Discovering How to Serve Your Community
by Ben Tobias, Director of Global Reach
If
you’re in a church of less than 50 attenders, have you ever looked at larger churches with at least a little envy? It’s not uncommon to feel limited by size and location, especially if your church doesn’t have many young people (if any). The temptation is to hunker down and miss “the good ol' days.” Thankfully, the Lord doesn’t seem particularly bothered by church size or location. The Holy Spirit works with open, obedient hearts and empowers God’s people to do more than they thought possible. We’ve asked two visionary pastors to share their stories of how God is working through their congregations: Pastor Ken Thomas and the Aukerman Church of God in Ohio, and Pastor Charles Rice and the Bethel Church of God in Kansas.
From Pastor Thomas: The Aukerman Church of God is a small rural congregation near West Salem, Ohio composed of mostly older individuals and families which presents some limitations for community involvement. However, that has not prevented us from being as active as possible both locally and globally. Locally, there are two food pantries in the area. One is primarily for West Salem area residents where food and personal careitemsaredistributedthefirstFridayofeachmonth.Ourcongregationhelpswithfinancia aspecialeuortmadestartinglateSeptember/earlyOctobercollectingcannedgoodsandnon care items for the distributions for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Each holiday season we collect and deliver several hundred pounds of supplies to this organization. The Global Advocate 7
