Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City was one of those churches. More than 400 people from the Miami Valley took part in the two-day event, including volunteers from Ginghamsburg’s main campus and church branches in Trotwood and Fort McKinley. These service projects also spark public interest in volunteer activities during this event that is sponsored by United Methodist Communication based in Nashville, Tenn.
“The church exists to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We were called not to just do business with the church, but outside these walls as well,” said Ginghamsburg’s lead pastor Mike Slaughter.
Ginghamsburg members and volunteers did that charitable work with 11 service projects that weekend. They include:
Food for the Earth: This congregation-shared agriculture project donates 20 percent of its produce to the church’s food pantry. Volunteers planted and mulched the garden.
Be Free Dayton: Church volunteers attended training sessions on how to abolish and prevent sex trafficking in the Miami Valley. They established action plans for ongoing support of this organization.
Health Kits for UMCOR: Members collected essential hygiene products such as towels, washcloths, combs, nail clippers, soap, toothbrushes, bandages, and $1 for toothpaste. Around 5,000 of these health kits were assembled in plastic bags to benefit those who have been forced to leave their homes because of natural disaster/human conflict. United Methodist Committee on Relief is a non-profit that collects these kits and provides other humanitarian relief for 80 countries worldwide.
Gateway Picnic provides a free, hot meal and community time to food pantry clients each Monday evening. Volunteers prepared a special picnic meal for May 19.
Two clubhouse projects: Volunteers cleaned, painted and prepared a new clubhouse in the Cross Pointe shopping center in Trotwood for a July opening. There are five other clubhouses, including a Five Oaks Clubhouse that was repainted during this weekend. Mentored teens serve as Clubhouse leaders who host after-school tutoring and faith-based programs for children.
Other projects
Volunteers partnered with Daybreak in Dayton to provide classes for clients to help homeless youth, prepared activity kits for alzheimer/dementia patients, hosted the Life Annual Memorial Picnic for Crossroad’s Hospice, repaired a home in Fort McKinley, and made 75 cards to deliver to Fort McKinley residents to encourage and offer prayers.
The idea for Change the World started back in 2010, when Slaughter wrote a book titled “Change the World: Recovering the Message and Mission of Jesus.” His message was to challenge Christians to step outside the church walls and get out into their communities.
“Mike’s challenge is simple and direct. Quit worrying about getting people into your church, and start finding new opportunities to move people who are already there out into God’s service,” said Sojourners CEO Jim Wallis in his forward to the book.
Ginghamsburg Church has committed itself to be an example of changing the world by serving more than 40,000 people annually in Miami and Montgomery counties through its outreach services. Last year, Ginghamsburg’s New Path Food Pantry served nearly 33,600 people in the Miami Valley alone. Its Gateway Café program provided more than 4,300 full-course meals, and its GIVE program offered short-term and long-term assistance by providing medical equipment to more than 1,700 people with disabilities. Since 2005, the congregation has invested $6.9 million into sustainable humanitarian projects in the Sudan and South Sudan.
“Something happens inside our hearts when we do something for someone else. It brings a certain type of joy. We experience a similar feeling when others do something for us,” said missions specialist and Change the World weekend coordinator Elizabeth Heft. “Missions are important because Jesus told us to take care of one another. When we do this, we experience him and his love in a special way.”
Ginghamsburg’s sister church, Shiloh United Methodist in Cincinnati, also participated in Change the World weekend. Ginghamsburg is a member of the West Ohio Conference of United Methodist Churches. It has an average annual weekly attendance of 4,600 including church campuses located at Fort McKinley at 3721 W. Siebenthaler Ave. in Dayton, and The Point, 506 E. Main St., Trotwood.
To find out more about Ginghamsburg Church, go online to www.ginghamsburg.org.
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