There are no treadmills, no weight lifting, no jump ropes, and no rowing machines involved, but the members of this upstate congregation are serious about body building.
Several members of an adult Bible Fellowship class at North Spartanburg First Baptist Church collect food items for the hungry in front of a local grocery store.This summer, First Baptist Church, North Spartanburg, is encouraging people to build their church body through a strenuous regimen of spiritual exercise.
“The church in Acts grew from a small band gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem to an international body spread to every corner of the Roman Empire in just a few short decades,” explained associate pastor Al Phillips. “We wondered what made the church grow like that, so we did a study of Acts to see. We decided to do the things that the early church did to build our local body, and we called it ‘Body Building.’?”
To meet the needs of the hungry and homeless in the community, more than 500 volunteers from the church participated in a countywide food drive, “Food from the Heart,” which was developed by church member Greg Weinstein.
North Spartanburg volunteers stood in front of 24 grocery stores all across Spartanburg County, distributing red bags and grocery lists to people coming to shop. Shoppers were asked to purchase the items on the list, place them in the red bags, and hand them to the volunteers as they left the store.
“We had people buy multiple bags. Some brought back grocery carts filled with items. One man even wrote a check for $1,000 and told us to buy whatever was needed, so we sent some of our kids inside the store to pick out items on the list,” Phillips said.
“We collected in one day more than 30 tons of food and baby supplies,” reported Phillips. “Our local ministry partner, Miracle Life Mission, served as the distribution center for us.”
Members then distributed the food to Greater Spartanburg Ministries, Mobile Meals, Carolina Pregnancy Center and church food pantries.
“This food will feed the hungry in our county for months to come,” said Phillips.
North Spartanburg will be involved in another Body Building exercise this week, doing various projects at 36 public schools, including planting flowers, mulching beds, painting walls, moving books, and cleaning windows in an effort to “show the love of Christ to our hardworking educators,” Phillips said.
“The last thing our people will do at each school is to prayerwalk every hall and pray for each teacher by name,” he added.
The body building events are “some of the most meaningful activities for families that we’ve done,” Phillips said. “For kids to see their parents serving the Lord and the people of their community was a great learning opportunity for them.”