Christ Centered Church, Miami, Fla., celebrated its first birthday Feb. 8 by giving presents rather than receiving them.
“It’s our birthday, but you get the gift,” said Pastor Derek Allen, a former Alabama Baptist minister.
During the week the church passed out free doughnuts to local businesses with the help of a missions group from Twelfth Street Baptist Church, Gadsden. The team of seven travelled down to Miami and spent a week (Feb. 2–8) doing community outreach in preparation for the birthday celebration.
Phillip Swindall, part of the missions team, said, “We went out and talked to people at bus stops and park benches and passed out doughnuts.”
Ben Graham, former associate pastor of ministry and missions for Twelfth Street Baptist who also was on the trip, said the church is partnering with Christ Centered and “we want that partnership to grow even beyond missions trips — maybe in various ways through our Sunday School classes and church as a whole.”
“We want to go in when they really need someone but no one else is going,” Graham said.
On Feb. 8, Allen presented a $500 check to Principal Bernie Osborne of David Lawrence Jr. K–8 Center.
The center is across the street from Florida International University, where Christ Centered Church meets twice each Sunday, and has been a community partner for the church. Some staff members at David Lawrence also attend Christ Centered.
Spirit of giving
On behalf of the church, Allen also presented a $2,500 check to Pastor Alex Pecina of Summit Church, Homestead, Fla. Summit held its launch service later in February and the gift was to help them prepare and buy what they needed.
Many different things have to come together for a church launch, Allen said, and “we want to come along and say, ‘Hey guys, here’s some money.’”
Before diving into the message, Allen gave away study Bibles to anyone who picked up one of the regular Bibles provided at the door with John 3:16 highlighted.
In his sermon Allen told the church that the vision is to reach 1,000 people by 2017 by continuing to use Christ Centered’s discipleship process: connect, grow, serve.
“We count people because people count,” Allen said.
In 2014, Christ Centered averaged 110 people during its Sunday services, something Allen and his wife, Lindsay, did not anticipate but are extremely thankful for.
“2014 was our come-and-see year,” Allen said. “2015 is the year to take your next step.” (Florida Baptist Witness, TAB)
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