New Rising Star and Redeemer Men Serve Side by Side

Pastor Thomas Beavers leads the men from both churches in truth and grace

Nothing quite like a beautiful Saturday of service with two great churches in Birmingham!  The second weekend of football season brought about the first weekend of service with New Rising Star Baptist Church (East Lake) and Redeemer Community Church (Avondale).  We had several projects in the East Lake community for the 80+ men that showed up from both churches and we had quite the day!  Arriving in the "cool" of the morning, this group of men gathered together behind New Rising Star's church building to shake hands, give a few "bro-hugs" and start our day off right by hearing from the pastors of both congregations.

Dr. Thomas Beavers of New Rising Star got us kicked off with a little pep talk and Pastor Joel Brooks of Redeemer followed that up with a few words of encouragement of his own. Both pastors then came together to pray for our day of work and then we were off!

The 80+ men that we had on site split into project groups and spent the next several hours working together to repair a house, pressure wash, landscape, clean, move furniture, pick up trash, clean gutters and roofs and all kinds of other projects.  By the end of the morning there was nothing sweeter than seeing two congregations of men, led by their pastors and assistant pastors, coming together from just 4 miles apart to serve their local community side by side.  Men of all ages, backgrounds and skin colors coming together over a common goal and under one major commonality... their love for Christ and their desire to serve their fellow man.  Anytime you can get a pastor sweating over something other than his preaching, you know it's a good day!

Words cannot encompass the joy and fellowship in the lunchroom at the end of this serve day together.  Yes, the cheeseburgers we shared together were very good, but that was not the source of the enthusiasm in the room.  Not on this day.  This day was about two churches coming together to serve their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to build his Kingdom here in the city of Birmingham!  We love the opportunity to partner with amazing churches and amazing pastors and this month we had the privilege to taste and see the Lord bring two of our primary partners together to serve. Thank you to these men, thank you to these pastors and thank you to these two churches for their partnership and reciprocal relationships with us at Christian Service Mission!