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America's Church of the Week
ADDRESS
The Deaf Church at Brook Hills
3145 Brook Highland Pkwy, Birmingham, Alabama 35242
205-408-1926
SENIOR PASTOR
Phillip Easterling
WEB SITE
www.thedeafchurch.org
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700 Club Church of the Week
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CHURCH OF THE WEEK

The Deaf Church at Brook Hills

December 1, 2003

CBN.com – "In this area, there were a lot of deaf people who didn’t know Jesus," says Phillip Easterling, the pastor at the Deaf Church at Brook Hills. "One man had gone to seminary here in Birmingham, and he just felt that God called him to establish a deaf church."

That was in 1957. Today 95 percent of this congregation is deaf. Easterling is also deaf. But among this body of about 50 believers, God is very much hearing and doing.


"When we moved here," says Easterling, "we felt God begin to move in the church, and amazing things began to happen. The church has begun to grow each month. People are transferring by letters, accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior, joining the church through baptism, and all these things are happening each month and the church is growing and growing."

You might wonder why a church just for deaf people and why in Birmingham.

"There’s a total of about 10,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing people in this area," Easterling explains. "There are a lot of deaf in Birmingham compared to the state population. The deaf are the largest unreached part of the population in the world for Jesus Christ. Each hour, about 120 deaf people die without knowing Jesus."

The Deaf Church of Brook Hills meets in facilities owned by the church at Brook Hills, but plans are underway for the Deaf Church to build their own building with design features and technology to make it even easier for the deaf to participate in the full worship experience.

"Deaf worship in their culture, their language, their way," says Kim Christenberry, the church's administrative assistant and interpreter.

What does it mean for a deaf person to worship in this environment?

"I always loved the Lord and I wanted to learn, but most all the hearing people were talking so quickly and I wasn’t able to understand," says church attender Richard Jones. "At the deaf church, I could understand it all."

"I can understand the deaf pastor. My spirit is fed," says Richard's wife, Frances.

Adds Rev. Easterling, "Many people hear the gospel in different languages, and the deaf seem to be the last to be reached. That really touches my heart."


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