Sydney Cromwell
Horizon Church
Horizon Church holds a service in Portuguese and English.
Every single Sunday when Pastor Joe Comer stands in the front pew and hears the congregation singing behind him, he finds himself speechless.
“I’m overwhelmed every Sunday by the presence of God’s spirit in the service and the response of the people,” he said.
There are a lot more people these days at Horizon Church on Columbiana Road — more than double what it was a year ago, in fact.
And the majority is Brazilian.
That’s something Comer never saw coming when he joined the staff at Horizon in 1992. But in 2011, he was approached by Fabricio Oliveira, the pastor of a local Brazilian congregation that was in need of a place to meet.
“We sat down and talked and hit it off well with each other,” Comer said, noting that both churches were of the same denomination — Assemblies of God. The Brazilian church, which had been started several years prior by a Brazilian congregation in Atlanta, wanted to use Horizon’s building.
“We worked out an agreement, and they began meeting on Sunday evenings in our building. We were two different churches, we were just sharing the facility,” Comer said.
But recently that changed, thanks to an experiment gone right, Comer said.
“Through the years, we have done more and more together — a party here and there, a combined service every now and then and occasionally a service project,” he said.
Once they held a Brazilian festival to raise money for a children’s home in Zambia, and the event brought in more than $4,000. On another occasion, members from both congregations went together on a mission trip to Brazil.
“Their [the Brazilian congregation’s] food choices are much different than ours, but they are so delicious,” Comer said. “Both congregations have really enjoyed getting to know each other and each other’s culture.”
Then last summer, when church attendance was low because of congregation members vacationing, someone threw out the idea of combining the two churches for the summer.
“We spent a year praying and having conversations with leadership teams to explore that possibility,” Comer said. “That culminated in this summer, when we combined as an experiment. We met together for the full summer as one church.”
It went so well that they decided not to stop. Now, the merge is permanent.
“It’s been wonderful,” Comer said. “Separately our churches were OK, but when we come together it brings a different dynamic. There is so much more life in the church now, it’s incredible. We’re able to impact our community better. We have more people, more volunteers, more resources.”
The Brazilian church had about 85 members in total, and Horizon had 50 or 60 before the mergee, Comer said. Now church attendance is more than 100 every Sunday.
Oliveira said his church is so excited that Horizon opened the door — first to use their facility, then to become part of their church.
“It’s a wonderful miracle for us to work together with the church,” he said. “It’s an amazing location and chance to serve for the kingdom.”
Oliveira and Comer share the preaching load, even occasionally tag-team preaching the same sermon.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Comer said. “The church loves it.”
Because they were the same denomination, the congregations already sang a lot of the same songs in their services, and both churches held their services in English. But in the new combined Horizon Church, leaders incorporate the occasional chorus or verse in Portuguese, and translators translate the service into Portuguese through headsets for anyone who prefers to participate in that language.
The church held a special service to celebrate the new combined congregation Oct. 18.
For more information, visit horizonchurch.tv.
