Lloyd Borden says the churches of Lookout Mountain Baptist Association aren’t shy about hopping on a plane and crossing the Alabama line to share the gospel. They’ve been to Honduras, Alaska and a whole host of other places.
But one of his favorite things about partnering with the association’s 15 congregations is the way they love to get involved in outreach right where they are.
“It is the needy person or family ‘just down the road’ that is given priority,” said Borden, director of missions for Lookout Mountain Association. “They like for the question, “Hey, who did this for you?’ to be answered with, ‘Oh, just some folks from down at the church.’”
Each year, they collect backpacks filled with school supplies for three local high schools. They also hold an annual food drive for the Friendship House in Oxford, the closest Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries facility. And on the third Saturday of October, every church is encouraged to go door to door in their community and make contact with at least 20 homes.
“These are doorstep visits, and the goal is to show everyone in the community they matter to the local church,” Borden said.
Water of Life
Every year on the first weekend in August, people from the association’s churches also come together to put on the Water of Life Outreach. As part of that effort, they pass out bottles of cold water and gospel tracts to thousands of people who come to the area for the World’s Longest Yard Sale, a 690-mile yard sale route that starts in Alabama and ends in Michigan.
And all year round, they’re strategic about reaching out to their neighbors in other ways.
‘Mission efforts’
They have men’s breakfast meetings for the purpose of planning projects, and they get out in the community and help with building ramps and doing home maintenance, as well as taking care of projects for the Friendship House.
“Mission efforts carried out by the churches of the Lookout Mountain Baptist Association very much resemble the old adage, ‘bloom where you are planted,’” Borden said. “This is the spirit of the 15 congregations that come together to participate in a variety of mission projects each year, most of them with a local impact.”
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