HISTORY OF DISCOVERY

June 17, 1992 was the day that officially began the appointment of a pastor to the Alabama Highway 150/Interstate 459 area in Hoover for the purpose of organizing a new United Methodist Church. Dale Cohen is the founding pastor. The first two months of Dale’s appointment were spent in getting to know the area, its people, and its possibilities for supporting another church. In July of 1992, Dale and Dede spent a week in Denver at a workshop with the Board of Global Ministries. This workshop was for pastors and their spouses from all over the United States who have been called by God and the United Methodist Church to develop new congregations. This workshop was comprehensive in scope and, thus, instrumental in deciding what model of development would be used to start the new congregation.

Throughout the first two months, Dale kept a list of names of people he met who said they were interested in being part of a new United Methodist Church. At the end of July, a meeting was scheduled for all the interested people to come and make plans for launching this adventure. On July 30, 1992, there were twenty enthusiastic people who showed up to talk about the new church. Dale talked about his vision for the new church and others shared their dreams for what the new church could be.

Again on August 9th, an enthusiastic crowd showed up with people who had attended the previous meeting as well as some new folks so the atmosphere was even more charged with energy. It was decided to begin meeting on Sunday mornings as a "congregation" to pray and plan for the new church. This began on August 23, 1992

On the Saturday before the first "worship service," an article about the new church was printed in the Birmingham News/ Post-Herald. It told the story of Discovery and highlighted the vision and plans for this new community of faith. The response was great! The next day when the new church met at the Cohen’s house there were 30 people present for study and prayer. The attendance numbers stayed between 25 and 30 each week throughout the Fall until December of 1992 when average attendance grew from 35 to 45 people. 52 people participated in a hay ride and Christmas caroling night which has become an annual tradition of Discovery.

It was decided at the worship service held on August 30th that the church would be named "Discovery United Methodist Church." Everyone felt like that name described the kind of church we wanted to be-- one that invited people into a process of discovering God’s love and grace. Throughout this entire time, the Cohen’s Great Room was transformed each week into celebration space where the group worshipped and prayed.

In late October negotiations began with Bill Hardekopf of the Birmingham Barons Minor League Baseball Team to use some space on the club level at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium that was unfinished. Believing that God was "providing" this space for Discovery, Dale stepped out in faith and made an offer to pay two years of rent up front to the Barons so that they would have funds available to finish out the room. It was an act of faith because Discovery did not have the resources available to cover such a commitment. Dale later reflected that it was either an act of God’s providence that provided this space especially for us or it was an act of God’s grace to bail Dale out!

Although the space was ready, our first Sunday was the Blizzard of 1993 with 16 inches of snow on the ground and not a soul to be found worshipping at the Met! But the following week we met with 75 people and the numbers continued to grow. Months of planning and preparation began late in 1992 that would lead to the first "public" worship service on Easter Sunday, April 11, 1993. In February of 1993, Discovery embarked on a telemarketing and direct mail campaign. Over 10,000 dial-ups were made with almost 800 people asking to receive more information about Discovery. Each of these people received a hand-addressed, engraved invitation inviting them to worship on Easter Sunday. Over 350 people showed up that day and many of the faces that can still be seen around Discovery were a part of that first worship service.

As expected, the numbers dropped off each of the following weeks until attendance leveled off around 125-135 people. On May 23, 1993, Discovery was constituted as an official United Methodist Church and 85 adults were received into membership. Discovery’s growth has been gradual but steady and there are currently over 280 adult members.

The search for property actually began in March 1992 before Dale was appointed. There was even a contract on some property prior to 1992 submitted by the Birmingham-West District of the North Alabama Conference long before a pastor was ever appointed. The deal fell through because of some concern about rock on the site that would be too costly to remove. The site selection process continued after Dale was appointed with five different pieces of property being explored in detail of which three had contracts submitted. In all but the last deal that was finalized in November 1995, it just didn’t seem right. But God seemed to be giving affirmation to the piece of property on Stadium Trace that will be Discovery’s new home.

However, Discovery’s legacy is more than just worshipping in the pastor’s home or at a baseball stadium; Discovery’s legacy is more than just building on a piece of property. Discovery’s true legacy is the lives that have been changed, the relationships that have been developed, the friendships that have been forged, the faith that has been found, and the growth through service, study and fellowship that has continued to shape the hearts and minds of all those who dare take part in this Journey of Faith known as Discovery. Certainly, we’ve made mistakes. But early on there were a couple of phrases that were used to invite people to Discovery that seemed to describe how we saw what we were doing. They are just as true now as they were then:

Come and experience the difference a new Discovery can make!