As Jim Hill visited the 34 churches in his association he noticed something.
“I noticed that some of them weren’t able to keep up with maintenance around the buildings,” said Hill, associational missionary for Dale Baptist Association.
Some of them contained small, aging congregations for whom pressure washing the building was a big job.
Others could just use a boost — like a volunteer work team who could fix drooping molding, change light bulbs or perform yardwork.
“God laid it on my heart to say, you know what — how can we as an association help these churches? From there we devised a Mini Mission Workday,” Hill said.
For a Mini Mission Workday, volunteers from around the association gather one Saturday a month at a church that invited the association to come. Once volunteers are there the church directs their work.
Not only that — Hill brings the church $500 from the proceeds of the association’s thrift store, plus extra money up to $1,000 total based on how many volunteer hours the church averaged at the thrift store over the previous six months.
“It’s worked out very well,” Hill said. “It’s helped us get extra volunteers for the thrift store and we’ve had anywhere from eight to 45 people come to each workday.”
He’s encouraged churches to view it as a missions project — because it is, he said.
“At one of our small churches there was one couple in the community who had driven by the church every day and not thought about attending but after the workday they could tell such a difference that they decided to visit the church,” Hill said. “That’s just one story of how the workday has helped.” (Grace Thornton)
Share with others: