Covenant Presbyterian Church celebrates decades of congregational growth

Covenant Presbyterian Church looks a little different to Bill Hay than when he founded it 40 years ago. 

What started as roughly 30 people meeting Hay in a diner to discuss the idea of a brand new congregation has bloomed into a mature church with several hundred people every Sunday. Since his retirement from the senior pastor role, Hay said he sometimes will find out about a new program or group at the church that he’s never heard of before.

“That’s kind of fun to find out,” Hay said.

The church, located at 65 Old Montgomery Highway near Homewood High School, is not only celebrating its 40th anniversary this month but is also beginning its search for a new senior pastor. This will be only the third senior pastor in Covenant’s history, following Hay and Bill Boyd.

While the search is underway, retired pastor Sandy Willson, from Memphis, is serving the congregation in an interim role.

“We’ve had a great time together. This is a sweet congregation. They have wonderful officers and staff, so I’m having a blast,” Willson said.

Covenant Presbyterian began when Hay, a Minnesota native, announced he was leaving his pastoral role at Edgewood Presbyterian Church. He made a grave mistake, he said, in not telling his wife before he told the Edgewood congregation. However, his wife was “a forgiving woman, thank goodness.”

She supported him and so did the people who showed up at the diner for the very first meeting to create Covenant.

Hay said the support at that first meeting “blew me away.” 

“Once we learned Bill Hay had agreed to be the minister, we were on board. … [We] would have followed him just about anywhere,” said founding member Joan Kendall, who followed Hay from Edgewood Presbyterian.

It cemented the feeling that he was being called to start a church, which Hay said was critical.

“When the going gets tough, and it always does in some way, your sense of calling will carry you through,” Hay said.

The church first met Oct. 1, 1978, and spent its first three years in Reid Chapel at Samford University. When it came time to find a building of their own, Hay said the site on Old Montgomery Highway didn’t leave a great first impression: it was underwater due to flooding from Shades Creek and water running down from Shades Mountain. However, Hay said a church member convinced him they could fix the flooding issues, and the church established its home, holding its first service on the property in 1981.

“The church grew very, very fast,” Hay said. “People were hungry to be involved.”

Since then, Covenant has grown and renovated its building in keeping with its congregation size. The church also keeps busy throughout the week with small groups for men, women, youth, seniors and day school, as well as an emphasis on local and international missions.

Hay said the focus on missions came from his own trip to Romania and his firm belief in missionaries’ power to change lives. Those missions are part of his legacy that he’s proud of, Hay said. Despite the growth, he said Covenant’s theology has stayed the same.

“I am happy with the fact that so many of our children come back to the church when they’re adults,” he said. “I’m very happy that we have stayed true to the scriptures, stayed true to walking with God.”

Several of the church’s founding members continue to come to Covenant every Sunday.

Frank Day, a Mountain Brook resident, was one of those at Covenant’s very first meeting. He said he’s been part of many of the church’s projects over the years, from renovating and adding on to the building to starting a day school.

“I think I’ve been on every committee, matter of fact,” Day said.

Forty years later, Day said he still comes to Covenant every Sunday because he likes the Bible-centered teaching and the “great environment” with close friends.

Kendall agreed that the church’s teaching changes not only her life but equips her to reach out to others.

“It’s been our home for 40 years and each Sunday it’s like a homecoming,” Kendall said.

Willson said the congregation that Covenant’s next senior pastor will inherit is one that is spiritually serious, generous toward even new members of the church and open to change. Just in the year that he has been there, Willson said, the church has reorganized its leadership and switched its Sunday school and service times in order to be more appealing to both college students and senior congregants.

“They’re fun but they’re also serious about the kingdom, so that’s what you want. … It’s going to be a wonderful place for a new senior minister to come in and lead them,” Willson said.

“It’s a great place to come with ideas and to innovate.”

Going forward, Hay said he wants Covenant to continue to be a fun place for its congregation, “that we would have some good times but yet that we would stick to the gospel.”

“I just trust that they keep doing what they’ve been doing so successfully for 40 years,” Kendall said.

The search for a new senior pastor begins in November and Willson said he expects that person to be chosen and in place by late 2019. He said it will be somewhat bittersweet to leave Covenant even though he’s only been part of the church a short time.

“Now I feel like, my goodness, Birmingham’s a second home,” Willson said.

The church will officially celebrate its anniversary at its Oct. 7 service, which will include interviews of Hay and some founding members, as well as details about the church history. Willson said a lunch will follow the service, and former congregation members and the community are invited.

Covenant Sunday school begins at 9:15 a.m. and its regular service at 10:30 a.m. Learn more about the church at covpres.com.