“If we have the seed, should we wait for the soil to come to us?”
An apartment resident listens as pastor Daniel Lee delivers a message while using a mouse trap as a visual aid.That’s the question pastor Daniel Lee and the people of Bethel Baptist Church asked themselves – and answered, with an emphatic no – recently.
Bethel Baptist, located on Sulphur Springs Road in the Berea section of Greenville, has launched a full program of missions and ministry efforts at an apartment complex across the street from the church.
The church met with the owners Springwood Apartments – 152 units housing more than 200 residents – and got permission to set up a mission center on site. A big cookout helped introduce the ministry center to the residents.
The church offers “lots of different things,” for the residents, according to Lee, including space for an Alcoholics Anonymous group, a smoking cessation class, and classes on exercise, cooking, sewing and money management.
Steve Blakeney and Joey Jackson of Bethel Baptist Church greet two of the residents of Springwood Apartments during the kickoff celebration of the mission center. In the background are men from Bethel grilling hamburgers and hotdogs for the picnic.However, the “thing that blew us away,” Lee said, was that the residents, responding to a survey by the church, said the most desired offering was Bible study. The church is providing different Bible study classes and Bible storytelling sessions for the residents. Church members also are using coffee-and-toast gatherings with the residents to build relationships and offer devotions and prayers.
Lee said the goal “is not to get the residents to come across the street” to the church, but “for us to go across the street.
“The goal is for us to send our missionaries in their camp, the mission field. If they come here, it’s gravy.”
“The seed shouldn’t stay in the barn,” he said. “We will take the seed, the Word, to where the soil already is, and we’ll watch God bring the increase.”
Jeanette Heeringa of Bethel Baptist Church awards a door prize to one of the apartment residents during the celebration of the opening of the mission center.
Ken Heeringa welcomes three Springwood residents to the kickoff picnic.