Church Members Put Faith In Action

For many, Sundays include a trip to church, but a local congregation decided to cancel this Sunday's service altogether. Instead members were encouraged to be the church.

The News On 6's Jeffrey Smith reports Faith Assembly calls itself a small church, with a big heart and all those big hearts were put to the test.

Instead of dressing in their Sunday best, the congregation got down and dirty.

Mowing the lawn, trimming the trees, even painting the walls, it wasn't a normal church service.

"Don't go to church, be the church. So we've left the church, we've come out to the community to do some nice things," said Youth Pastor Scott Case

Faith Assembly canceled Sunday's service.

Weed-whacking isn't normally how Case spends Sunday afternoons, but the pastor says he needs to practice what he preaches.

"The bible says the greatest commandment is to love others more than you do yourself. So what we're doing is just taking the focus off ourselves, and being able to place it on the other people who are less fortunate today," said Case.

And he took the congregation with him.

"We're going to get outta here. The church is going to leave the building," said Kelly Goins of Faith Assembly.

They all walked over to McArthur Elementary to help clean up.

"Just helping the community and doing something that you don't expect anything in return for," said Rod Pickney.

"It's all about being the church, outside of church," said Megan Schauer.

The event is called Faith in Action. Church members say actions speak louder than words.

"Going out and showing people just what it is to show the love of Christ, instead of just sitting in church and hearing about the love of Christ," said Schauer.

Skipping service to go out and do service, Faith Assembly says it's what true faith is all about.

Pastor Case hopes to do a Faith in Action project every few months. He says it's the kind of community event that can inspire youth to get involved in religion and he didn't leave out the older crowd, either.

The elderly church members were busy knitting quilts to donate to local hospitals; something for everybody.