About 2 years ago we were out of space on Sunday mornings.  Our pastor had been talking about the space issue and the possibility of starting a second Gathering on Sundays.  He and the other leaders were not sure that was the answer to the space issue so he emailed all of the village leaders asking them to talk, pray and fast with their villagers about what God had for us.  One village leader sent this email:

Hey everyone,

Jamie has asked for the results of our time of fasting and prayer about two services. I’d love to hear what you think. I’m attaching an article that I would like everyone to read and react to.  What if this article explains how we grow? What if instead of adding services we add more service?

God used that last line to spark something is someone else and they went to the pastor and said “What if instead of more services we serve more?”  At that moment we knew that was the answer.  That was on a Friday night, the following Sunday our pastor shared the idea with everyone else. Everyone was so excited and SERVE was born.  Many people were already serving in the community and the rest had the desire to and just found it difficult to find a place or time to serve.  There was no selling it to the church, they were thrilled to be given the opportunity.

A group of people began meeting shortly after, and started preparing for the first week of SERVE, six weeks later.  We have served many different ways and places.  Sometimes we partner with local non profits.  The goal is to see need and meet it so… We have done BBQ’s and played kickball in the government housing neighborhoods, picked up litter, painted playground equipment at the elementary school, food drives for local food pantry’s, we serve every week at a nursing home, we serve single moms almost weekly, helping them get organized, doing repairs or painting,  we also serve widows with yard work and home repairs.

Organizationally, each Sunday about 6 to 8 villages serve in the community while the rest of the people are in the Gathering. We are all worshiping at the same time, just in different places.  We don’t have anything on paper that says what SERVE’s philosophy or vision is.  We just look for need and meet it.

For additional information or informing us of possible Serve opportunities email:

serve@journeyfranklin.com

For additional serving opportunities contact:

New Hope Academy www.nhafranklin.org

Against the Grain Ministries www.atghope.org

Graceworks  www.graceworksministries.net

  • SERVE OPPORTUNITY:

    Volunteer Project Set for July 16 Because of the huge outpouring of donations for flood relief, we ran out of storage space at our facility, and have been using space in two additional buildings. We need to consolidate the remaining donations into a newly secured space. We need volunteers and pickup trucks or SUVs to help move those items on Friday, July 16, starting at 9:30 am. We hope to be finished by early afternoon. We will meet at Rolling Hills Community Church, 1810 Columbia Avenue. The warehouse space we are using is on the front of that building. If you are able to volunteer, please email volunteer@graceworksministries.net to sign up.
  • We were at the nursing home and had a blast! Us girls LOVED the older folks and experienced some fun, heartache, laughs and a desire to get to know them even more. What an awesome time we had!
  • Mystery SERVE was great!  We went to Waffle House and had this older waitress who had worked six shifts straight and got called in that morning to cover someone else's shift too...she was sad cuz she wanted to go to church and couldn't go cuz she needed to work.  We tipped her our normal amount on what we ordered and then left the $40 for her on top of that.  Wish I could have seen her face...
  • It went really well. We were able to provide her a meal for Sunday and groceries for the week. She really opened up to Nick let us know about all she's been going through with her work, health, and her daughter. Sara's going to follow up with her later this week and we're going to check with the adoption agency Sara and I are currently working with to see if they can help out in her situation with her daughter.
  • I just wanted to let you all know that the work we did on Sunday got rave reviews today at New Hope. Many people were commenting on "finally, someone cleaned the lost and found" or "wow the teacher work room looks great" and the best..."man, those lights havent been working in years..." haha! I just wanted to thank you guys so much! I know it seems small, but the impact is huge for a place where everything has to get done through volunteers, etc. So thank you. I know you werent asking to be noticed, but you were!