TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — There are no pews, kneelers or leather-bound hymnals at the Church of Peace and Quiet. Members of the newly-formed congregation insist they can enjoy fellowship without a steeple over their heads.
Once a week, parishioners gather at Neal Foreman's home in unincorporated Tarrant County.
The Church of Peace and Quiet is one of two chapels on the block. A few houses down, Jay Hasbrouck planted the Faith United Cowboy Church.
Both churches formed this summer. They meet on different days so its members, mostly neighbors who live on Eden Road outside Mansfield's city limits, can attend each.
"We get together, sing some songs, read a sermon, say a few prayers and congregate," member Kate Zimmerman said. "Churches aren't buildings. Churches are people."
Hasbrouck wanted to start a ministry, anyway, she added. He'd been looking for a sign from God, though he didn't get a dove or a rainbow.
Instead, the 70-year-old got Joe Dirt's Fireworks stand.
Joe Sterling filed to open The Ranch Truck Parking in January 2022.
The business's website advertises designated parking spaces for commercial vehicles. Bright street lights line the gated facility, which also sits on Eden Road.
Sterling opened a Joe Dirt's Fireworks stand at the front of the property two months ago, ahead of the Independence Day holiday. He also aimed to create a space on the lot where people could safely shoot fireworks.
He wanted a water truck and undercover police officers nearby, Sterling told WFAA.
But neighbors, already tiring of the lights and running engines across the street, worried hundreds of people would flock to the stand and pop fireworks into the morning.
About a half-dozen families, including Zimmerman and Foreman, live directly across from the facility. Many say they shoot fireworks themselves on July 4.
But there's a difference between "pops here and there" and "hundreds of people lining up across the street to shoot fireworks all night," Zimmerman said.
Some neighbors keep horses on the acreage behind their homes. One man has kangaroos. The noise will bother the animals, their owners say.
But Sterling didn't break any laws when he opened the fireworks stand. The trucking facility operates legally, too.
There are few rules Sterling's facility could break, since Texas law mostly prevents counties from enforcing zoning regulations in unincorporated areas.
"They just don't like that there's a truck parking facility there and I get it," Sterling said.
Neighbors discovered they had little recourse when they approached Tarrant County leaders for help. Their hands are tied because state lawmakers again refused to grant counties more authority during this year's regular legislative session, despite a similar complaint in San Antonio that caught legislators' attention.
"There's no set of rules and you're kind of on your own," said Paul Szurek, a Church of Peace and Quiet member. "But just like the politicians play politics, we've got our churches."
During a meeting with local leaders, neighbors discovered a potential loophole that might silence the pyrotechnics: Texans cannot shoot fireworks within 600 feet of a church.
"At that meeting, I said, 'What if we start a church?' and people laughed," Zimmerman said.
The idea stuck.
For decades, litigators have struggled to narrowly define what a "church" is. Because neither church on Eden Road accepts donations, the organizations have largely avoided legal formalities and paperwork.
"We are a bunch of people coming together to seek comfort and help from each other and appeal to a higher power because we have no secular higher power to appeal to," Zimmerman said.
But in a separate attempt to shutter the fireworks stand and limit noise from the commercial parking lot, neighbors filed a lawsuit against Sterling.
A judge temporarily barred people from shooting fireworks at The Ranch Truck Parking across the street.
But Sterling voluntarily relocated his Joe Dirt's Fireworks stand this week, partly to avoid headaches, he said.
"It's absolutely unfair," he told WFAA. "Everything this holiday (July 4) is about is being trampled on right now."
His shop now sits at 7400 Rendon Bloodworth in 'Firework Alley.' Nearly 20 other companies operate stands along the road, meaning competition is stiff.
"It's devastating to my business," Sterling said. "I'm just a regular guy trying to feed my family."
Sterling called the churches "fake" and said he has "followed the letter of the law." He fears the neighbors' move sets a precedent, potentially allowing anyone to form a church to skirt or enact certain regulations.
At a Thursday hearing, a judge could decide whether to turn the order limiting activity at Sterling's property into a longer-lasting injunction. The same order also bars trucks at the lot from idling between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The parties on both sides of Eden Road agree that this debate is not settled.