One Saturday each month, about 35 kids from the city of Guadalupe get fed physically and spiritually through the Los Ninos program. Now many of those kids are a part of the Bethany Community Church family as they regularly attend Sunday school and worship services.
How to transition from reaching out and serving people in the community to bringing them into the church and making them feel like they belong?
Currently, the Los Ninos program meets on the campus of Bethany Community church in Tempe. Volunteers at Bethany have been assisting with the program for 5 years. Over time, as these volunteers got to know the children they felt sad to know that the monthly Los Ninos program was the only type of spiritual influence in many of these kids’ lives. These Bethany volunteers asked church leadership if the church would support an effort to travel to Guadalupe each Sunday to pick up the children and transport them to church. Although Bethany church leaders agreed with this direction, they felt a real need for some sort of transitional strategy to occur first to ensure that the children would feel comfortable attending Sunday school and church services.
The church decided to provide scholarships for 10 of the children to attend summer camp along with Bethany kids. Throughout the camp, the kids connected with one another and enjoyed their time together. After camp was over, the kids from Guadalupe felt comfortable coming to church to continue spending time with their new friends. Attending Sunday school and worship service became part of a natural progression as a result of their positive camp experience. Currently, about 15 – 20 of these children attend church at Bethany.
Have you seen or been a part of a successful transition such as this? We’d love to hear your stories. Please take a moment to e-mail us or leave your comments below.
Special thanks to John Wood, Missional Life Pastor at Bethany Community Church for sharing this story with us.
