Bay City Tribune

If you drove around town this week and noticed some areas that had been spruced up or felt like traffic may have flowed just a bit easier or felt a lighter mood in your work place, you may be able to trace that back to the work of 114 of your neighbors who participated in "Faith in Action Sunday" on Oct. 18.

This past Sunday members of the First United Methodist Church chose to put their faith in action by taking the day to complete a list of service projects around the community instead of going to their regular worship services.

The volunteers met at 9 a.m. to sign up for work groups and get started.

Their list of projects in the community included: working in planters around the courthouse; rebuilding a fence at the recycling center; painting at Matagorda County Teen Court; landscape work at the Matagorda County Birding Nature Center butterfly garden; baking cookies and visiting with residents at the Legacy Assisted Living Center; taking cookies to various groups of community servants to show appreciation such as police officers, HEB and Wal-Mart employees, Sheriff Department employees and others; painting at a residents home; repairing a floor for a resident; building a wheel-chair ramp for a resident; and building another cabinet for their food pantry ministry.

There were also 12 groups of teams driving around town and praying at certain identified places such as the school campuses, government offices, churches, neighborhoods and a few intersections in town.

Chris Harrison, First United Methodist Church of Bay City pastor, said the point of the event was to get out and minister to the community by meeting certain needs.

"On Sunday we didn't want to just go to church; we wanted to be the church," he said.

Harrison said although the church, like many churches in town, participate in community projects on Saturdays or weekdays, the concept nudged some out of their traditional idea of going to church on Sunday morning.

"That was beyond a lot of people's real understanding of Sunday morning worship," he said.

"One of the cool parts was to see how many people participated on Sunday that have never participated in a Saturday or weekday project."

Although "faith in action Sunday" in Bay City began with the members of the Bay City First United Methodist Church, Harrison said he hopes it will be a community-wide effort in the future.

"This is one way to tap into what the church really could be," he said.

"What could happen if churches, service organizations, schools, community leaders, and citizens took a day to invest it back into the city and the county collectively."

Harrison shrugged his shoulders and said he's not necessarily planning another "faith in action Sunday" for this time next year.

"I go one step at a time with God," he said.

"I had this vision this time, but maybe God will give someone else the vision and then we'll all join them."

Harrison said as the volunteers were walking away from their finished jobs on Sunday they were asking when they would be doing it again.

"When we all do this together the opportunities open up," he said.

"People want to be a part of something bigger than they are.'