Briarwood Presbyterian Church was formed in 1960 by the Rev. Frank M. Barker, Jr. and is located in suburban Birmingham, Alabama. It is a conservative evangelical Protestant congregation, and has been so since its inception. In 1999, Barker retired after serving as the senior pastor for 40 years, and was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Harry L. Reeder III, the current minister. Founded in a storefront, it later grew to have what was reported to be the largest church budget in Alabama, and opened a $32 million campus in 1988.
Originally a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (a predecessor to the present Presbyterian Church (USA)), Briarwood was among some 250 PCUS congregations that became charter members of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in December 1973; the organizational meeting was conducted in Briarwood's sanctuary. In addition to Briarwood, the Birmingham area is a strong pocket of influence for the PCA, with some 15 congregations located in Jefferson and Shelby counties.
Briarwood has a membership of approximately 4,100 and has been responsible for helping form ministries such as Campus Outreach, Birmingham Theological Seminary, and Young Business Leaders, as well as planting numerous churches around the world. In 2006, it was listed as being the 35th most influential non-catholic church in America by "The Church Report".
The church organized the Briarwood Christian School in 1965.
Famous quotes containing the words presbyterian and/or church:
“He is a Presbyterian first and an artist second, which is just as comfortable as trying to be a Presbyterian first and a chorus girl second.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“A State, in idea, is the opposite of a Church. A State regards classes, and not individuals; and it estimates classes, not by internal merit, but external accidents, as property, birth, etc. But a church does the reverse of this, and disregards all external accidents, and looks at men as individual persons, allowing no gradations of ranks, but such as greater or less wisdom, learning, and holiness ought to confer. A Church is, therefore, in idea, the only pure democracy.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)