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Story | First Baptist Church

This Was the Best Day in the Life of Our Church!

"The spirit was unbelievable," Pastor Jeff recalled. "We normally run 400 in worship - and we had more than that involved that day. In fact, it went down in our records that we had more than 100% involvement in missions on May 6."...

“We decided to do Faith in Action before their materials were even printed,” recalled Jeff Lanningham, Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church in Vernon, Texas, where Dr. Ken Macklin is Senior Pastor. “We thought it was such a great idea – we didn’t want to wait. And our people loved it. Afterwards, one senior citizen said to me, ‘This was the best day in the life of our church!’”

First Baptist set their Faith in Action Day for May 6, 2007. Because planning materials weren’t ready, they were on their own as far as structuring the program. “Our Faith in Action program was completely lay-led,” explained Pastor Jeff. “We gathered some lay leaders, laid the idea out to them and then explained that first they needed to decide whether to proceed with the program, and then they would need to take the bull by the horns and run it themselves.” So these leaders recruited more leaders, chose the service projects, recruited for each team, and began publicizing the day within their church family.

“The spirit was unbelievable,” Pastor Jeff recalled. “We normally run 400 in worship – and we had more than that involved that day. In fact, it went down in our records that we had more than 100% involvement in missions on May 6.” Because of their commitment, First Baptist received a “church of the year” award from their state Baptist association and were asked to host a booth at the state’s convention to explain to other pastors what they’d done and how they’d done it.

On May 6, teams from the church served the community in many different ways: several kids’ ministry teams gathered up kids in a local park, from nearby apartment complexes and government housing areas. They hosted games, activities and Bible stories for them. “Moms and dads came along too, just to watch,” said Pastor Jeff, so they were able to visit with parents.

Other teams worked in the yards of needy families; one team visited families door-to-door, praying for needs. Others worked at light construction projects, building porches, replacing windows and roofing a patio. Other groups held worship services at the local jail, youth detention center and retirement homes. “We told our people – if you really need to be at a worship service on Sunday morning – then please come help us out at one of these services,” Jeff said.

In the meantime, a prayer team hunkered down at the church, with phones so that teams could call in with up-to-date requests. A group of nursery workers at church kept all the members’ pre-school kids so parents could minister. And a third group prepared a quick breakfast before sending the teams out; plus lunch at mid-day for them to refuel before going back to serve.

“Our Faith in Action Day was a fantastic opportunity for our church to get outside our own walls and into the community,” Pastor Jeff summed up. “Too often, we as churches get too complacent and fall into maintenance mode. This was an awakening for us to recognize once again that God put us in this community to be a light to them, by serving them.”