Status of the Churches in the Last Six Months

Glenn asked the churchs to take some time to layout what their successes have been, what has been working, where they are stuck, and what have been the surprises in the last six months.

Geyers Springs First Baptist Church started by saying that their greatest success has been in their relationship with Otter Creek Elementary School. They have been working with them in literacy, mentoring, Sharefest, prayer with families, back to school program, and Upward sports with great success. What has been working is that they have a great open line of communication with the school so that the school feels open to calling upon them to express needs. They are stuck in that they feel they have not done enough to communicate the success in telling stories and they still need a greater presence at the school. The surprise has been that the principal of the school retired, and there was concern that there would be a breakdown in communication, but actually, because of the great investment with the existing staff, the relationship has continued to prosper with the new principal. Ray Williams of Fellowship reported that the assistant principal of Otter Creek moved to a school in which Fellowship is involved came into the Fellowship school with a positive attitude about the church's involvement.

Fellowship Bible Church reported success in launching the after school mentoring program at Franklin Elementary. It is called the Passport to Success. One aspect of this program is connecting families from Franklin with mentoring families from Fellowship. This connecting with the families is something with which Fellowship had struggled. A girl from one family of Fellowship even thought that the getting together of the families was cool. What is working at Fellowship is the revitalization of small groups to engage in various outreaches. There has been a philosophical shift of the community outreach being placed on small groups rather than just a couple of staff people. The surprise is that the body has taken the ministry to heart. Fellowship is stuck in the area of communication. It is difficult to get the word out about ministry needs in a timely manner because there are so many gatekeepers to the information.














Summit Church's success has been to do a good job of sending out missionaries and there is a good core of lay leaders serving. An example of a successful ministry is the use of the "Farley" grill that is a large grill on a trailer. They were able to feed 600-700 people. They have also been able to grow their ministry to the community in having block parties using the grill. This is opening the door to communication with the community. What is working is the partnerships being created through Good Cities Learning Communities. There have been big strides in the last year. Second Baptist has partnered with them in the homeless project. They are working on celebrating more what God is doing in the outreaches during the worship services. What they need is volunteers. People are not participating. A lot of lay people are involved, but they are by themselves. Having to break through the paradigm that it is not just about being fed, but also in mobilization. The surprise has been the increase in participation in Sharefest. Whereas only 60-70 people signed up, they had 150 people serving on two campuses. God provided the people to get the work done. Also, this fall, small groups started in engaging in ministry together.

Hoover United Methodist Church has a new pastoral and lay leadership. It has been surprising how well the new leadership has integrated with the existing leadership. The new leadership has been an enhancement. There has also been increased participation of the community with existing members. They will have to wait and see if there will be any problems arising from having the new leadership. Their outreach ministry is working. The existng ministries are moving to new facilities. The surprise has been the lack of internal knowledge of what is going on in ministry. The members have not seen the community as a mission field.

Second Baptist Church's succes has been the involvement of people in Sharefest. The growth in outreach is working. The homeless ministry is one example. Six months ago they were concerned about partnership and resources. Summit Church partnered with them to make it possible for them to expand the services they are able to provide. Also, Second Baptist has been able to get the youth involved in the prison ministry. They are stuck on how to reach out to the homeless to show them where they can obtain services Second Baptist isn't able to provide. The surprise has been the partnerships being generated.