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Story | Bible Fellowship Church

Faith in Action Brings Risks – and Rewards

"Just deciding which projects to do opened our eyes to the needs all around us,"...

“Learning to serve like Jesus involves ‘risk’ in being outside our comfort zones. Knowing that people are often uncomfortable with the ‘risk’ in reaching out, we created our Faith in Action projects with three levels of risk,” explained Reverend Cameron Garven, ministries pastor at Bible Fellowship Church in Yardley, a suburb of Philadelphia.

“Just deciding which projects to do opened our eyes to needs all around us,” said Reverend Garven. “Our people constantly brought ideas to us – ‘Can we do this?’ The excitement level was way up there.”

Level one – the lowest risk – was creating care packages for international missionaries, he explained. This team wrote to 12 missionaries, asking for a list of their wants and needs, and then gathered the items and mailed them on Faith in Action Day. “To no one’s surprise, the most-asked-for item was chocolate,” he related.

Level two involved local service close to home: one group built a fence and cleaned up trash in Five Mile Woods, a local township park. Another team worked at a local pregnancy center, painting, cleaning, and sorting clothes. A third group participated in a Walk for Hunger to raise money for a nearby Christian-based food center. “We also launched our ‘Brothers Helping Others’ men’s ministry that day, helping single moms in our community,” he said. So far they’ve raked leaves, cut down trees, painted a house and sanded floors.

Level three – furthest from most people’s comfort zones – involved inner city work in Philadelphia. One group delivered blankets and hygiene kits to homeless people downtown. Another began what will be an ongoing joint project with Rock Ministries, which runs a boxing ministry in an effort to keep inner city kids off the streets.

“The response we heard most often was, ‘I can’t believe you’d do this for us!” said Reverend Garvin, pleased at the relationships built and the seeds of ministry planted on Faith in Action Day. Many church members have returned since then to serve in various areas. “Some of us were able to actually share the Gospel; the rest of us lived it out in front of our neighbors.”

Bible Fellowship is planning two community service days in 2008 – one in April and another in October. “We call it living outside of Sunday – instead of living the Christian life just on Sunday. We’re learning to get outside of our walls and be Jesus to the people outside, in our community.”