I love the passion Grace Community Church has to impact our community. Our people serve their community throughout the year. The largest project, and the one that draws the most attention, is our annual Operation Serve held each fall where hundreds of volunteers serve in a one (sometimes two) day blitz of community needs. I’ve written about it several times before HERE. This past year over 1,300 people logged some 10,000 hours of service to our community meeting all kinds of practical needs.
Well, another project is stirring interest. Our community, like many others nationwide, have experienced struggles adequately funding school systems. How can a church respond in times like these?
Introducing Operation Serve School Edition.
April 9th we hope to have hundreds of people volunteering in all 35 schools in our public school district. Operations Serve School Edition invites the community to participate with our church in landscaping, painting, cleaning, and completing other things the school needs done, but the budget simply can’t provide. The schools are compiling lists now and materials are being acquired.
To accomplish such a large task, we are also partnering with 5 Star Radio Group. They are providing publicity to recruit volunteers and providing tremendous moral support the day of the event with live remotes.
It’s catching on already. What we are finding is that whether a person attends church or not, they have an interest in educating children. Here are a few articles already talking about Operation Serve School Edition:
- Operation Serve: School Edition
- Church aims to renovate entire school system
- Church To Fix Up 35 Schools In 1 Day: Grace Community Church In Clarksville Seeks Volunteers
Besides the fact that we meet in a school…actually two schools…and doing a church our size and age would be very difficult without this partnership with our school system, it makes sense to invest in our schools this way because:
We love our schools. Our church and community are blessed with teachers, administrators and support staff who love the children and youth of our community. They are helping to build the future of our community. They need our support.
We love our community. Our church exists because the community exists. Everyone in our community may not all come to our church, but all our church lives among this community. We want to do anything we can do to support the community in which we live.
We love families. Families are a large part of who we are at Grace and the bulk of families in our community attend public schools.
We love God and others. We are called to be in the world, meeting real needs where we find them. That’s the example of Jesus.
Come join us in Operation Serve School Edition. If you live in the area, you can sign up HERE.
What are some creative ways you’re seeing churches connect with their community these days?
One thing which we do in our church — volunteering in government hospitals surrounding our locality during weekends and sharing the Gospel in those circumstances.
Love it
We are working to open a Resource Center for Teachers at our church. We are asking all the churches to get involved by donating items that teachers need in their classroom but often have to buy themselves. Most of the students in our county are on free or reduced lunch and cannot always buy the supplies on their school supply list. So, we are setting up a room in our church to provide things like tissues, pencils, crayons, folders, stickers, etc… and the teachers can come at certain times and get what they need.
I love this!