Faith In Action

Stories

In The News

Story | Warren Woods Baptist Church

God Used Us to Do Something Significant

"Faith in Action helped out people 'get it'"...

“Faith In Action helped our people ‘get it’,” said John Ayres, associate pastor at Warren Woods Baptist Church in Warren, Michigan.

“It had a total impact on our people, who were enthusiastic not just in doing the projects – but knowing they were used by God to do something significant,” he said. “And then, once the work was done, to stand around and converse with our neighbors, sharing with them God’s love – that was huge!”

Warren Woods, a church of about 250 members, was unsure at first about closing its doors on a Sunday morning and taking the service to the streets. “We had about 120 people sign up,” Pastor John said, “but that morning, we had 180 show up!”

They divided into teams to complete eight projects. At Compassion Pregnancy Center, they cleaned up and helped organize maternity and baby clothes and supplies. They also helped out with a mailing and a few other fix-it projects. At Solid Ground homeless shelter, they organized the food pantry and the clothes closet, and did a few fix-it projects.

Another team prepared hygiene kits for Solid Ground and the Detroit Hope Center.
Others washed cars and provided free oil changes – a ministry focusing on single women. Another group provided free lawn service in a lower income neighborhood. “We ended up doing more than we originally anticipated, as neighbors would come by and ask us to help them a few doors down. For instance, one lady had a huge limb in her yard that she wasn’t able to remove,” said Pastor John.

Another team went through neighborhoods, knocking on doors and offering free window washing services, in Jesus’ name. The last team gathered at a restaurant across from the church (with the restaurant’s permission, of course), conversed with people on their way in to the restaurant and got their OK to wash their windshields.

Many of the teams left behind a small card that explained that the church was serving the community that day and this was an act of kindness done in Jesus’ name. The back of the card invited them to a Celebration Service on Sunday evening. “Six local neighbors showed up at the service; one stood and expressed thanks for the work that was done. Another was not directly served, but just observed us doing the work for the neighbors, and came to say thanks and check us out,” John related.

“A sizable group in our church thought we were crazy to close down our Sunday services, but we realized that, if we’d scheduled this on a Saturday, we’d have had maybe a fifth of the people show up. The impact of radically closing our services emphasized to our people the significance of serving the community,” John explained. “And the excitement! That night, we were asked repeatedly, When’s the next one?”