Faith In Action

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Story | Community Evangelical Church

Faith in Action Was a Risk that Became a Blessing

"Pastor, this is very risky for you personally."...

“Pastor, this is very risky for you, personally,” said a skeptical council member when Bruce Hill, lead pastor at Community Evangelical Church in Sinking Spring, PA, introduced the concept of Faith in Action to his ministry council. In the end, the same council member slapped him on the back, exclaiming, “Bruce, you son of a gun, it actually worked!”

“Faith in Action was such an important thing for us to do as a congregation,” said Pastor Bruce. “For some time, we’d been saying that we knew community involvement was important, that we needed and wanted to do it – but we just never got around to it. Faith in Action spurred us on.”

Using ideas from Faith in Action materials plus additional ideas brainstormed by the church staff, they created a list of possible projects and distributed it to their life groups. New groups were created in preparation for Faith in Action. Each group picked and manned their activity, creating a wide range of projects.

One team completely gutted and remodeled a bathroom in the home of a financially needy neighbor – all in one day. Afterwards they remarked, “We’re so worn out…but we feel so good about being so worn out!”

Another family with kids worked at an animal shelter, cleaning up trash from the area where the dogs are exercised; another team worked at a local food bank, cleaning and organizing food items. Still another group worked at Salvation Army, preparing boxes of Thanksgiving food for needy families.

Others spent time visiting one-on-one with residents at various retirement homes. One withdrawn elderly lady refused to interact at all until a church member approached her, holding a tiny baby. As the elderly lady held the baby, she came to life. Her eyes lit up and she began to talk to the infant, stroking her little hand. Then, once she gave the baby back, the elderly lady retreated back into her shell. These and other stories were told at Community Church’s celebration service, as church members talked about visiting and playing all sorts of games with the elderly. “Please don’t tell the bishop that we cancelled services and went to play cards!” Pastor Bruce grinned in response to his congregation’s stories.

Another event was held a week earlier: the team set up “care station for adults” on Halloween and served coffee, tea and hot chocolate to parents. Frozen adults welcomed the treat, giving the host family who set up the station on their driveway a chance to meet neighbors they’d never seen before.

“One thing that really surprised me was how skeptical people are when they’re faced with such kindness,” remarked Pastor Bruce. A team had approached a local warehouse grocery for permission to bag and carry out groceries for people as their project. “The decision on whether or not to approve this just kept getting passed higher and higher up the chain, until it came to the executive vice president,” he said. “They kept repeating the same questions to us, because they couldn’t believe someone wanted to do something nice for their customers with no strings attached, no hidden agenda.” Eventually the group of adults, teens and kids received permission and were able to serve.

Community Evangelical’s service didn’t end there. “One family contacted the office before Christmas, saying that their kids decided they needed to do another project for Christmas – did we have any ideas?” he said. Other life groups have chosen to take on projects on an ongoing basis. Their youth group is scheduling monthly projects. “It’s had a lasting effect on us – it wasn’t just a one-day event and then, ok, let’s move on to the next thing,” he explained.

“Faith in Action’s catch phrase – ‘The church has left the building’ – became very meaningful to us,” Pastor Bruce summed up. “As the church, we need to be IN the community, impacting them. It was a very powerful concept for us to grasp, and we’re carrying it on.”