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 care items are distributed the first Friday of each month. Our congregation helps with financial support during the year with a special effort made starting late September/early October collecting canned goods and non-perishables as well as personal 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 second food pantry is a more recent start-up and distributes a large range of fresh produce (in season), frozen food, canned goods, etc. to individuals from several local counties the third Saturday of each month. During distribution times the individuals have an opportunity to receive prayer, if they desire, from local pastors who are on hand. Our congregation helps financially and I have prayed with some of the recipients.

During the holiday season our congregation also collects hats, gloves, mittens and socks for our “mitten tree” at the side of the sanctuary. These items are then delivered to local organizations such as the nearby Christian Children’s Home of Ohio or the Salvation Army Center in Wooster where two of our members are Bell Ringers for the Salvation Army during the holiday season.

In the summer we offer assistance to the grandchildren of our members who wish to attend Camp Otyokwah with partial and whole scholarships. We have also paid for neighboring young people who desire to attend camp. One case stands out. This girl had never been away from home and was reluctant to be so far from home. After some discussion, we arranged for her to attend the local Brethren camp literally across the field from our church. She reported she had a terrific time and made it through the entire week.

The congregation helps financially with the release time Christian Education programs at two local school districts. The programs continue to grow numerically and the students are growing spiritually.

How did we discern what God was doing? We looked around—we being the members of this congregation. Many of the programs were in place before I was called to this pastorate. Others were added as our members made needs known. Sometimes the local community alerts us of situations such as when a family lost their home and possessions in a fire. We joined in gathering donations of clothing and other necessities to help get them back on their feet.

Our small missionary society meets monthly. We start with prayer for the congregation and the needs of the local and global community. We help with financial support for some Church of God missionaries as well as two ladies serving in rural Kentucky and a missionary in New Zealand who have ties with our church.

The results of all these activities are mainly seen in attitudes. While we have not experienced direct growth in numbers, we remember the church is not just our congregation, but the greater assembly of all the followers of Jesus Christ. To that end, we have seen community people being more open to the Gospel message. Within our congregation there is a greater appreciation of our blessings as individuals and as a church body.

I would encourage all churches to look and listen to the local area where you are. What do you see? Is there something needed that you don’t see? Are there individuals or families who need a helping hand? Everyone benefits when we show the love of Christ and share the Gospel message whether it is in deeds or words.

From Pastor Rice:

The Bethel congregation is pleased with the many opportunities that God provides to impact our world. Our approach fairly mimics the "Amazing Law of Influence" which King Duncan outlines in his book by that same name. The idea is: "One life touches another and, potentially, both lives are changed. One life touches another and, potentially, the whole world is changed."

This is not a new concept. Jesus started with twelve and the ministry grew from there. So has it been with Bethel. Eleven years ago, Bethel had only nine regular members meeting without purpose or plan. Ten years ago, God sent us a couple who had a food ministry in their home. That food ministry has grown and expanded to cover roughly a thirty-mile radius; last year feeding over 19,000 individuals.

One of the things that we were led to understand was that it did no good to prepare folks for works of ministry if you never turn them loose to minister. Besides the food distribution, Bethel has ministry teams that do several services for area nursing homes each month. In 2021, we were able to provide pulpit supply for the local Methodist congregation while they looked for a full-time pastor.

A fascinating aspect in all the ministry that Bethel has been blessed with was the revelation that our window was too narrow to allow sufficient light. We would pray for workers to be sent to the harvest, but wanted to be the final arbiters of just who those workers were to be. We simply needed a bigger window, not to let light in, but to let it out.

God was sending us workers all along, but because they weren't "members" of the Bethel congregation, we failed to see that through us God was touching lives.

Bethel Volunteers Collecting Food

The outstanding part, and the lesson for us all, is that God can use anyone who is willing and will often use those who aren't so willing. Most of the ministry that God is doing through the Bethel congregation is accomplished through servants with an average age of 70 years.

Ministry through Bethel is never about "growing" numerically. We've seen some tremendous spiritual growth, but the desire is always for those we find on our own Jericho road. How can we help those in need? God continually supplies everything we need to get the job done. The attitude at Bethel is, "Here I am, Lord, use me."

One lesson learned, years ago, was that you can't force ministry. The Bible tells us that Jesus chose twelve different men with different levels of skill and different levels of belief and understanding. Each of the twelve had a different ministry. Way too often, we see examples of attempts to force ministry. Cookie cutter ministry usually ends up being unproductive and often produces unhappy and unfulfilled people. What works in one area will not necessarily work in another.

It was a wonderful revelation for the Bethel congregation when the realization came that the Servant, Jesus, died for all mankind, not just the members of the Bethel congregation. In His servant nature, we become His representatives to the world around us and He said, "Go into all the world."

We often think in terms of "worldwide" ministries but fail to realize that our world begins at the end of our noses. The common error is in the notion that ministry is someone else’s job. The parable of the Good Samaritan is revealing in those two very religious individuals who missed the opportunity to serve someone in need along the way because their focus was elsewhere.

Perhaps we should all think deeply about the implications in Exodus 9:1 (NKJV), "Let my people go that they may serve me," as opposed to the idea of keeping folks so busy "doing church" that they have no time left to become the "Church."

Associate Pastor Cora Stokes of Bethel