Rev. David Smith, the former pastor of the Faith Community Baptist Church, is well-known on Madison’s south side for his passion for ministry and community-building.
But after more than two decades there, he will be starting a new chapter on the other side of town as the new pastor of the north side Madison campus of Door Creek Church in the Northgate Shopping Center. The grand opening will take place on Sunday, Sept. 9.
“It’s exciting to be on the north side. I’m excited about this opportunity,” Smith tells Madison365. “They had a vision of creating another outreach and expanding their mission to the northside of Madison. When they had heard that I closed my church last April, we began talking about it … maybe I can bring some experience and leadership by launching a north side campus for Door Creek Church.”
Rev. Smith had been taking a break from pastoring. “I was there for 20 years at my former church and was pretty tired,” he says. “I’ve had about two months to really relax a bit.”
And now he’s back in a new location, 1181 N. Sherman Ave., that is currently under construction but will be ready for weekend services and community programming come Sunday. Door Creek Church’s vision is to establish a new campus that lives out our values in community to serve the northside of Madison with the hope of the gospel.
“Door Creek Church has been around for 51 years. Originally they were Buckeye Evangelical Free Church over on E. Buckeye where Madison Pentacostal Assembly is right now,” Smith says.
In 2000, Buckeye Church was renamed Door Creek Church and moved to its current location on Sprecher Road. In 2011, Door Creek Church expanded, starting a campus in Deforest.
“For the last 10 years, they’ve had a vision of expanding it to the northside of Madison,” Smith says.
The new church will be right next to the Boomerangs Retail Store. The Door Creek Church Leadership Team and Stewardship Board opened Boomerangs store 10 years ago as an outreach ministry of Door Creek Church with the goal of meeting the needs of people in the Madison community.
The whole Northgate Shopping Center area is a very busy area with plenty of foot traffic.
“We want to have things for people to do – programs for both children and adults,” Smith says. “We want to do some job training and work with the job center over there. We just want to be a welcoming place. Or even if people just want to come in and have a cup of coffee or eat some pastries, we will be there.
“We have a lot of great opportunities before us on the north side,” he adds, “it’s just a matter of not trying to bite off too much at one time.”
Pastor Smith says he’s excited to help lead the new northside campus.
“On Sunday, we will have children’s services and then during the week we are planning on having some after school programs,” he says. “We’re looking at starting out with a STEM program that will be geared toward middle school students from Sherman and Blackhawk [middle schools]. We don’t just want to do an afterschool drop-in thing, we want to be more specific because we want our first go at it to be strong and measurable.”
There are a lot of fun activities planned for this Sunday’s Door Creek Church Open House.
“This Sunday, we’ll have two services – a 9 a.m. and a 10:30 a.m. – and a community celebration in the parking lot there that will go from 12 to 2,” Smith says. “There will be games and great food; Chick-a-fil will be donating food for us. We’ll have three bouncy houses, beanbag toss, face-painting and we’ll do tours of our facility.
“It’s going to be fun celebrating and seeing people we know and meeting new people,” he adds. “We hope a lot of kids come out and enjoy the games. We hope a lot of families come out and get exposed to our church and get information. Hopefully, if they don’t have a home church, they will become a part of it and fellowship with us.”
At the same time it will be a celebration of Boomerang’s 10-year anniversary. The Boomerang’s store will be open and they will be hosting some raffle drawings from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
“I’m looking forward to getting to meet a lot of families on the north side just like I did on the south side,” Smith says. “I want to become familiar with them and for them to become familiar with me. I will be reaching out to them and want to be there for them in their time of need.
“I was always involved in a lot of crises things on the south side and I still have a heart for that. I just want to be there for north side families, too,” Smith adds. “We’re really looking forward to that. We’re not trying to recreate or build a traditional-looking church, we just really want to be a church that people feel welcomed at.”
The Grand Opening of Door Creek Church’s Northside Madison Campus, 1181 N. Sherman Ave., will take place Sunday, Sept. 9. Church services will take place at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. The celebration will take place from noon-2 p.m.
