Posted by Helen on: 06.12.2007 /
In view of recent discussions here about servant evangelism and service projects, I was interested to run across the following news story yesterday (I saw it on Keep Believing Ministries). The 72 hours begins later this week.
Harrisburg Baptist Church in Tupelo will soon begin what one member, Pat Thorn, describes as its mission trip to its hometown. The church calls the event, now in its third year, “72 Hours of Service.” The clock starts ticking Thursday morning.
“We, in very practical ways, go out to the community to show God’s love,” said Thorn.
The congregation will tackle over 60 projects during the three-day span. Last year over 600 church members - about half of Harrisburg’s average Sunday worship attendance - participated in the mission.
During the 72 hours church members will visit laundry mats with bags of quarters and pay for strangers’ wash. Some will paint Tupelo’s free clinic, Good Samaritan’s Health Service, and S.A.F.E., a haven for battered women and children. Others will refinish furniture for the Harden House Adoption Agency in Fulton. Still others will wash the cars of random passersby who care to stop, “just to show God loves them,” says Thorn.
There’s more information on Harrisburg Baptist Church of Tupelo’s website. They have a FAQ page and a project listing.
I like that they are helping the community in practical ways and I can see it’s fun to have a big push and get lots of church members working on this together.
But I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to have a consistent pattern of helping the community throughout the year rather than doing it all on just three days a year. Helping throughout the year, even if it is less intense than this (I assume it would have to be, to be doable), would convey “this is what followers of Jesus normally do”. Whereas anything people do for just three days a year can’t be what they normally do, because 99% of the year they aren’t doing it.
I looked for year-round ministries to the community on the church’s website to see if they have those as well as “72 hours of service”. I couldn’t find any: based on their site “72 hours of servce” seems to be their only church-sponsored service project to the commnity
Comment by: Taylor
1I completely agree! As a young man who has attended church most of his life I can see how one day (in this case 3-day) service projects don’t really speak to the community like consistent service throughout the year would. I think that many churches get caught up in trying to bring people “in” rather than going “out” to reach people. I applaud Harrisburg Baptist for the service they are about to do for their community but I hope that in the future they will serve their community throughout the year, not just 3 out of 365.
Comment by: Helen
2Thanks for your comment Taylor.
In the newspaper article a church representative commented that they are showing their community God’s love by doing this.
I assume the church believes God loves people consistently and year-round. Perhaps this project will convey positive messages about God’s love - but that’s one message it can’t convey (in my opinion).
Comment by: Helen
3I raised the question about whether this church has year round ministries to serve the community in the comments on Ray Pritchard’s Keep Believing Ministries blog. (He knows much more about the church than I do since he lives near it and speaks there sometimes).
This is the response he posted in his blog comments:
I like the idea that this could get people started in community service that continues beyond the 72 hours. I hadn’t thought of that.
Comment by: April Terry
4While I agree to some extent, I still feel that at least they are doing 72 hours. Many churches aren’t doing even that.
I think that a lot of long-time members of congregations are afraid (yes, afraid) to get involved in any kind of evangelism. For this reason, it is admirable to me when a church makes an effort to push toward getting members involved in service type projects. In getting involved in service to others, you are changing the hearts of those serving, not the just the hearts of those receiving.
I disagree totally with that comment. I think that God’s love is always in a service project. I have an aging Aunt whose house was seriously dilapidated. The neighbors built big fences on both sides because it was such a blight. Obviously, she couldn’t clean it up, and most of the family didn’t have the resources, either. I always thought what a message it would have been to that neighborhood if a church group had come along and said to Aunt Norma, “Do you mind if we paint your house and landscape your front yard?” That would have been a wonderful message of love to the entire neighborhood. Sadly, no one ever did. Instead, a reverse mortgage company came in and offered a way for her to have the work done, although at her death, she will leave nothing to her family.
Comment by: Helen
5April, thanks for your comment. Just to be clear, the message I said I didn’t think this could convey is “God’s love is consistent and year-round” - since it’s only a three day project.
I wasn’t saying service projects couldn’t convey God’s love, period - only that short-term ones couldn’t convey long-term love.
Comment by: Rachel
6Well said, April!
Comment by: Elaine
7Reading this, reminds me how challenging it is for organizations to find volunteers. (having been involved with mulitple organizations in my life, I can tell you it is a problem).
Volunteering is not something everyone does. I grew up volunteering and assumed everyone else did. It is only in the last 20 years I realized that there are a lot of people who have NEVER done any volunteering in their community. Let alone consistantly volunteering.
I agree with Ray Pritchard, the 72 hour blitz seems like a good way to introduce novice volunteers to volunteering. It gives them a baby step - something doable - a small risk.
For me the serving thing is about building relationships and building community. God is present in all of that.
Here are some stats to ponder: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm
Comment by: Laura M.
8Thanks so much for this link Elaine.
This is intersting information and directly relates to a conversation going on with the current posting by Helen on the eBay athiest blog (which is here at Off the Map)about a study which compares a random sample group of the religious and nonreligious in the US.
I’ve reposted your link there in an entry I wrote.
Comment by: Laura M.
9The name of the post written by Helen on the eBay Atheist blog (where I reposted Elaine’s link on volunteerism) is:
New Barna Study Compares Christians With Atheists and Agnostics
I suggest after reading Helen’s post reading the Barna study, then reading the entries following Helen’s post, then reading the study from Elaine’s link. Very interesting.