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Carolina Impacts Community
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What if you could rethink weekend chores, and turn them into fun, by helping others? Thousands of volunteers in North Carolina took time recently to help their neighbors in a wide variety of ways. Lilla Marigza has their story. |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Fairview, North Carolina)(Woman weeding) “See how big these roots are? Look at that.”
Dozens of volunteers in Fairview, North Carolina gave up a summer day at the pool to help out in a community garden. United Methodists across this region engaged in a simultaneous day of service. Angie Baechtold brought her kids.
Angie Baechtold, Central United Methodist Church: “It’s Saturday morning and there’s so much we could be doing at home, but it’s more than that for us. Our family is really close-knit and things we can do together are particularly precious for me. We even brought our neighbor who’s not involved with our church. So it’s just a great way to spend a Saturday morning and feel good about what you’re doing.”
Miles away, another group stocked a church clothing closet that serves a homeless population of 5,000 in the Asheville area.
The Rev. Brian Combs, Central United Methodist Church: “We’re here trying to make a hospitable, welcoming place for the homeless to get some clothes. This is a social holiness day where we get to live out our faith; hands, feet, dirty fingernails and all that.”
Almost 15,000 volunteers were part of this one day event. Organizers invited everyone with postcards and a media blitz.
(TV spot) “Join your neighbors and impact your community and together we will make a difference.”
Mark Barden, Western North Carolina Conference: “We did billboards. We did television advertisements. We did spots on radio stations.”
Up to a quarter of the participants were non-church members, according to estimates.
Mark Barden, Western North Carolina Conference: “Some of the churches in the conference found out the very next day that new people showed up. One pastor sent me an email that said, ‘We ran out of bulletins for the first time in ages.’ He could tell there were more people there.”
The effort was so successful that Bishop Larry Goodpaster wants to make it a regular event.
Bishop Larry Goodpaster, Western North Carolina: “This is not a one-time event for us. This is the launch of what we hope will be a whole series of impact days where we truly are rethinking church. Church is not about where we come. It’s about how we go out in the name of Jesus Christ.”
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To find out more about ReThink Church, go to www.rethinkchurch.org.
Posted: June 23, 2010