20% Increase in Attendance… WOW!

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.

On September 8, around 45 men from the church organized and conducted a block party that lasted about 6 hours on the church parking lot and green space. They featured different gospel music groups from the community, various inflatables, games and hayrides. They served shaved ice, hot dogs, candy, chips and popcorn.

During the event the men interacted with and had an impact on 175 of their neighbors. Those neighbors experienced a church in their community who loves them, who welcomes them to be part of their church, and who works with neighbor churches to serve and witness. The community impact value of the event, including the value of the volunteer hours plus the actual cost of items purchased or donated was nearly $7,200.

The Operation Inasmuch models of moving faithful folks from the “seats into the streets” is based on the example of Jesus who spent his days of active ministry encountering people at their point of need. Through his compassion he “…proclaimed good news to the poor… freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free…” (Luke 4:18) We are told that when Christ returns to gather the righteous in the end he will judge his followers by “…inasmuch as you did for one of the least of these… you did it for me.” (Matthew 25:40) An Inasmuch Day is a powerful tool for accomplishing our calling to build the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, as Jesus taught us to pray in the model prayer. (Matthew 6:10)

Union City Baptist Church near Richmond, KY has been faithfully connecting with their neighbors through compassion ministry. The church is beginning to experience growth through their obedience as witnesses building God’s kingdom and sharing the Gospel using the people and gifts they have as they love and serve their community in the name of the Lord, Jesus the Christ.