What happens when a church decides to close its doors Sunday morning?
Only a few short months ago, Hyland Heights Baptist Church in Rustburg, VA, opened a brand new, and much needed, worship center to ease crowding for the more than 1,500 member congregation. But on Sunday, August 15th, they decided to close the doors of that new worship center and replace it with community service. Church members provided free services like oil changes and car washes as well as served free lunch to their community during the event entitled, “Gone for Good.”
‘We’re doing what (Christ) called us to do … get out in the community and serve,” Carl Weiser, pastor at Hyland Heights Baptist Church. “It makes (me) proud to see all these folks out here doing this, it gives (me) the sense that they want to serve the Lord.”
The morning of serving outside the church walls provided church members opportunities to share the Gospel and visit with people who may not know Christ or have a church home.
One woman shared with Weiser that while she drives by the church building everyday, she did not know anything about it. After experiencing the acts of service and learning more about the church she promised to visit the church.
“We’ll be there tonight,” Weiser reminder her. Their regular weekly schedule would resume that evening with a special 6pm service.
Pete English knew the church would need a good location for the oil changes and offered the use of English’s Auto Alignment. Even though the shop is far from the church, they still had an excellent turnout. The week leading up to the event customers continued to ask English about the sign and wanted to know if it was true.
Some 42 people were blessed by a free oil change at English’s Auto Alignment during Gone for Good. While customers waited for their oil change church members shared the Gospel with them, prayed for them and gave them some lunch for the road.
This morning several regular customers came for an oil change and also heard the Gospel. “They are getting what they need because they are not in church this morning,” English said.
Ray-Ray Martin, and Rodney Ward, both from Altavista, VA, agree that the free service they received was an unexpected blessing. They heard about the free oil change and in spite of thinking it was too good to be true they headed to the auto shop only to discover that there was not a catch, only a blessing awaiting them.
“My cousin told me about this … it’s pretty nice, I didn’t believe it at first ‘till I came up here … it’s nice,” Martin said.
As David Cardwell enjoys his free lunch, he shares his appreciation to the volunteers who shared with him the love of Christ.
Cardwell admits that times have been tough for him, but being served a meal, “it’s great. With things being as hard as they are and times being as difficult, I think it is great that people would take time to show love and affection for others.”
As the morning draws to a close, Weiser hopes that, “we see people come to know the Lord, and that (church members who participated) say, ‘I can do this in my community, my neighborhood, my workplace.’”
“This is great, something to be talked about for a long time,” English said.
