A recent emphasis at First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, aimed at building community among its families actually ended up building up families in its community, too.
During its 40 Days of Community theme, a follow-up study to Rick Warren’s popular 40 Days of Purpose, Pastor Gil McKee asked the congregation of the Tuscaloosa Baptist Association church to explore ways it could minister in the community.
The 175 small groups assembled for the study were then asked to plan and implement at least one ministry project during the theme emphasis.
One group chose to assist in promoting the needs of and opportunities to be foster parents in Tuscaloosa County and to provide the facilities for an appreciation banquet for foster care families.
Group members distributed brochures and posters in the community encouraging families to explore foster parenting.
Gail Cornett, supervisor of the Department of Human Resources unit responsible for foster care and adoptions in Tuscaloosa County and a member of First, Tuscaloosa, coordinated the banquet for approximately 175 people, including foster parents, children, case aides and interns.
Under the group’s direction, church members secured door prizes, decorated tables and served as greeters during the banquet, and the church’s college students served food and attended to the families’ other needs.
Group member Judy Davis said, “For me, it was so special to see how the Lord gave us an idea and then to see how many lives were touched.”
According to McKee, “40 Days of Community was one of the most successful tools our church has employed when it comes to building genuine fellowship and community within the membership of our church and mobilizing our members for ministry to our community.”
In addition to the foster families project, he said other small groups participated in ministry projects including building wheelchair ramps, providing necessities to a family whose house had burned and cleaning up and painting a facility being renovated for the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind’s regional center in Tuscaloosa.
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