Every third Wednesday night of the month at New Hope Baptist Church, Berry, something big happens with a few small ingredients.
A few church members make several pies, maybe six or eight. Pastor Brad Hartsfield makes one too — he’s gotten his strawberry pie down to a bit of an art over the years.
‘Loving people’
And then they all gather together with their pies for an outreach effort called C4 (calls, cards, community and callout). It’s an effort where they visit people in the church and community, take them pies and let them know they’re loved.
“We want to love God and love people,” Hartsfield said. “There’s more to it than the pie, though taking people a pie can go a long way.”
It’s named C4 because that’s the explosive ingredient for dynamite, he said.
And they are seeing something explosive happen at New Hope Baptist.
When Hartsfield came to New Hope about 11 months ago, he found a small church filled with people who were ready to serve.
“It’s a healthy congregation and it’s just been a blessing,” he said. “I think the church is staying on point. That’s been our whole thought this year — staying on purpose, reaching people with the gospel message.”
People are definitely being reached, because the church is bursting at the seams. They’re running 140 for Sunday morning services — and 60 to 80 kids at Awana on Sunday nights.
Children’s program
“The strength of our church is probably our children’s program,” Hartsfield said. For Vacation Bible School recently, volunteers were running van routes to pick kids up and going back through lists from past years to make contacts with kids who might want to come back.
It’s a church “that is just on fire,” said Gary Bonner, director of missions for Sipsey Baptist Association. “They’ve had a tremendous year in ministry.” (Grace Thornton)
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