Serving Our Community
Karis desires to see all people worship God in his glory and for his gospel. We long to imitate Jesus by drawing near to people, serving them and loving them. We long to be a part of the city that we love, teaching and modeling the message of Christ as we serve our city. We want to see our city changed from the inside-out, and we want God to use us to do that.
Karis has served our community in many different ways over the years. In 2007 we started a series of graffiti removal events for the city. In 2008 we began serving Thanksgiving dinners throughout Columbia, beginning with Paquin Tower. In our current Missional Community format, we have multiplied the areas we serve: teaching basketball clinics, holding a free bicycle clinic, growing community gardens, driving a refugee to her job, teaching an international man to read English, helping a woman prepare for a job interview, delivering furniture for Love Inc, preparing meals for someone in need, and many more.
This month we have two specific ways that we can serve our community:
Volunteer with Columbia's Earth Day Event: On April 21, from Noon - 7:00 p.m., Columbia will host the annual Earth Day event in Peace Park. We love the Earth because it is a beautiful gift given to us by God, however, we should be careful to worship the creator, God, rather than his creation. We encourage everyone to participate as it is a great opportunity to practice being "in the city...for the city." Volunteers are also needed to set up tables and chairs or to clean up. If you want to volunteer as part of a Karis group, sign up here. The sign up deadline to volunteer is April 7.
Calvary Clean-up: On Saturday, April 13th from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, come to the Calvary building, bringing a bucket, rag, and rubber gloves. We’ll work alongside the people of Calvary Baptist to clean walls and woodwork throughout the property. Joe Cusack is the Karis contact for this event. Email him so he knows how many to expect that day.
To meditate deeper about serving as a church, listen to Gospel-Centered Serving, a Karis sermon by Bobby Schembre from January of this year. As a church, let's keep searching for ways that we can show God's love to our community by serving.
