“Here, you have to be involved in serving your community,” said Bennett, who was student minster for seven years at Macedonia Baptist in Hiawassee, Ga., near Blairsville, before moving to become a pastor in south Georgia and then on to New York.
Most recently, Center Hill Church in Loganville, Ga., partnered with Life Church to provide 90 backpacks filled with school supplies for children.
“They’ve never had teacher appreciation day, and so yesterday (Aug. 30) we were inside the school handing those out,” Bennett said.
National partnerships are important, but so are regional ones.
The area of the country including upstate New York is one of the least Christian in the country. Burlington, Vt., which regularly polls as one of the least religious cities in America, is only 20 miles away. Earlier this year a Vermont police chaplain was removed not due to any indiscretions, but because the Southern Baptist church he pastored was conservative.
“I’ve really connected with a lot of pastors over in Vermont because of the proximity,” Bennett said.
Brinkman, who planted Life Church through the North American Mission Board in 2012, went on to serve as a NAMB Send missionary in New York City. He is now in Buffalo as the church planting leader for New York.
“We learned that we’d have to earn our stripes,” he said of the early years at Life Church. “That meant meeting needs in the community.”
After Life Church was blocked from hosting the free soccer camp early in its existence, Brinkman decided to approach things from a different direction.
“We needed to figure out how to meet needs and develop deep relationships in that community really quickly,” he said. “We took note of some gaps and set up the café as a non-profit. We used Kingdom Growers coffee from the IMB and made it very missional. People would come in and we’d give away a lot of muffins if they couldn’t donate.”
They also established Adirondack Outreach, working with the local youth commission, conducting food drives with local pantries and handing out water bottles on the E’town Day road race. In time, they also held that free soccer clinic.
“Josh and Donna have been incredible in carrying that torch,” he said. “God is doing great things in New York, but there is still much to do.”
Bennett, personally, has taken his love for the outdoors to earn social credibility. He routinely takes part in group mountain bike rides and has completed the Adirondack 46er hiking challenge in reaching the summit of all the high peaks nearby.
“It’s incarnational ministry; you have to dig in with the people,” he said. “You have to be involved and serving in your community.”
This article originally appeared here.
