Trussville church reaches out to community with gift wrap ministry

Trussville church reaches out to community with gift wrap ministry

The NorthPole moved just northeast of Birmingham when Trussville’s NorthPark Baptist Church set out on its holiday outreach effort.
   
The church parked a modular building in the parking lot of the Tutwiler Colonial Properties shopping center on Highway 11 to offer free gift wrapping to the center’s customers.
   
NorthPark’s NorthPole is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Volunteers from the church plan to wrap gifts through Christmas Eve.
   
NorthPark’s Executive Pastor Dennis Blythe described the venture as a “churchwide effort to show God’s love in a practical way.” Early plans for the project began in August as a “joint idea of our staff,” according to Blythe.
Senior Pastor Bill Wilks said, “Our goal is to build bridges to the people of our community and involve as many of our laypeople as we can in community evangelism.
   
“Sunday (Nov. 30) many people came up to me at church and said, ‘the NorthPole is awesome.’ So many guests are amazed that we won’t take any money for this service, and our laypeople are finding that it’s a great joy to be able to offer something absolutely free with no strings attached,” Wilks said.
   
NorthPark volunteers began preparing the building Nov. 21 to open the day after Thanksgiving.
   
Associate Pastor to Students Kris Segrest estimates volunteers put in 70-plus hours to prepare the building. “Our volunteers have been incredible. Many were here with me at 10 p.m. the night before Thanksgiving putting on the finishing touches,” said Segrest. “It’s exciting to see our people embrace this ministry. Volunteers enjoy their shift so much they return and offer to work more.”
   
Customers may have any purchases made in the shopping center wrapped free. NorthPark members are on hand to greet guests and serve homemade treats.
   
Other members canvass the parking lot wearing bright red T-shirts to promote the service. In their first five days of operation, they  wrapped more than 1,200 gifts and had nearly 600 guests.
   
Blythe anticipates more than 500 church members will serve during the four-week project, which also included a gift-wrap distribution to 6,000 homes in the Trussville area Nov. 22.
   
Church member Terry Reynolds helped prepare the building and has been on hand to make sure the technical aspects are working properly. He downplayed his volunteer role, saying, “It’s easier to be a volunteer than to explain why I volunteer. I think God gave me the gift to be a servant. I’m just excited for our church.”
   
NorthPark originally eyed a vacated storefront in the shopping center for the project. The staff worked to secure that location, but the space became unavailable at the last minute. They were disappointed but began pursuing another storefront or an off-site location.
   
Then God opened the door to rent a modular building, reminding them, according to Segrest, of the great spiritual principle that God is truly in control. “Out here in the parking lot, our visibility went up 100-fold. And we saw doors open amazingly to provide this facility. We spent three months attempting to get the storefront location, and this came together in a matter of hours,” he explained.
   
According to Blythe, area stores and restaurants have supported NorthPark’s efforts. Many stores are giving out information cards at their registers. “We haven’t found any stores or employees that are opposed to our service,” he said. “However, corporate guidelines restrict some of them from overtly promoting our service. Ultimately, we believe we will draw more people to the shopping center.”
   
Dana Hale, manager in training of Cato, a women’s apparel shop, is excited by NorthPark’s NorthPole, “We just love having them here. I think it’s an awesome thing to do for the Trussville community.”
   
Will NorthPark wrap next year? “We don’t know yet,” said Blythe. He said part of that decision depends on Colonial Properties and the city of Trussville. But he is confident NorthPark will continue to seek ways to reach out to its community.