More than 40 students and adults from Eastview Baptist Church, Rock Hill, completed EMERGE, a five-day local missions project concluding Saturday, July 25, with a community outreach event, EMERGEfest. The festival attracted more than 120 prospective church families of which nine have requested information about the church.
“In 2008, our youth minister, Chase Grindstaff, had the idea of replacing the out-of-town youth mission trip with a mission experience here at home,” Eastview pastor Rick Martin said. “That decision allowed more of our students to be involved, working around vacation and work schedules. It also allowed the church to save travel money and use it to support mission projects.” While Grindstaff has left the church, responding to a call at Hardin Baptist Church, Dallas, N.C., Eastview members like Byron Fisk, and Steve and Kim Auten, took off from work July 13-17 to lead this year’s EMERGE project, which included:
– Cleaning and organization of a storage basement, and landscaping at York Place, the Episcopal Church Home for children and adolescents.
– Ministry to residents at Yorktown Village, Rock Hill.
– Construction of porches and ramps for the elderly and disabled, and yard work and gutter-cleaning for those in need.
– Meal preparation and delivery to shut-ins.
– Repair and clean-up at the church property.
– Service projects for neighbors of the church.
– Adult Sunday school classes prepared lunch each day for the students, who began work between 8-9 a.m. and finished each day between 4-5:30 p.m.
The five-day project concluded with EMERGEfest, a community outreach event with inflatables, a water slide, rock wall, games for children, and hamburgers and hot dogs. Senior adults enjoyed bingo inside the church, and golf carts were used to shuttle people from parking areas. The church youth band also performed. The free event took place from 3-6 p.m. in a field beside the church property.
“We registered 283 people, but believe we had more than 300 at the event,” Martin said. “Of those attending, we had 120 who were not members of Eastview. Of those non-members, some have been attending, but others were people we have never seen. We now begin the follow-up, and nine families have requested information about the church.
“We used the festival to also promote other ministries at the church, including a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace seminar in August,” Martin said.
To promote EMERGEfest, the church used a message board at the highway, but also circled the property with orange construction fencing to draw attention.
For Martin, EMERGE and EMERGEfest will become an annual endeavor. “For EMERGE, the church was able to provide all of the construction and clean-up materials at no charge to those receiving aid. We were able to provide each of our students with a T-shirt, food, and a ‘job well done.’ It didn’t cost the young people anything to participate.”
York Baptist Association director of missions Mike O’Dell said, “I applaud the church for this type of project. It is part of an Acts 1:8 strategy, reaching ‘Jerusalem,’ and I think it’s critical that we think of our local area as a mission field. I hope this idea catches on and spreads to other churches. Eastview has used creativity in a lot of ministry, and the church has grown because of it.” – SCBC