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God has impacted the lives of everyone involved

Brockport Free Methodist Church was struggling to find a creative way to build stronger relationships within its community...

Last spring, Brockport Free Methodist Church was struggling to find a creative way to build stronger relationships within its community. The congregation of more than 400 started out to bless its neighbors, but quickly discovered the church members received the greatest blessing.

“We walked away with a new understanding of what a servant’s heart is,” says Pastor Mark Mutton, who oversees Brockport Free Methodist Church’s outreach ministry.

This transformation began last spring, when Pastor Mark was searching for new ways to increase the church’s “touches” into the lives of those living in the quaint village of Brockport, home to a some 9,000 residents. Resting on the banks of the Erie Canal, Brockport is a quiet suburb of Rochester. Despite its Norman Rockwellian appeal, there is still abundant need in this bedroom community.

“We were talking about how important it is for us to look beyond the four walls of the church and reach people,” Pastor Mark explains. “We asked ourselves how we could be like Christ and reach out to them.”

Then church leadership discovered the Faith in Action campaign. Soon armed with the campaign’s ideas, advice, and other materials, the congregation decided to take advantage of Brockport’s warm and relaxed summer months by handing out 3,500 bottles of water at community events, including Fourth of July fireworks and Brockport’s annual sidewalk sale. This initial outreach helped to raise the church’s visibility in the community.

Then church services were cancelled on July 22 as 200 church members fanned out into the village, offering free car washes, cleaning up local parks and a cemetery, and giving new life to a popular walking path. They also volunteered at a senior center, tended the flower boxes on Main Street, and cleaned a three-floor museum. The congregation followed the weekend outreach by handing out more water bottles at the local arts festival.

“God has impacted the lives of everyone involved in this opportunity to reach our community for Christ,” Pastor Mark says. “Several years ago we decided that the church is here for the community, and the impact Faith in Action had across the board in our community is tremendous.”

Now, he adds, the church is hard at work preparing for a repeat Faith in Action weekend in 2008—and church leadership believes that these outreaches will come to redefine the congregation.

“We are excited about what God has in store for us as we meet the needs of people He brings across our paths,” Pastor Mark says. “It would have never happened had we not had the courage to ‘Not Go to Church’ but faithfully ‘Be the Church.’”