- Tell us about a way you’ve reached out into your community. What happened?
- What event from the past year most excited you? Why?
- What new thing did you try in mission or ministry? What did you learn?
The first three bullet points above can be summed up in one ministry event we started last year…our “SVBC Ladies Tea”. We needed a large area, so we removed some pews and shoved the rest back to put tables in our sanctuary to seat over 100 women and girls. We were also able to take advantage of our sound system and LCD projector. It was held the weekend before Mother’s Day. We had around 15 rectangle and round tables where a woman from our church (the same number of women as tables – called a ‘table hostess’) were assigned a table, responsible for decorating it in any theme with plates, centerpieces, etc., and find 7 other people to sit at her table. Each person was charged $8.00 to attend. Our leader of this ministry contacted Scott Swan, our local (Indy) TV anchor to speak, as he shared his testimony and gave an alter call. He proved to be an excellent speaker!!! The men of our church prepared and served the meal. Our leader also contacted local ministries/missions that had dresses and jewelry for sale after the event outside our sanctuary made by girls rescued from sex trafficking. This ministry was viewed as a great success where it got several members involved and a few women accepted Christ. It was also an outreach where approximately 30-40% of the attendants were not from our church. We are holding this event again this year May 7th at 11:00 AM.
There are two other ministries that I see fitting into these categories, but are not new to SVBC. We also held our Annual Fish Fry again this past fall and it was successful once again. Several members helped with this outreach and many in our community were reached and fed!!!! Our other outreach ministry is our Peanut Brittle Ministry! A women’s ministry at SVBC, “Activities ETC.”, start in September and make over 80lbs of Peanut Brittle every Tuesday morning until right before Christmas. They take out a small profit to replenish their supplies (peanuts, syrup, sugar, etc. – even take donations and collect soda cans to help keep costs down as not to go too much into the profits) for the next year; however, every other cent goes to support missions/ministries in our community!! This past year was the first year they sold over 1,000 lbs.!!! If you like Peanut Brittle, you have to try it…I’ll promise you won’t be disappointed (if you like Peanut Brittle)!!!;) They charge $9 a pound, $5.00 a half pound, and for the first time charged $1.00 for a small package to sample!!!
Our challenge we faced was the “Ladies Tea”,, as it has replaced an also well attended and longtime favorite, our “Mother Daughter Banquet”; and, we served food in the sanctuary…’nough’ said!!!!;)