By Ruthie Walker
Arise Birmingham is located in Irondale, Alabama, very near the junction of I-20 and I-459. The church’s building is also the home of Radiant a “holistic education school” founded in 2018 which serves children from age 2 to 8th grade. The number one thing that captures my attention about this congregation is their emphasis on family. From the minute I walked through the doors I felt like I was at a Thanksgiving dinner with all of my extended family. The church was planted in 2002 by two brothers and their wives. From the beginning of the church, family has been at the center and you can definitely tell when you attend on a Sunday.
The service begins with the lead pastor, Jeremy Springer, welcoming everyone and giving an exhortation to the congregation. He then invited us all into a time of greeting each other. This lasted about five minutes. Everyone was extremely welcoming as I was a new face and made me feel as if I was a part of the church family. All of the children in the room sat together at the front closest to the stage and enjoyed chatting during the welcoming time. The worship band then began playing since the service started with three songs. Another thing that added to the family aspect was that the children remained in the sanctuary during worship. Many of them stayed up front with their friends and had their hands raised and some were being held by their parents. After the worship and before the pastor preached, the children were dismissed to kids church.
Telos of Worship
Telos is defined as the ultimate aim or object of something. For example, somewould say the telos of scripture is to display God’s perfect plan of redemption for all of humankind. Attending a charismatic church service I had an assumption of what the telos of the service would be and I was correct. The telos of Arise was the Holy Spirit. Through every part of their service you could tell the goal was to seek the Spirit. The pastor did a short welcome and then asked everyone to stand and greet each other. Part of his welcome was a short speech about the power of the Holy Spirit. He would say, “The Spirit is here with us this morning” or “Let’s call upon the Spirit to come and move among us!” Everyone would clap, shout, or yell “Amen!” After the greeting there was a time of worship. One of the songs was called “Fall Like Rain” which is all about calling upon the Holy Spirit. There was a desperate cry in the room for the Spirit to come. It was interesting to me because I have always been taught that the Lord is omnipresent meaning he is with us always. I believe he inhabits the praise of his people so if we are singing to him on a Sunday morning, He is there. And even if we are silent, he is there.
Ethos of Worship
The core values of Arise are worship, love, honor, family, healing, freedom, and generosity. It was obvious to me that these things did indeed shape the ethos or character of the Sunday gathering. We spent more time worshiping by singing songs while I was there than we did listening to preaching. There was a sense of honor for one another and also for the Lord throughout my time visiting. A very heavy sense of community was present in the room as well as I watched everyone greet each other. Towards the end of the service there was a time of communal prayer where many people asked for specific healing for illnesses. The congregation also embodied the scripture that says, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). I can confidently say everyone I met was generous with their time and efforts to make me feel welcomed and seen. If I had to choose one distinct thing that stuck out as the ethos of this congregation I would say they had a deep sense of community. It was almost as if the Spirit became more real to each of them because they were all together. Like they needed each other to believe in the fullness of the gospel.
God’s Not Dead
Overall, my time at Arise left me firmly believing one thing, God’s not dead. While this church operates differently than any I have ever attended, they have a genuine hunger for the Spirit of Christ to dwell among them. Often churches do not emphasize this enough. Arise reminded me of the Book of Acts it emphasizes how active the Spirit was in the early church. While I do not agree with all theology points of this church, I can surely appreciate their emphasis of the power of God. It was evident that everyone within that building was deeply convinced the God they were praying to and calling upon was real and active. There was a deep sense of community and need for one another in addition to this. My time at Arise showed me the importance of worship with others and allowing the Spirit to revive the parts of you that feel lifeless.
Arise Birmingham
Address: 5301 U.S. 78, Birmingham, AL, 35210
Website: http://www.arisebirmingham.com/
Worship Archives: https://www.youtube.com/@AriseBirmingham/streams
Message Archives: http://www.arisebirmingham.com/media
Worshiping community established: 2002
Ruthie Walker ’26 was a student in Christian Worship: History & Theology in Samford University’s Department of Biblical and Religious Studies in spring 2025.
Published June 13, 2025.
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