Churches strive to be good neighbors
Middle Georgia churches are making sure the words of Mark 12:31 and Matthew 22:36 are carried out literally in their communities. The famous Bible verses read, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” and houses of worship have made a habit of reaching out to their neighborhoods to show the love.
“We take our guidance from the teachings of Christ about love of neighbors,” said Dr. Jimmy Asbell Jr., senior minister at Vineville United Methodist in Macon. “In some ways, we take that literally. That doesn’t just mean trudging off to the far reaches of the world. There are people in the shadows of the church who have needs we can meet.”
Special programs, activities and efforts help worship centers connect with nearby residents and provide assistance to them. Here’s just a sampling of churches in our area that are turning their neighbors into friends.
Northminster Presbyterian
The backpack ministry is one of Northminster Presbyterian’s main neighborhood outreach efforts. The Macon church is among many in the area that participate in similar programs.
Northminster partners with First Presbyterian Day School and provides 10 bags filled with supplemental foods for needy Rosa Taylor Elementary students to take home every Friday, said church volunteer Judy Hill.
Rosa Taylor is basically in Northminster’s backyard, and the two have been working together for about four years, said outreach committee chairwoman Anne Weaver.
The church currently is holding Christmas in July to raise funds to purchase backpacks and school supplies to distribute to about 50 Rosa Taylor students in January. First Presbyterian Day School provides the kids with items in the fall. Hill said the church also provides materials for Rosa Taylor teachers.
“It shouldn’t be about us. It should be giving a handout, especially to children,” Hill said. “Anything we can do to help … that’s what Christianity is supposed to be, helping others.”
Habitat for Humanity and Loaves and Fishes are two of the other local ministries that the church supports.
Strong Tower Fellowship
Strong Tower Fellowship in Macon has really invested in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood during the last few years, including through the management of several rental properties.
Pastor Gary Leibovich said one of the biggest issues in the neighborhood is safe, quality, affordable housing. With support from churches like First Presbyterian and Vineville United Methodist, the church renovated 12 single-family units along Clayton Street and three duplexes on Moughon Street.
The homes are being rented by both longtime and new Pleasant Hill residents, and three Strong Tower families moved in to help build relationships and create a sense of community, Leibovich said.
“We call the idea incarnation ministry, where we become part of the communities that we care about,” said Leibovich, who lives right down the street from the Clayton homes.
Strong Tower members Andrew and Shari Berndt have resided in one of the Clayton Street units since August. The couple, married for a year, knew about the church’s vision for revitalization in the area and wanted to a part of it. Andrew Berndt said the new residents have given new life to the once-blighted area and helped it overcome its former negative image.
“It’s been a true sense of community here,” Shari Berndt said. “We’ve just really gotten to know our neighbors well. I feel like they’ve served us more than we’ve served them. We’re a blessing to them, and they’re a blessing to us.”
The residents share meals together, have backyard get-togethers for birthdays, look out for each other, and spend time in the nearby community garden, she said.
Strong Tower member Caleb Howard, who moved into one of the houses with his wife, Amy, a month ago, said the neighborhood children knock on his door all the time to say hi. The tenants do things like bake cookies for each other and drive those without cars to the grocery store.
Leibovich said Strong Tower hopes to be able to provide jobs in the neighborhood by next summer. The church also is looking into starting a community work day to help people with home repairs and needs.
Vineville United Methodist
In addition to contributing to Strong Tower’s housing project, Vineville UMC has its hand in the Pleasant Hill community in a number of other ways. The church’s neighborhood efforts are managed and organized through a mission group called the PleasantVille Committee, said committee member Gina Greenwood.
“That is the mission of the PleasantVille Committee … to love and serve others one soul at a time in a way that allows our Pleasant Hill neighbors to see God through us and know that we care about each and every one of them and that God loves them and is there for them no matter what,” Greenwood said.
The church normally does a few neighborhood home improvement projects each year with Rebuilding Macon, Asbell said. Along with Strong Tower and nonprofit Campus Clubs, Vineville is a partner in the Field of Hope initiative to turn abandoned properties on Culver Street into recreation space for children. Vineville allows Campus Clubs, whose learning center is housed on Strong Tower’s property, to use its gym for recreation and sent about 50 kids to Camp Grace in Roberta this summer.
Greenwood said about 40 Pleasant Hill children attend the church’s vacation Bible school each year, and the church hosts a fall festival each Halloween for members and neighbors. In addition, members donate money for neighborhood initiatives through the Alternative Christmas gifting program, and pledge to volunteer hours to serve the neighborhood during the Lenten season.
The church has partnered with LH Williams Elementary School for many years, Asbell said. Members tutor at the school almost every day, and a former teacher has been volunteering to provide art instruction since funding for the subject was cut several years ago. The church provides all the art supplies.
Every Friday during the school year, Vineville donates about 75 food-filled bags for the Backpack Buddies ministry for “food insecure” students to take home for the weekend or holiday breaks, Greenwood said. The church also hosts an annual awards program and lunch for fifth-graders and their parents, and has presented a college scholarship to a former LH Williams student for the past two years.
“PleasantVille leads to incredible personal connections that are made between individual people in our community who might otherwise not have the opportunity to know and love each other,” Greenwood said. “A child who receives a backpack on Friday is the same child who is tutored by another church member or who comes to vacation Bible school to meet others in church.”
First Baptist Church of Warner Robins
First Baptist Church of Warner Robins reaches out often to its neighbors in the Commercial Circle area, where Davis Drive and Watson Boulevard meet.
Pastor Chad Wood said the church held its first Feed the Neighborhood this spring. Members knocked on doors and put up fliers inviting residents to the event, and many people showed up to enjoy food, games and fellowship. They also have hosted a breakfast for men for the past couple years.
Two of the church’s biggest outreaches are during the Christmas parade and July Fourth fireworks in Warner Robins. First Baptist, in partnership with First Presbyterian next door, offers refreshments and games to community members who want to watch these events from the church parking lot.
Putting up a basketball goal in the backyard last year has proved to be one of the most effective community-building tools, Wood said. It draws people out of their homes and allows members to get to know them. During their Wednesday prayer meetings, Worship and Youth Pastor Nick Prieto plays basketball with local residents and invites them to join in a short devotional. The church’s three pastors even walk through the downtown area every Wednesday morning to pray for revitalization.
“They are our neighbors in the community. We desire to see the gospel change our city, our state and the world. We just really try to focus on being very mission-driven,” Wood said. “I do believe it starts where we are. If we don’t care about the area where we are, it’s not going to transfer (to) the overall world.”
Since Warner Robins High School is only a mile away, First Baptist tries to serve the school as much as possible. The church writes notes to the faculty and staff, Wood does lunch and a devotional with the football team a couple times a year, and Prieto assists the band director.
Wood said First Baptist is working to change from an inward to outward focus and desires to be a church that is multicultural as well as multigenerational. The way to achieve these goals is to love the people surrounding this house of worship.
Centenary United Methodist Church
Centenary UMC in Macon has become a good neighbor to its surrounding communities. It works with the Beall’s Hill neighborhood, hosting meetings for the Neighborhood Association, sharing the community garden there and participating in work days, said Minister of Community Building Stacey Harwell-Dye.
Located near the Mercer University campus, the church has served on the College Hill Corridor Commission for many years and has been a part of the school’s Building the Beloved Community Symposium. Centenary is making its mark in East Macon as well through the Macon Roving Listeners. The group is currently polling this area’s residents about their “gifts, goals and dreams for the community” and hosting events to bring them together, Harwell-Dye said.
The church also partners with First Baptist Church of Christ and Habitat for Humanity on a deconstruction project of blighted houses, the Macon Coalition to End Homelessness, Macon Reentry Coalition, Daybreak homeless center and Parent Accountability Court, which meets inside Centenary.
“Churches do not exist in a vacuum,” Harwell-Dye said. “Churches have a responsibility, we feel, to be an active part of the good that happens in their neighborhood. What’s good for the neighborhood is good for the church, no matter what it is. … We want to be the best neighbor possible to everyone, regardless of their religion of choice.”
She said these partnerships strengthen the work the church does while providing the neighborhood with free spaces to meet as well as an active ally in community projects.
St. Joseph Catholic Church
Director of Parish Administration Steve Mastrangelo said the reach of St. Joseph Catholic Church is near and far, but about 60 of its ministries are right here in its parish. Members are encouraged to donate their time as well as their money to help any causes they can in Macon.
“We don’t keep the faith in our walls. We’re called to go out and show people who we are and show them about the gospel and Jesus. It’s not a passive thing,” Mastrangelo said. “We’re called to go out and love one another.”
S.W.A.T.C.H., which stands for Sewing Women Are Touching Children’s Hearts, is a group of ladies from the church who work closely with Family Advancement Ministries. The women knit items to be included in welcome gift baskets for young mothers. Through the health ministry, professionals from the church offer screenings and checks for parishioners as well as the general population.
Mastrangelo said St. Joseph also supports St. Vincent De Paul Society, which provides financial assistance to those in need; Daybreak; Habitat for Humanity; and monthly and Lenten season food drives at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church. Members volunteer once a month for Christ Episcopal Church’s Weekend Meals Ministry to feed the homeless.
“If you reach out to these people, you give them a sense of hope that all isn’t lost, (that there’s) someone who really cares for them,” Mastrangelo said. “Unfortunately, there will always be poor people, but hopefully there will always be people who will demonstrate what Jesus taught us in the gospel, to go out and serve.”
Awakening Fires Ministry
Awakening Fires Ministry started in 2010 as a tent ministry that set up in Macon communities such as Unionville, Pleasant Hill, Lynmore Estates, Payne City, Fort Hill, Bloomfield and Village Green. Two years ago, the congregation built its first Redeeming Hope Center worship building at the foot of the Fort Hill neighborhood — what they hope will be one of eight in the area, said Pastor and Executive Director Jason Thomley.
“We want to live, work and worship all in the same place. In the inner city, you’re not going to change the problems until those problems are your problems. It’s kind of a missionary calling to your own city,” Thomley said.
Thomley said the church is very young and is still figuring out what works, but they’ve established a place to open up to the community. The Redeeming Hope Center is available 24 hours a day for prayer, and it has created a garden and hydroponic greenhouse. Leaders would like to eventually buy and rehabilitate homes in the area and create some start-up businesses.
“There’s nowhere else that we’d rather be. We’re just going to continue to be faithful and see what happens,” he said.
Awakening Fires is building relationships with neighborhood children through a soccer team and a Thursday night outreach that offers playtime, Bible lessons and snacks. The church also takes kids to Camp Grace.
This story was originally published July 22, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Churches strive to be good neighbors."