Garfield Park Baptist Church began a re-visioning process at the beginning of 2016. Jay Kennedy, Congregational Life Strategist, introduced the idea of exegeting the community to determine what should matter to our church. During the summer’s combined adult classes, Pastor Judy and husband Fred used scriptural reflection to help us listen for God’s vision. Jan Goodyear, Church Leadership Strategist and a member, helped us to flesh out the vision statement and map member and community assets. We are exploring where God is at work in our neighborhood and how we can join in by identifying organizations we can partner with, rather than creating programs of our own. Using region staff has brought great clarity in visioning anew and acting upon it.
I would say the Easter Egg Hunt and Community Fund Day events was most exciting.
The Easter Egg Hunt and Lunch has evolved into a whole church event that we have a lot of participation by man members.
We had folks that donated money, eggs and candy. We had a large group that met on Friday night and stuffed over 1500 eggs in just a few hours.
We also had 20 or 25 people on Saturday to hide eggs, sing songs, present the Easter Story. We fed every one lunch and just show Christian love and Fellowship to the families of the neighborhood.
The Community Fund Day was much like the Easter Egg Hunt. It not only involved a large number of our church people but also a few of the neighborhood organizations.
It was a day to give some love to the neighbors but also a way for use to partner with other groups in the community.
Both events were well attended (150-200) and very popular. They were times when we lived out our vision of “Bringing Light to the Park”.
I would say that all of the different Political opinions has been our challenge this year and I think it continues to be a challenge.
I think God is bringing us through this through Pastor Judy who is very aware of the diversity of thought in the Church. I think that we are striving to be respectful of others opinions and leaning on the fact that “What holds us together is much more important than what tears us apart”.