ALPHARETTA, GA – In the early days of his church plant, pastor Ryan Weaver and his team at Remedy Church scoured the newspapers looking for ways to serve the people of Salisbury, Maryland. They found a small ad asking for landscaping help that eventually caught their eye. “We saw the landscaping ad and when we realized the need was on Booth Street we knew it was the right place for us,” Weaver explains.
Few others in the area might consider Booth Street to be “right place” for them to serve. This pocket of the community is marked by the darkness of crime and poverty that covers the local news on a weekly basis. Most of the families live in low-income housing and are struggling against the cycle of destitution that has permeated Booth Street for so long. Rather than shy away, Weaver and his team jumped into service on Booth Street, taking 25 people to the area for a day of service. “We showed up that day and just served–landscaping, weed-eating, cleaning up trash,” Weaver recalls. “But I noticed members of our team slowly starting to talk to the people on Booth Street, getting to know them and figure out their specific needs. That was really the catalyst to starting our congregation’s relationship with our friends on Booth Street.
“Serving them enabled us to intersect in their stories and start having the kind of conversations that build trust and relationships. Service was the only way we were going to be able to share the gospel with our friends on Booth Street.” That kind of service is the heart behind the North American Mission Board (NAMB). They encourage churches to host a day or season of service in their communities in an effort to share the gospel in action with neighbors in need. And a service day is exactly the avenue to do that.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sara Shelton is a writer for the North American Mission Board.