Gail Allyn Short

Besides classes, each Pivot student gets a volunteer mentor who offers guidance and accountability. Students also participate in a Bible study led by church volunteers.

Coblentz named the church’s new effort the Bread Breakers Ministry. Volunteers started out making around 50 sandwiches a week, but they quickly broke their own record.

Jones and her church members went to work, putting together baggies filled with personal care items such as lotion, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner, lice eradication kits and facecloths.

Three months after their first visit to First Baptist, the Donohues joined the congregation. Not long afterward, the church purchased a three-story former restaurant and banquet hall two miles from the church to house its RE:VIVALS outreach ministry.

But besides attracting new guests, Compton says the dinners provide opportunities for members to help local families facing food insecurity.

“But the shift in thinking was that it would become more of an outreach opportunity,” says Rev. Denise Tiedemann.

Kentucky church ministers to immigrant populations.

Alabama congregation is mission driven.