Missions/Outreach
At First Baptist Greenville,
we believe that one measure of the vitality of our congregation is our involvement
in Missions. Through a variety
of organizations,
we provide a wide range of opportunities for local and
global hands-on mission involvement.
Read the Spring 2010 issue of Missions Now from the Missions and Ministries of FBC.
Mission Friends and
Children on Mission
Mission Friends (ages 3-5) and Children on Mission (grades
1-5)
meet each Wednesday night during the school year for study and involvement
in missions.
During the summer, elementary-aged children participate in a four-day local mission experience. Two different Children's Missions Weeks provide children with hands-on involvement and reflection on issues including homelessness, aging, poverty, illiteracy and immigration.
Youth
The youth have made annual mission trips for years to destinations within
South Carolina and to more distant places, such as Homestead, FL; Houston, TX; New
Orleans, LA; Taos, NM; and mainland China and Hong Kong.
While
repairing
and
restoring homes, performing choir musicals and helping with other tasks, the focus
is
always
on
building
relationships
in the communities we visit and within the group. Before, during and after the trips,
the group engages in reflection to
relate
their
experiences to their faith and the world around them.
Every Tuesday in the summer the youth are busy with Mission Possible, a morning of hard work and fellowship within the community.
Women on Mission
Six groups of women meet each month at varied times for prayer, study
and fellowship. Each group adopts a mission project/projects of their chosing
to support
throughout the year.
Neighborhood Partnership
Over the years, our church has partnered with a number of neighborhoods in Greenville.
Our current partnership is with the Haynie-Sirrine
Neighborhood located down Cleveland Street from the church and a stone's throw from
Greenville's historic West End.
Through
a
variety
of
programs, we seek to minister alongside the Haynie-Sirrine residents.
Mission Trips
Through the years, First Baptist Greenville members have served as
volunteer missionaries in a variety of places across our state, nation and
world. Recently, groups have made mission trips to Lady's Island, SC;
Toronto, Canada; New York City; the Bahamas; Cuba; China; Charleston, SC;
Hungary; and Bayou La Batre, AL. Ministries on these trips include medical,
construction, teaching and a variety of other opportunities. Trips are often
arranged in partnership with the Alliance of Baptists or the Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship (CBF). Through an action-reflection model, team members on
mission trips grow as a group and in their faith. Individually, our members
have exercised their passion for Christian missions through recent trips to
places including Guatemala, Malawi, Nicaragua, and Romania.
In all of our mission efforts, both local and global, our purpose is to express, through word and deed, the Good News of God's love through Jesus Christ.