Dawson Baptist Memorial Church gathers at 1114 Oxmoor Road in Birmingham, Alabama, where three Sunday worship services, a dense network of Life Groups and ministries that run from preschool play days to a 65-and-up Sunday school class fill the week of what the church calls its Family of Faith. The church is known for its worship rhythm at 8:30, 9:45 and 11:00 a.m., for a Hispanic congregation that gathers in the chapel at 11:00, and for the unusual breadth of what surrounds those services: a day school, a music academy, a ballet school, a recreation center with basketball and pickleball, a summer camp, a special needs ministry with sensory rooms, and mission work in Fultondale and beyond. Behind all of it sits one sentence, the mission the staff repeats most often: to become and help others become faithful servants of Jesus Christ.
Found Faithful: The Vision Behind the Ministry
Every part of Dawson's schedule is meant to answer one question: what does faithfulness look like? The church's vision is to be found faithful as God's people. Its leaders say plainly that the goal is neither to be bigger nor better than other churches, but to follow God's leadership in every area of church life, to see people know Christ as Savior and Lord, and to pursue excellence in ministry as a means of being faithful to God rather than as an end in itself.
That vision produces a mission the church states often: to become and help others become faithful servants of Jesus Christ. The pastoral team describes what a faithful servant does in five practices, and each one maps onto something concrete happening on the Dawson campus every week.
- Believe. A faithful servant has turned from sin and believed in Jesus for salvation.
- Belong. A faithful servant discovers true belonging in worship and ministry together in the family of faith.
- Grow. A faithful servant grows to love what God loves by cherishing God's Word and applying it to every aspect of life.
- Serve. A faithful servant serves others in and through the family of faith, using his or her gifts and resources in obedience to God's Word and the Spirit's leadership.
- Share. A faithful servant shares the Gospel with unbelievers, disciples other believers, and engages in the spread of the Gospel to all nations.
A theological vision statement spells out how the church holds those practices together, and it is notably specific about what faithfulness looks like in practice.
- God's word is our authority. The Bible is described as true, transformative and timely, and every ministry of the church is evaluated and executed through the lens of Scripture.
- Prayer is our priority. Believers are equipped to depend on God, and the church commits to discerning God's vision for the family and aligning all activities and ministries to His will through personal and corporate prayer.
- Worship is our response. The church commits to gathering weekly to focus attention and affection on the hope offered through the Gospel, to proclaiming that Gospel through historically rich, culturally relevant and biblically diverse expressions of worship and prayer, and to celebrating the Gospel together in a way that carries into home, school and work.
- Discipleship is our focus. The church works to shape people by God's Word in Christ-centered community, with reproducible disciple-making relationships, partners with parents as the primary disciplers of their children, and gives believers real opportunities to share their gifts and resources.
- Missions is our passion. The church equips believers to pray for and seek opportunities to share the Gospel, responds to physical needs in the local and global community, and engages sacrificially in mission partnerships locally, nationally and globally.
Sunday at Dawson: Three Worship Gatherings and Groups at Every Hour
Worship takes place three times on Sunday morning in the sanctuary at 8:30, 9:45 and 11:00 a.m. Each hour carries a different set of Life Groups for children and adults, and a fourth worship gathering for Spanish-speaking families happens in the chapel at 11:00 a.m.
- 8:30 a.m. Worship in the sanctuary, with Life Groups for adults, preschool, Hearts & Hands and college.
- 9:45 a.m. Worship in the sanctuary, with Life Groups for adults, students, Dawson Kids, preschool and Hearts & Hands.
- 11:00 a.m. Worship in the sanctuary, with Life Groups for adults, preschool and adult special education; Hispanic worship in the chapel.
Life Groups are the engine of the Sunday morning. They are interactive Bible studies for all ages, and the church says investigation and application of God's truths is what transforms people toward being more like Jesus. Groups are deliberately diverse in composition, so a visitor can join others in the same stage of life or an intergenerational group. Each group offers Bible study, a ministry or missions project, and relationship building. Life Groups are listed for preschool, Dawson Kids, students, college, young adults, adults, adults 65 and older, and the Hispanic congregation. Guests who want help choosing are directed to the Next Steps area in the foyer of the main building, where staff and greeters are available to point them toward a class.
College students have their own Sunday rhythm, with a College Life Group at 8:30 a.m. in room 305 West followed by worship at 9:45 or 11:00. Newly engaged and newlywed couples are directed toward the church's marriage ministry.
Dawson's 11:00 a.m. service also airs on Alabama's 42 television network, one week later, Sundays at 10:00 a.m. For those who want to worship daily, the church points to prayer, Bible reading and service to God as the daily rhythm, with devotional resources to support it.
Preschool: Life Groups, Excel Hour and Cradle Care
Preschool Ministry exists to partner with parents in the Christian education of preschoolers, to nurture a foundation of faith during the formative years, and to offer a loving, safe, clean, developmentally appropriate place where children learn to love God and others.
Sundays are busy and structured for the youngest members. Preschool Life Groups for infants through kindergartners are child-friendly Bible study classes that lean on play and hands-on learning, and they are offered at 8:30 and 9:45 a.m. The first hour preschoolers spend on campus is always Life Group time, even if a parent attends worship first. Afterward, children stay in the same classroom for Excel Hour at the 9:45 and 11:00 hours. Twos and threes enjoy a short time of Preschool Praise during that hour, while fours and fives gather with the whole preschool group for Preschool Worship. Sunday visitors are asked to come to the main nursery welcome desk to register children and be directed to an age-appropriate classroom.
On Wednesday nights, preschoolers ages 3 through kindergarten join Preschool Music and Missions, a blend of Bible lessons, worship music and missions education designed to instill a love of worshiping God and serving others. Nursery care for infants through two-year-olds runs from 5:45 to 7:30 p.m. while parents attend Bible study, and parents must stay on the Dawson campus while their children are in care.
For weekday care, the Dawson Day School serves children 18 months to 4 years old, with classes offered Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday depending on the child's age, school hours from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and registration fees waived for foster families.
Cradle Care ministers to expectant families, assigning each family a caregiver who prays for them and stays in touch through pregnancy, birth and the family dedication. Caregivers relay news of the birth, introduce parents to Preschool Ministry and deliver a yard sign and a gift basket with a Bible engraved with the child's name. A parent orientation for new and expectant parents is offered quarterly with Christian parenting guidance and a nursery tour, and the Cradle Care committee meets monthly to pray for families who are expecting.
Preschool also hosts monthly Play Days and Family Time, each planned around a spiritual truth with meaningful parent and child interaction and fellowship. Volunteers serve in Sunday school, Preschool Music and Missions, Excel Hour, Cradle Care, Play Days and Family Nights, and every adult volunteer working with children under 18 consents to a background check under Dawson's child protection policy.
Dawson Kids: Equipping First Through Fifth Graders
Dawson Kids partners with parents to equip families of first through fifth graders with tools to know, follow and share Christ, and it does so through a Sunday morning Life Group, a Wednesday night gathering called Collide, at-home discipleship resources, a fifth grade ministry and special events. The ministry holds to a safety promise that every volunteer passes a background check and that children are released only to adults with a matching security sticker.
The church also gives parents a simple framework for talking with children about the gospel: God rules, we sinned, God provides, Jesus gives, and we respond. It describes the gospel in plain terms as God's good news about Christ, the kingdom of God and salvation, and explains that sin separates people from God, that Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross and rose again, and that people are welcomed into God's family by believing in Him rather than earning their way in. When a child begins asking questions about the gospel or makes a profession of faith, the children's ministry team helps families follow through.
Students, College and Tuesday Night AUXANO
Dawson Student Ministry exists to know God and make Him known, and to cultivate an environment where students understand the gospel, are engaged in purposeful relationships and are equipped to meet the needs of the world. Middle school students gather through Dawson Students on Sunday mornings and on Wednesday nights, with a full calendar of activities and events.
College ministry reaches anyone between 18 and 23, whether in college, in the military or working. Students start the morning with a College Life Group at 8:30 a.m. in room 305 West and then join worship. On Tuesday nights during the semester and through the summer, AUXANO gathers college students and young adults in the chapel at 7:00 p.m. for worship through song, prayer and the Word. In summer a shared dinner begins at 6:15 p.m. before worship. Village, a small-group gathering that meets on Monday or Thursday nights at 7:00 p.m. in the home of a church member during the semester, offers food and Bible study in a home setting, while gender-specific discipleship groups of three to four students meet throughout the year for intentional discipleship. The Beta Internship and Residency program places college students and adults in ministry roles.
Young adults at Dawson range from 22 to about 40, and may be single, married, divorced, graduate students, young professionals, parents, or not. The Young Adult Ministry points people toward the Sunday morning Life Groups as the core of belonging, and the Young Professionals ministry, known as DYP, adds weekday discipleship groups and the Tuesday AUXANO gathering for graduate students and young professionals, focused on becoming mature followers of Jesus in adulthood.
Adults, Seniors and Men's Ministry
Adult Sunday morning Life Groups are small groups for studying, discussing and applying God's truth to daily life, with studies chosen by age and stage of life and intergenerational groups available as well. The church encourages people to visit several groups until they find the one that fits. Weekday studies run on Wednesday mornings and evenings during the fall and spring semesters and on Tuesday evenings in the summer, in welcoming rooms for studying Scripture, sharing life and encouraging one another. Deep Discipleship is one of the recurring weekday gatherings.
Men's Ministry leans on small groups, Scripture study and conversation with other men of faith, with a men's breakfast and Bible study among its regular gatherings.
The Senior Adult Ministry is designed to give people 65 and older three kinds of growth: a deeper relationship with God through worship, Bible study and prayer; a relationship with the church through fellowship and ministry to the body of Christ; and a relationship with the world through evangelism, missions and Christian service. Life Groups for adults 65 and older meet at all three Sunday hours, some working through topical subjects and others going in depth through a single book of the Bible, and guests are encouraged to sample several classes until they find the one that matches their interests and lifestyle.
Dawson Women: Table, Handmade, Handwritten and Immerse
Dawson Women's Ministry is built around belonging and becoming: belonging to God's family as his daughter and to the Dawson family as a sister in Christ, and becoming more like Jesus and loving others well. Women connect through Sunday morning Life Groups, weekday studies and small groups, and through several gatherings with their own character.
- Table groups meet monthly in homes, coffee shops, restaurants and other welcoming places for a shared meal and gospel-centered conversation.
- Handmade gathers women on Tuesday mornings in the North Building for crafts, prayer and learning together. The handmade items are given to people who are sick, grieving, lonely or in need of encouragement.
- Handwritten supports the church through note writing, sending encouragement to people at Dawson and in the community who need prayer, support or celebration.
- The claydies meet Thursday mornings for pottery and fellowship in the Family Recreation Center craft room.
- Immerse is a class that pairs Scripture meditation with stretch sequences and breath prayers to strengthen mind, body and soul, offered on Wednesday evenings in spring and fall and Thursday mornings in summer.
- D-Groups are small weekly gatherings for women to spend time in God's Word, pray for one another and share how they are seeing him at work.
The ministry also offers a Night of Worship twice a year in winter and summer, quiet retreats lasting from a few hours to overnight, and the Everywhere You Are podcast, which features conversations on biblical topics for listeners on the go.
Hearts & Hands: A Place for Every Ability
Special Needs Ministry exists to create a place where individuals with special needs and their families can belong and grow, starting from the conviction that every person is wonderfully made in the image of God and has a unique purpose and a vital place in the body of Christ.
Hearts & Hands offers a joyful, Christ-centered environment where children and adults of all ages and abilities are welcome. Worship care is provided at 8:30 and 11:00 a.m. and the Hearts & Hands Life Group meets at 9:45, so the room is available during all three hours to meet a family's needs. Students sing and worship Jesus, engage with Bible stories, take part in hands-on activities and games, and make new friends. Two approaches are offered: inclusion, where children are paired with a one-on-one buddy in an age-appropriate classroom, and a self-contained class with a more structured and sensory-friendly environment. The space includes sensory rooms designed to help students feel calm, safe and supported, and it is located in Room 225 East on the second floor. Beyond Sundays, the ministry hosts family events and offers respite care for caregivers. Volunteers are needed on Sunday mornings and at special events, and the only skill required is compassion.
The Adult Special Needs Life Group, affectionately known as the Happy Class, serves high-functioning, independent adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It meets weekly on Sunday mornings for worship and Bible study: worship at 9:45 a.m. in the Family Recreation Center, a fellowship gathering at 10:45 in room 352 North, worship through singing at 11:00, Bible study at 11:15, and family pickup at noon.
Two Hispanic Congregations: In Birmingham and Fultondale
Dawson's first Hispanic congregation was launched at the Birmingham campus more than 25 years ago, and a second congregation was recently planted in Fultondale to serve the North Jefferson County area. Both congregations hold weekly worship services and Bible studies along with special events through the year.
The Hispanic congregation in Birmingham is described as a community of believers from North, Central and South America, gathering to worship, serve God and help others, and building spiritual, emotional and material support for people far from their home countries and families. Its worship service is held in the chapel on Sundays at 11:00 a.m., with contemporary praise music led by the worship team and simple, dynamic messages relevant to today. Age-based groups serve women, men, youth and children with activities such as retreats, conferences, health and wellness talks, prayer meetings, Bible studies, sports events, day trips and service through music and drama.
The Fultondale church plant, Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva, meets at Fultondale First Baptist Church, 409 Main Street, and keeps a weekly rhythm of Sunday school at 10:30 a.m., a worship celebration at noon, a Tuesday discipleship night at 7:00 p.m., and an Ignite gathering for youth. Vida Nueva also runs English classes on Monday evenings at 6:00 p.m. at 100 Oaks, 936 Kenmore Way. A third Hispanic congregation, Iglesia Bautista Familia de Fe, is led by Dr. Humberto Medina.
Missions at Home and Around the World
Missions is the passion the church names first among its five theological commitments: to proclaim the love of Jesus to all people because the commission of the Lord and the calling of every church is to make disciples of all nations, and to respond to physical needs in the local and global community while doing it. The missions team carries local and global opportunities for service, including volunteer roles at home and partnership with missionaries abroad.
Two local ministries carry a great deal of that work.
Kids Connection is a store that provides for the physical and spiritual needs of children from birth to age 16 whose parents or guardians do not have the resources to meet all of those needs. Parents and guardians in need are invited to shop by appointment at no cost, with appointments on Tuesdays, Thursdays and the second Saturday of each month from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., typically lasting about an hour. Children and their caregivers are referred by churches, schools and social service organizations, which assess families based on need and financial situation and handle scheduling, and families can shop once every three months. Each infant and school-aged child can receive several complete outfits, two books and one toy. The store carries gently used clothing, shoes and socks, coats, hats and gloves, books and toys, baby blankets, and crib- and twin-size sheets. Volunteers welcome families, offer conversation and prayer, and sort donations on Mondays and Wednesdays, and donations are accepted at the Kids Connection van in the North Parking Lot, which is open every day.
The Learning Center is a Christ-centered ministry dedicated to transforming lives and building a community of hope for future generations, and it includes English as a Second Language classes among its ministries to the community. The missions team also lists missionary houses and Operation Christmas Child among the ways the church shares beyond its own walls.
Music, Recreation and Camp Dawson
Music matters at Dawson, and the church says so directly. The Music & Worship team describes its task as leading the church in proclaiming the Gospel through historically rich, culturally relevant and biblically diverse expressions of worship and prayer, and the roster shows that variety: a sanctuary choir, sanctuary ensemble and sanctuary orchestra; a chapel choir, chapel ensemble, chapel jazz band and chapel puppets; student music with a middle school choir and the Collide children's choirs; hymn and M's; preschool music and missions; and the Dawsonaires choir. Rehearsals happen weekly, and the Dawson Music Academy provides a named program of music instruction with its own director.
The Recreation ministry offers a full range of fitness programs, from personal training and group exercise classes to community basketball and youth sports, along with a Dawson Ballet School and pickleball. The Family Recreation Center serves as the hub for fitness and basketball, and facility and party reservations are handled for church families. Away from the city, Camp Dawson hosts summer camps, with directions provided for families traveling there.
What Dawson Believes
Dawson's statement of belief is derived from an engagement with God's Word and is built on the Baptist Faith and Message as a model and foundation. The church honors the principles of soul competency and the priesthood of believers, holding together liberty in Christ and accountability to one another under the word of God.
The Bible is held to be divinely inspired, God's revelation of himself, wholly true and trustworthy, and the supreme standard for human conduct, creeds and religious opinions, with Jesus Christ as its focus. God is confessed as one living and true God, eternal and triune, revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and described in Scripture as transcendent, immanent, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, eternal, infinite and unchangeable. Humanity is the special creation of God made in his image, male and female, and every person therefore possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Salvation is the redemption of the whole person, offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior through personal faith, and it includes regeneration, justification, sanctification and glorification. The church holds that the church is a local congregation of baptized believers associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, and operating under congregational polity in which every member has a calling to use their gifts in ministry. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, an act of obedience that symbolizes faith and is a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience in which believers remember and proclaim the death of the Redeemer and anticipate his second coming. The statement also affirms the kingdom of God, the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead and final judgment, the duty of every follower and church to make disciples of all nations, and the family as the foundational institution of human society.
Prayer, Baptism and Becoming a Christian
Prayer is not treated as a program at Dawson but as a priority throughout every ministry. The prayer line, (205) 795-PRAY, connects people with a church that prays for its own, and the prayer groups meet in specific rooms and at specific rhythms: an intercessory team that lifts up weekly church-wide needs for ministries, missions and pastoral care; Moms in Prayer on the first and third Wednesday nights for mothers who pray for their children and schools; a group for infertility and miscarriage on the first Wednesday of each month; GriefShare for healing after loss through guided prayer and community support; a revival gathering on Sunday evenings at 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday morning prayer from 8:00 to 8:15 a.m. before services, in room 11 of the Family Recreation Center.
Baptism at Dawson is treated as a celebration and a visual witness of an individual accepting Christ as Savior, and the church describes it as obedience in which a believer publicly identifies with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. For anyone wondering whether a person can know God for certain, the church answers plainly that God has revealed himself through the Bible and that a person becomes a believer by realizing they are lost apart from God, turning from sin and accepting Christ's sacrifice, which the Bible promises saves those who accept Christ as Savior. Assurance, the church teaches, rests on grace rather than good deeds, and shows itself in obedience to God's word, daily confession of sin, and worship and service.
The Team Behind the Work
Dr. David Eldridge has served as senior pastor of Dawson since September 2017. He earned a Ph.D. in preaching from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 2010, a Master of Divinity from Beeson Divinity School in 2004, and a B.A. in Christian Studies from Mississippi College in 2001. Dr. Brad Gowing serves as executive pastor, and Jan Kennamer Hart as the pastor's ministry associate.
The rest of the team follows the shape of the ministries: Jonathan Propes as discipleship pastor; Liz Cuenin as minister of membership and assimilation; Kristen Torres as minister of spiritual development and women's ministry; Jacob Pierce as minister to young adults; Tommy Sanders as pastor of pastoral care and senior adults; Cole Griffith as associate pastor for college students with Avery Flynt as associate minister to college students; Andy Cartee as interim student pastor with Aubrey Meredith as associate minister to students and Evan Knight as associate minister to middle school students; Jessica Orso as minister to children; Brooke Gibson as minister to preschoolers with Donna Allan as associate minister to preschoolers and Andrea Coleman as day school director; Kathleen Bass as associate minister to special needs with Abby Bradford as Hearts & Hands coordinator; Dr. Ben Hale as evangelism and missions pastor with Kyle Bailey as associate minister of missions and David Vining as associate minister of local missions; Bayron Mosquera as Hispanic pastor; Dr. Josue (Joshua) del Risco as pastor of Vida Nueva and Dr. Humberto Medina as pastor of Familia de Fe; John Woods as music and worship pastor with Dan Mullis as associate pastor for music and worship and Kimberly Jones directing the Dawson Music Academy; and Bre Johnson as associate minister of recreation, with Morris Finley directing basketball and Heather Benoit directing fitness.
From the first worship service of the morning to the last week of summer camp, Dawson runs on the conviction that faithfulness is a practice rather than a slogan. The church's answer for what that practice looks like is five words long - believe, belong, grow, serve, share - and it keeps adding people and places to carry them: a third Sunday service, a Spanish worship gathering in the chapel, a special needs classroom with sensory rooms, a free clothing store for families, a day school, a music academy, a recreation center, a camp, and congregations in Birmingham and Fultondale. Dawson Baptist Memorial Church, at 1114 Oxmoor Road in Birmingham, gathers its Family of Faith around the word of God, the work of prayer and the aim of making faithful servants of Jesus Christ.