Humbling Yourself in the Sight of the Town
On one side stands the church—pure, righteous, aloof. On the other side, the community—motley, problem-plagued, but wary. How to bridge the gap?
Here are accounts of two churches, the first in South Dakota, the second in Washington, who reached out by becoming servants to their towns. Their work was lowly—but noticed.
Since the spring of 1982, Sunshine Bible Church and Academy has spent a day cleaning up the ditches of the four highways leading into the county seat of Miller. Not just the teenagers with strong backs—everyone.
"We wanted to do more than just wait for people to come to us," says Pastor Doug Roberts. "We wanted to show them what an active, unified church looks like."
More than 100 people got involved, a third of them adults. Roberts divided them into teams, dropping them off at preplanned points in the country and having them work their way toward the city limits. "You can cover about five miles of ditch in two hours," he says. Last year the group cleaned up 32 miles altogether.
The bottles, cans, and paper were bagged separately so that some could be sold to the local recycling center, netting more than $75. After the work was done, everyone gathered for a picnic.
"All ages can work in this kind of serving," says Roberts. "If older folk don't want to do all that bending, they can drive the pick-ups up and down the road gathering bags. Or they can prepare food and get the fire started at the picnic site."
The event has drawn media attention throughout South Dakota as well as accolades from high places—bankers, the mayor, and even the governor of the state. "As a result, some from the community have said they'll come help us next time."
When Chad McComas led a similar event at the Vancouver (Wash.) Seventh-day Adventist ...
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