Focusing Small Groups on Community Service: Momentum Christian Church in Ohio

Start a new initiative through which each small group in your church commits to a long-term service project to help the community.

Momentum Christian Church in Garfield Heights, Ohio, made community service a high priority for its “Mo Groups,” which have names like Captured, Ruckus and Shockwave and are scattered throughout the Cleveland area. Lead Minister Dan Smith has described the groups as ministry teams that meet weekly to eat, study Scripture, fellowship and engage in long-term service projects.

“It’s like a band of brothers you can serve with,” Smith says.

A group that met at Smith’s home worked with an assisted-living home that served mentally challenged individuals, regularly raked leaves for the elderly and cleaned up neighborhoods.

Todd Hronec, part of Smith’s group, grew up going to church, but was turned off by religion until he started going to Momentum in 2009. Other churches he went to, he says, were more about making money than helping people.

“When you really start going through the Bible, you learn that God wasn’t much of a just-sit-here-and-listen type of person,” Hronec says. “He was constantly sending people out to help those in the community. I believe that’s part of God’s work, and I think that’s the most important part.”

When You Don’t Want to Read the Bible

You were ultimately made to respond to God’s heart. You were made to know the voice of the Good Shepherd, to lean on his care, to depend on his provisions, to trust in his protection. You were made to come running when your Father calls you home to sit at his table!

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Last year, Evangel started a church two hours away inside the largest women’s prison in New York. A pastor and a team go every Thursday to share a message, preach and lead worship for the prisoners.

Angulus Wilson: Evangelism Is the Heart of God

When the church taps into the mission and the heart of God, she gets mobilized, she can get revived. We can see growth and new initiative.