Westwood Happenings History Log

Date	Happening
June 15, 2008	“Get in the Game” Westwood launched a three week emphasis called “Get in the Game” which is designed to enlist workers for the new year and to move the culture of Westwood toward a value of service.
June 13, 2008	VBS Brings Many Children to Christ Decision counselors today dealt with a number of children. After it was all sorted out, sixty-six children had made first-time decisions to follow Christ. The total enrollment for VBS was 1,246, which included 336 workers, 160 preschool and exactly 750 children in grades 1-5.
May 18, 2008	Small Groups Building Dedication On May 18, Westwood dedicated our Small Groups Building which will all Westwood’s Student Ministry to be back on campus for Sunday morning LifeGroups. The Middle School previously met at Buffalo Wild Wings and the High School met at the AmStar Theater. The new building contains 26 class rooms and a central Gathering Area with a small kitchenette. Eleven class rooms will be used for Adult Bible Study on Sunday mornings. Use will begin on Sunday, June 1.
April 6, 2008	Continue the Journey Report This Sunday $161,653 was given on our special one day offering, bringing our total Continue the Journey giving to over $257,881. With the constant growth of Westwood, we will probably be in some sort of building campaign for the foreseeable future. Journey with Purpose was the name of the financial campaign that helped us to relocate and build phase one on our new campus. That fund has now been rolled over into Continue the Journey and will be utilized in the near term to fund additional parking and the Small Groups Building.  A possibility exists that these funds may also assist in the acquisition of additional land. Our purpose as a church is to develop growing disciples of Jesus Christ.  Parking and facilities help us to accomplish that purpose.
March 23, 2008	Another record-setting attendance on Easter Easter Sunday was at the end of spring break this year but still managed to be a record setting Sunday with 3,310 in attendance. That number included 911 (8:00 AM), 1,206 (9:30 AM), 888 (11:00 AM) as well as 305 preschoolers at various hours. A tent was set up behind the church to accommodate 280 during the 9:30 service in which the student praise band led worship. Pastor Les preached in both venues at 9:30 AM.
March 22, 2008	Community-wide Easter Celebration & Egg Hunt Westwood partnered with the city of Alabaster, Liberty Baptist Church and Iglesia Biblica de Alabaster to host the 2008 Easter Egg Hunt at Veteran’s Park from 9:00 am to Noon on Saturday, March 22. Kevin Derryberry performed and 772 children enjoyed inflatables as well as the egg hunt.
January 27, 2008	Growth of Westwood Continues Average monthly attendance passes 2,000 for the first time in church history as of January 2008. Small groups surpassed 1,300 in average attendance during the month. This includes Adult Bible Study, Home Groups, and all age-group Sunday morning classes. Wednesday night attendance is nearly 700 and includes Preschool and Children’s AWANA, middle school and high school worship, and Renewal Worship for Adults.
January 20, 2008	Church Approves Call of Executive Pastor Westwood approved the call of Rick Swing as Executive Pastor of Ministries. Rick comes from Shades Mountain Baptist Church where he served as Minister of Young Adults. He has also served Park Place Baptist in Brandon, Mississippi. Rick is married to Linda and they are the parents of Joshua, Jordan and Danielle. Rick played college basketball at The Citidel and was drafted by the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers in 1979 and played one season there. Rick enjoys spending time with his family, reading, outdoor recreation, playing basketball and playing golf.
December 31, 2007	General Budget Giving Exceeds Three Million Dollars For the first time in church history, general budget giving for 2007 exceeded three million dollars. The $3,006,480 giving was up 15.3% from 2006 giving of $2,606,732. Designated receipts were just over $600,000. Current membership is 2,649 as of Dec. 31.
December 30, 2007	Largest Lottie Moon Offering in Church History Westwood received over $45,000 for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. The goal was $35,000. Funds support over 5,000 Southern Baptist Missionaries who work under the direction of the International Mission Board of the SBC.
December 12, 2007	Church Approves 2008 Budget, Small Groups Building, Additional Parking and Executive Pastor The 2008 Church Budget of $3,500,000 was approved along with a small groups building to be built behind the current facility and will contain approximately 28 rooms. Three areas of paved parking will be added that will almost double the number of paved spaces on campus already. Also approved was a new Executive Staff position Executive Pastor of Ministries that will oversee all church ministries under the direction of the Senior Pastor.
November 7, 2007	Church Elects Strategic Planning Team Westwood elected seven members to assist church leadership in setting the direction of Westwood in the future, seeking to maximize success of our mission “to develop growing disciples of Jesus Christ”, giving specific attention to staffing needs, outreach strategies, building projects, utilization of current facilities, etc. Members include Lynn Bush, Steve Harless, John Morris, Kathy Sulver, Todd Stone, Di Wash and Mike West. The Executive Team will also serve on the SPT. Those include Les Hughes, Darryl Collins, Matt Haines, Tim Carrigan and Jay Gordon.
October 31, 2007	739 Kids Attend Westwood’s Fall Festival: Out of this World Westwood’s gift to the community is a fall festival which includes inflatables, Bible characters, fun booths, food and more. This year Arby’s, Chick-Fil-A and Moe’s joined in to provide a food court. Over 417 families attended, which included 739 children. Our adult small groups helped by providing volunteers for every booth. The theme was Out of this World!
August 12, 2007	Ethos Series Begins Ethos is the name of a six-week sermon and small group series that will introduce the church to Westwood’s discipleship strategy. The four environments are Connect with God, Grow with Believers, Serve in the Church and Live on Mission. The church’s mission statement is to develop growing disciples of Jesus Christ.
June 15, 2007	Westwood’s Largest Ever VBS! The total enrollment for Westwood’s VBS this year was 1,016. This was our biggest and best yet.
April 8, 2007	An Exciting Easter Easter Sunday surpassed all expectations with 3,244 attending worship services at Westwood.
April 1, 2007	Mountain Valley Church Launches Westwood’s second daughter church began it’s public ministry after having met as a core group since January. George Hicks is pastor of this mission church that meets in the Parnell Library in Montevallo.
March 11, 2007	Westwood Calls Kevin Derryberry as Worship Leader Kevin Derryberry is no longer Interim. The Westwood church body overwhelmingly approved the call of Kevin as Worship Leader. Kevin will continue to minister through Kevin Derryberry ministries.
February 18, 2007	Alabaster Boulevard Completed to Weatherly Club Drive Only twelve months late, Gilco Contractors, Bellsouth, and the cities of Alabaster and Pelham have resolved all issues and completed the road connecting Weatherly Club Drive and the Colonial Promenade Alabaster, also connecting to Westwood.
January 7, 2007	Mountain Valley Baptist Church Begins Worship The core group of Westwood’s church-plant in Montevallo begain worship services in Montevallo’s Parnell Memorial Library. George Hicks is pastor. Young Singles Ministry Moves to Buffalo Wild Wings With growth beyond our space, Westwood’s 20 and 30-Something Singles ABS Classes began meeting at Buffalo Wild Wings in the Promendade. The Student Ministry already uses the AmStar Theater for LifeGroups for grades 6-12.
November 19, 2006	Kevin Derryberry Begins as Interim Worship Leader Westwood welcomes Kevin Derryberry as Interim Worship Leader. Kevin is a contemporary Christian recording artist who will also continue a number of outside concerts through his ministry. Kevin is widely known also from his days with the secular band Telluride and his life-changing conversion experience in the mid-90’s.
October 15, 2006	Tim Carrigan Called as Church Administrator Westwood voted to call Tim Carrigan as our new Church Administrator, replacing Bobby Culpepper who left to do missions work on the Texas/Mexico boarder. Tim comes from Saks, Incorporated.
August 30, 2006	Westwood Approves New Bylaws The proposed 2006 bylaws were approved by a 93% margin after months of work by the Executive Staff and Bylaws Team. The entire document was reorganized and many aspects were updated after ten plus years without revision. Visit WestwoodToday.com for a list of changes or to see the entire document.
August 16, 2006	Alabaster Boulevard Paved to Westwood Gilco completes paving to the Westwood campus. The link to Weatherly is still under construction.
August 13, 2006	Student Ministry Goes to AmStar, Adults On Campus In a reorganization of the Bible Study Ministry, grades 6-12 begin meeting in 14 theaters at the AmStar Cinemas. Adult Bible Study Classes who had been meeting there since the relocation in March move on campus. Attendance takes a positive turn with over 1,200 attending Bible study on the first day of the church year.
June 18, 2006	Alabaster Boulevard Partially Paved Westwood was informed late last week that we would be allowed to drive on Alabaster Boulevard on Sunday mornings. The link to Weatherly Subdivision is expected in August.
June 9, 2006	VBS Fiesta a Huge Success Today completed VBS 2006. The average attendance was 715 with a high of 731. Forty-five children were counseled about their decision to receive Christ.
March 26, 2006	Dedication Service Features Babbie Mason The building was dedicated at a 6:00 PM concert by Christian recording artist Babbie Mason, following an open house at Westwood’s new campus.
March 19, 2006	First Sunday Service in Alabaster Boulevard Building First services in the building were held March 19. Parking and access was still difficult because Alabaster Boulevard was not complete. Access is provided by the temporary construction entrance beside AmStar Cinemas.
March 12, 2006	First Sunday on Campus, Church Meets in a Tent Without a certificate of occupancy due to problems in the city water line, Westwood has its first meeting on the new campus in an 825 seat circus tent in the front parking lot. Twelve hundred people attended the two worship services at 9:30 & 11:00 AM.
March 5, 2006	Church Moves to New Campus on Alabaster Boulevard Sunday afternoon was “Move Day” for Westwood. Over 200 volunteers worked to pack donated box trucks, bread trucks, horse trailers, and even pickup trucks to relocate the campus. All items had left the Thompson Road campus in just over one hour, giving clean up crews an early start to leave the campus ready for Evangel Presbyterian Church to occupy.
February 12, 2006	Senior Pastor Les Hughes Celebrates 5 Years at Westwood Les and Page we honored at a reception on Sunday afternoon. With the holidays and Darryl Collin’s anniversary, a later date to make the occasion was selected. They actually began service on December 31, 2000.
February 1, 2006	Wednesday Night Worship, Supporting Home Groups Westwood moves its Sunday night worship to Wednesday nights in order to strengthen home meetings on Sunday nights and to provide a significant worship event midweek.
January 11, 2006	Church and Darryl Collins celebrate 25 Years Westwood began in January, 1981, shortly after Darryl and Sandra Collins agreed to come serve as Minister of Music from First Baptist Church in Pelham.
December 27, 2005	Church Offices Relocate to Ministry Center In the first phase of Westwood’s relocation, the offices moved to Cloverdale Plaza into a building called the Ministry Center. The buildings are leased and the church plans to keep offices here until able to build on the main campus.
October, 2005	40 Days of Community Beginning October 16, the church participated in 40 Days of Community, which focused on building community in our small groups. A number of new Home groups were begun, and our existing ABS Classes met in homes on Sunday nights for small group fellowship, Bible study, and prayer.
October 9, 2005	First MissionsFEST Westwood hosted it’s first missions conference with opportunities for involvement being made available by the association, state convention, International Mission Board, Global Missions Fellowship, and a host of other missions agencies. Charles Billingsley topped off the night with a concern of missions.
September 30, 2005	Construction Workers Receive Christ On Friday, Westwood provided lunch, a “thank you”, and the gospel message to the workers at our new campus. Pastor Les shared the gospel with Jose Luis Leon, pastor of our Hispanic work, interpreting. Many hands were raised indicated prayer to receive Christ, and a number came forward at the end for further counseling.
August 29, 2005	Hurricane Katrina Hits Alabama, Mississippi & Louisiana Westwood is involved in extensive efforts of disaster relief with those affected by the hurricane. Included are drives for supplies and food, delivery efforts, feeding people in shelters and at camp grounds, sending teams to the coast for clean up efforts, financial assistance to survivors, assistance at the Shelby County Office of Red Cross in processing survivors. The church set up a donation center in the office foyer and a POD was donated to help store the supplies between shipments.
August 28, 2005	Westwood begins Contagious Christian Study The church-wide study Contagious Christianity begins for eight weeks, to be followed by 40 Days of Community.
August 7, 2005	First Lake Baptism at Oak Mountain State Park Eleven people were baptized and Westwood’s first lake baptism service. About 200 people attended the baptism and picnic.
July 31, 2005	Staff Reorganization The Church council approved the following staff reorganization: 1) moving Matt Haines to the new position, Pastor of Congregational Care and Involvement, 2) creation of an Executive Staff Team, and 3) reclassifying duties and title for Jay Gordon to Pastor of Small Groups. These moves will begin immediately and be finalized by September 1, 2005.
July 28, 2005	Deacon Ordination Ordained the following into the Deacon Ministry: Tom Bird, Mark Davenport, Mark Gillmer, Jason Haynie, Kelly Kendrick, John Perry, Marty Pike, Mike Rudd, Scott Woodard. Stan Moody will also be ordained in the near future. Vote to Borrow Additional Monies The church voted to approve the borrowing of an additional $400,000 on the relocation project. Funds will be used to complete the second floor and to make some desired improvements in other areas of the building.
July 14, 2005	Deal with AmStar Entertainment Westwood reaches an agreement with AmStar Cinemas to lease seven theaters in which Adult Bible Study Classes will meet.
July 8, 2005	Honduras Mission Trip Youth team begins mission trip to Honduras with Dan Moran Ministries.
June 26, 2005	Enter Lease for Youth and Office Space In a special called business meeting, Westwood voted to lease two buildings in Cloverdale Plaza at a price not to exceed $8,000. The buildings will be used for office and student ministry space.
June 5, 2005	Above & Beyond Offering Westwood received a special offering to help complete the second floor of the phase one facility. Collected in the morning was $99,350 in cash and over $45,000 in new pledges for the remainder of the campaign. The staff laughingly referred to the offering as “The Second Annual One Time Offering”.
January 9, 2005	Ground-breaking Ceremony A ground-breaking ceremony was held at 12:15 PM for Westwood’s relocation project. As access to the new campus was limited, the ceremony was held at the Thompson Road campus with dirt brought from the Alabaster Boulevard campus. To allow members who desire to see the property and to pray, a prayer walk was held at the new site at 2:00 PM.
October 26, 2004	Church votes to sell Thompson Road Campus Westwood sells our Thompson Road campus to Evangel Presbyterian Church and agrees to lease it back from Evangel for a period of 15 months while a new Alabaster Boulevard campus is completed.
November 2, 2003	Church votes to relocate Westwood approved recommendation to move toward relocation of our church campus pending the availability of property as well as the sale of our present facilities. The measure also allowed the Vision Team to negotiate a contingency contract regarding the purchase of land and to negotiate for the sale of the Thompson Road campus.