministry.
The church takes the scriptural qualifications seriously enough to publish two long studies. Elders are measured against 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, 1 Peter 5, Ephesians 4, and related passages, with a close examination of each qualification in the original Greek: desire for the office, being above reproach, husband of one wife, self-control, sober-mindedness, respectability, hospitality, ability to teach, abstinence from intoxicating drink, gentleness, freedom from violence and quarrelsomeness, freedom from greed, good management of one's own household, and a good report from those outside. Deacons are measured by a study that traces the office through Acts 6, Philippians 1, and 1 Timothy 3, concluding that deacons serve tables so that elders can devote themselves to prayer and the word, and that elders appoint deacons and assign their work.
Eight deacons serve the congregation: Joey Adams, Jonathan Brooks, Bruce Englund, Lyndell Farmer, Glen Hall, Scott Hardy, Terry Livingston, and Sammie Morris.
Four men carry full-time ministry. David Sargent has been the minister at Creekwood since 2001; he preaches and teaches regularly, makes visits to members in homes and hospitals, delivers meals in the Meals on Wheels program each week, and sends out updates to the congregation. Tucker Presley has served as associate minister since June 2022, working with the young adults, preaching and teaching on a regular basis, visiting during the week, and delivering Meals on Wheels meals. Casey Crawford has served as youth minister since June 2024, working with middle and high school students, teaching the youth group class on Sundays and Wednesdays, preaching at least once a quarter, and leading singing regularly. Ricky Butts has served as family minister since 2010 after twelve years as youth minister from 1998; he plans events for families, writes a daily devotional for the congregation, and teaches a weekly Bible class. A full-time secretary handles phones, payroll, and the bulletin.
Tuesday Cooking in the Commercial Kitchen: Meals on Wheels
The most visible service of the week happens on Tuesday. Members of the church cook home cooked meals in the church's commercial kitchen, box them up, and drivers deliver the finished meals to recipients. The church states the aim plainly: to help those in need, recognizing that some people have limitations and cannot cook for themselves regularly. The program runs once a week, and two of the ministers deliver meals as part of their regular week. Recipients can be added through a simple form on the church's Meals on Wheels page, and the church follows up with everyone who asks.
The kitchen is the reason the ministry can scale. A commercial kitchen turns a pot of soup or a tray of casseroles into enough food for a route of deliveries, and the Tuesday cooking session gives volunteers a set rhythm to work around. The elders who carry community service as a responsibility, along with the two ministers who deliver meals, treat this as an ongoing obligation of the congregation rather than an occasional project.
Devotionals at Mobile Nursing and Rehab
Twice a month the church takes a devotional service to residents at Mobile Nursing and Rehab, meeting at 2:30 on Wednesday afternoons. It is the same kind of gathering as a regular service of the Word, carried to people who cannot come to the building. The congregation also supports a blood drive, and joins with another Mobile church of Christ for an area-wide youth devotional, so the Wednesday rhythm at Creekwood reaches beyond the church parking lot.
Camp Creek: Three Rooms and One Bible Story
The children's ministry covers infants through fifth grade and runs a set of events through the year, including a summer kickoff, VBS, a trunk-or-treat night, and a Christmas party. The Bible class program inside it is called Camp Creek, and it works on a rotating-room model for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. Each month they move between three rooms, the media room, the game room, and the craft room, and once a month the whole group assembles for a combined class. Each week in a room the children focus on one Bible story along with activities tied to that room, so the same passage is approached through video, through games, and through hands-on craft work.
Splitting the class into rooms and then bringing everyone together once a month keeps a wide range of ages in one class time without losing the sense of a single group. It also gives the volunteer teachers of each room a manageable number of children and a specific craft for the week.
Crosscreek Youth Ministry
Students in sixth through twelfth grade make up Crosscreek Youth Ministry, led by the youth minister. The stated goal is to give those students avenues where they can grow in their relationship with Christ and one another, and the means are monthly devotionals, Bible studies, youth rallies, retreats, and more. The group also meets for Bible class on Sunday morning and Wednesday evening each week, so the students are in the Word twice a week alongside the congregation. When the youth group takes part in an area-wide devotional with another church of Christ in the area, it does so as part of the wider Mobile church of Christ community rather than as an isolated club.
Young Adults: Bowling, Cookouts, and Monthly Devotionals
The Young Adult Ministry serves college-age students and young professionals and is led by the associate minister. The group keeps a class every Sunday and Wednesday, and its calendar includes monthly devotionals, service projects, retreats, and game nights. A bowling night and a cookout are among the regular social gatherings. Because the group is led by the associate minister, who also visits members during the week and delivers Meals on Wheels meals, the young adults are connected to the same care and service rhythm as the rest of the church.
Family Ministry: A Devotional Written Every Day
The family ministry exists to strengthen the families in the congregation through a variety of methods. The family minister plans events for families, teaches weekly Bible classes, and writes daily articles for the congregation, a written devotional that goes out to families day by day. The same man serves as an elder with responsibility for family ministry, and a leaderette role sits alongside the Lads to Leaders program in his list of duties, so family strengthening at Creekwood is both a program and a shared responsibility of the elders.
Lads to Leaders: More Than Twenty Years
Lads to Leaders is a leadership program of churches of Christ across the United States, and Creekwood has been involved for more than twenty years. Through it, students learn to lead in the church by learning song leading, speech, debate, Bible bowl, and more. Every Easter weekend, the students who participate travel to a convention in Orlando, Florida, to compete against other students in the events they have selected. For a congregation that sings without instruments, a program built around leading song and public speaking is a natural fit, and Creekwood's long participation explains why so many of its own youth and young adult leaders grew up in the same system.
The program itself is described further at the Lads to Leaders site, and the annual kickoff for participants is a fixed part of the church's calendar alongside the children's kickoff and the youth and young adult gatherings.
Living Water and the Spiritual Enrichment Series
The church's annual sermon series is called Living Water, and the messages are filed year by year with their titles and dates. The archive runs back to 2005, with each year's set preserved in full, from the thirty-nine entries of the most recent year to the ninety-entry sets of 2012 and 2010. Titles such as The Unknown, The Forgiving King, From Peril to Peaceful Shore, and The Real Star give a sense of the range the preaching covers. Because the archive is preserved and growing, the whole body of messages remains available for anyone who wants to work through it.
Beyond the weekly preaching, the church holds a spiritual enrichment series that stretches over several days. The format pairs evening keynotes delivered by guest speakers on successive nights with morning sessions on the following days. Each discussion class is taught twice so that more people can attend, and the schedule also includes a ladies' class and a morning keynote each day. The subjects of the class sessions range across prayer, forgiveness, pride and humility, worry, treasure, judging, and the golden rule, with the keynote speakers coming from the world of preaching and ministry.
Giving, Contact, and the Front Door
Giving at Creekwood is handled as a free-will offering with no assessments and no fund-raising events, and it can be made electronically through the church's contribution portal, which the church has set up with Vanco Payment Solutions. The contribution portal handles those gifts, and the church's calendar of events keeps the recurring monthly and weekly activities in one place, including the Wednesday nursing home devotional, the blood drive, the young adult gatherings, the Lads to Leaders kickoff, and the area-wide youth devotional.
The church keeps a presence on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, where the same broadcasts that go out on Sunday also appear live. The phone number and an email inbox handle questions and messages, and a full-time secretary answers the phones during office hours, which run Sunday mornings and evenings and Monday through Friday.
Creekwood's own summary of its work is the motto it places first: conservative in theology, liberal in love, progressive in ministry. The Tuesday kitchen, the Wednesday classes, the nursing home devotional, the Lads to Leaders team, and the two Sunday services all point in the same direction.