In 2018 as Central Baptist Church of Johnson City, TN began planning for their 150th anniversary in 2019, they talked about the usual aspects of such a celebration – remembering the great history of the church, having a huge dinner-on-the-grounds celebration, and so forth. But they also wanted a way to show their community how much they love them and how much God loves them.

They invited David Crocker (Inasmuch Founder and former pastor of CBC) to work with the 150th Anniversary Team specifically regarding a community-wide service event. He suggested that they conduct a food packing event in which 150,000 nutritional meals would be packed. Their immediate response was “Let’s do it!” On April 6, 2019, over 500 volunteers from Central Baptist Church, other area churches, and other groups in Johnson City packed 150,000 meals for the hungry people of Northeast Tennessee. View some pictures from the event here.

These meals were donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee serving eight counties in the northeast corner of TN. Second Harvest will distribute them through their normal channels of distribution over several months. Executive Director, Rhonda Chaffin, said: “Thousands of our neighbors in northeast TN will receive these meals. You have truly taken ‘a bite’ out of hunger through this event.” [Read more…]

As a whole, people think they don’t like statistics and question how much they matter. Honestly, in some instances, statistics can be and are manipulated. For church leaders, if we’re not careful, too much emphasis can be placed on numbers, especially if we forget to associate those numbers with people.

Operation Inasmuch works to gather reports from churches and organizations who conduct Inasmuch Days and/or Inasmuch United events. Most churches help us with sharing their statistics; others wonder why we need or want them and question why anyone needs to know what they are achieving through compassion ministry in their own communities.

I should confess I like statistics. I believe they help us get a glimpse of the impact our efforts are having through ministry and serving. They help us see where we can improve. They help tell the story of Jesus’ followers seeking to “serve the un-served, love the un-loved, and reach the un-churched” through compassion ministry. [Read more…]

I don’t know of any church or church leader who wouldn’t want to experience a 20% increase in attendance. In less than a month after a compassion ministry project in their community, Union City Baptist Church, in a rural farming community near Richmond, KY, has reported their experience of that increase following an Inasmuch event conducted in September of this year. 

Union City Baptist has been conducting Inasmuch Days and Inasmuch United events with a neighboring church since its first effort in the spring of 2016. After that first Inasmuch Day the church committed to conducting two Inasmuch events each year – one in the spring and one in the fall. From May 2016 through September 2018 the church has produced a total of 200 volunteers who have worked over 1,600 hours on 21 projects. They have served nearly 1,200 of their neighbors at a community value of almost $41,000.

Those are the kinds of statistics a church can amass when it commits to be the hands, feet, eyes and heart of Jesus in their own communities. Union City Baptist has been averaging around 100 each week in worship and between 40-45 in Bible study before their last Inasmuch Day. In the weeks since, the church has experienced an increase of around 20 people each Sunday in both worship and Sunday School. “God is working in our church family and in our community,” according to Inasmuch church coordinator, Bill Hendricks. Bill added, “I believe people are impressed when churches work together and when they see men, especially, leading and serving.” In the Spring the Baptist church joins its neighbor Christian church in conducting projects involving all ages working together. [Read more…]

First Eastside Baptist Church Inasmuch Day

On Saturday August 4, I had the privilege of meeting Pastor Khem Arcojada, his mother, Aida, from the Philippines, and his sister and her family who now live in Virginia. Khem is the pastor of First Eastside Baptist Church in Valencia City, Bukidnon, Philippines where his father was the pastor until his death. The Arcojadas were in the US visiting family and were able to drop by to see our offices and to share how Inasmuch impacted their church and their community.

David Smith, formerly of the Radford area of Virginia, introduced the Inasmuch model in the Philippines and sponsored the Inasmuch Day at First Eastside in Valencia City. David now lives in the Philippines with his wife and her family.

Earlier in the summer we received a report from Rwenzori Organization for Children Living Under Difficult Circumstances (ROCDiC) in Kasese, Uganda. The first contact we had with Ivan, the director of the ministry for refugee young people, was a request for Operation Inasmuch shirts for them to wear as they served another ministry in their area. In early June the staff and residents of ROCDiC wanted to give back and chose to conduct an Inasmuch Day by serving the Burumbika Health Center. They completed several projects around the grounds and facilities there. View pictures from their event here. [Read more…]

West Cabarrus Church in Concord, NC is one of dozens of churches who conducted an Inasmuch Day as part of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention statewide emphasis held the last weekend of April and the first weekend of May this year. From as early as 2013 the church has found that Operation Inasmuch is a valuable tool for mobilizing large numbers of their members into the community.

“West Cabarrus Church is a regional church, drawing members from a large area near the Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Concord Mills Mall and we wanted to draw our circle a bit tighter to minister to those who live closest to us,” according to Pastor to Students and Families, Charlie Cole who served as the event coordinator. He continued, “we found a trailer park very near the church housing primarily Hispanic families and concentrated a large part of our work there deploying 40 or more volunteers to work on five homes.”

In addition to doing landscaping, light house repair, both inside and outside of these homes, and sharing food the church’s Missions and Hispanic pastor, Pastor David Bogran, along with some of the members of the Hispanic ministry, WCC Espanol, went door-to-door offering to pray with the families and sharing the good news of Jesus. In just that one neighborhood they experienced seven residents who accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. “There were fifteen people from that neighborhood who attended the services of WCC Espanol the Sunday after the project!” Pastor Cole rejoiced. [Read more…]

How long would it take to collect $700 in quarters? Answer: 2.5 months . . . IF you go to Sunday School classes every week during that period of time . . . and IF you are collecting quarters for an Inasmuch laundromat project . . . and IF you have a cute, little girl dressed in an Inasmuch shirt collecting for you!

David Crocker (former Executive Director of the national Operation Inasmuch ministry), Interim Pastor of First Baptist Church, Weaverville, NC says: “When we decided to include in our Inasmuch event this spring ministering to people at the local laundromat by feeding the washing machines and dryers quarters as well as otherwise helping people with their laundry, we were told it would take a lot of quarters to do that. So, we made that a weekly collection task during Sunday School and we collected far more quarters than we needed!”

Pictured here is Carissa Alexander, a first grader at FBC, Weaverville who was tapped by Crocker to go from class to class asking for quarters. It became something everyone looked forward to. Some brought medicine bottles or sandwich bags filled with quarters. Some gave “folding money” which was later changed into quarters.

Crocker says: “The plastic jug we used to collect the quarters soon became too heavy for Carissa to carry, so we found a small wagon in which she placed the jug and pulled the wagon from class to class. It was one of the most effective fundraising efforts I’ve ever seen! Let’s just say the class of senior adult men were helpless against Carissa’s pleas for quarters!”

In addition to raising a lot of quarters, collecting quarters for Jesus became one of the most talked about things we did to promote our Inasmuch event. As Carissa was collecting quarters in a classroom filled with adults, Crocker reminded everyone about the upcoming Inasmuch event and how they could be involved. The church had 75 percent of their average Sunday morning attendance involved in their Inasmuch event.

First Baptist Church partnered with Weaverville United Methodist Church, First Presbyterian Church, and Woodland Hills Church for Inasmuch United Weaverville on April 28, 2018. Two hundred volunteers completed 22 projects, served 1,254 people for a dollar value of $18,332 for their event.

Crocker quips: “This is what I will be remembered for at First Baptist, not the sermons I preached or visits I made, but the collection of quarters for Jesus. And that’s just fine with me!”

Do you keep up with Operation Inasmuch on Facebook and other social media sites? If not, you’re missing out on the amazing Compassion Revolution that is taking place in so many towns, states, and countries.

You can see pictures and read about Inasmuch Days from Moon’s Chapel Baptist of Siler City, NC; St. Andrew’s Lutheran of Columbia, SC; Immanuel Baptist of Nashville, TN; Campbell University of Buies Creek, NC; and Ferry Farm Baptist of Fredericksburg, VA just to name a few. You’ll also see pictures of Inasmuch United events from Fort Myers, FL; Sweetwater, TN; Hope Hull, AL; and Weaverville, NC. There is even a report and pictures from First Eastside Baptist in Valencia City, Philippines!

Volunteers from Moon’s Chapel Baptist.

In addition to Inasmuch Days, there are also reports from various meal packing events. These events prepare the ready-to-heat meals for Guatemalan orphanages and for local distribution. Just this spring, Inasmuch has helped conduct meal packing events at Vestavia Hills Baptist of Birmingham, AL; Heritage Baptist of Cartersville, GA; First Baptist of Sweetwater, TN; and the Ball Camp Baptist and Inasmuch United Knoxville meal packing events in Knoxville, TN.

We are honored to share the stories of the wonderful events where the church leaves the building and connects with their communities in redemptive and hopeful ways. There are hundreds of churches providing thousands of volunteers who put in tens of thousands of hours and touch hundreds of thousands of their neighbors’ lives by being Christ in practical ways. These events give hope, introduce eternal life in Christ, and make powerful impacts on their communities worth literally millions of dollars every year. [Read more…]