RALEIGH, N.C. (RNS) — Friday morning (Aug. 9) by 9 a.m., about 100 mostly homeless men lined up outside Oak City Cares, a multi-service nonprofit on the downtown’s edge. Anne Bazemore was there by the door to offer them a hot cup of coffee.
Bazemore, 25, was one of a handful of volunteers from Imago Dei Church who spent the week of Aug. 3-10 volunteering with various civic organizations as part of ServeNC, a statewide project launched this year by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
A total of 1,169 mostly Southern Baptist churches in 92 of North Carolina’s 100 counties participated in the effort, fielding volunteers for a week of service helping vulnerable populations, including homeless people, orphans, prisoners, refugees and the elderly.
By Friday, Bazemore knew the names of some of the regulars and how they liked their coffee: black, with cream and sugar, or extra sugar. On a counter just beside the door were two insulated 5-gallon coffee urns; Bazemore poured out coffee until there was no more. She had spent two hours each morning this past week at Oak City Cares, an organization that offers the unhoused a place to shower, do laundry and get medical and case management services.
“Just as I was once far off and have been saved and given a family and given hope by the grace of God, I love getting to love and serve the marginalized in my city,” said Bazemore. “And I count it a great gift that I get to do it.”
Summers are often a time when congregations send out people to far-off missions work. This year, the state’s Southern Baptists envisioned something closer to home.
“In my almost 20 years of being a Christian, I can’t remember a time that a group of churches this large was doing something like this together,” said Todd Unzicker, executive director-treasurer of the Baptist State Convention.
There are approximately 2,800 congregations that partner with the state convention. Nearly 45% participated.
“I think that’s pretty historic,” added Unzicker.
The Woman’s Missionary Union of North Carolina served at With Love From Jesus Ministries in Raleigh organizing and managing a free clothing and grocery store for guests as part of ServeNC. Photo courtesy Serve NC
Despite a tropical storm that scuttled some outdoor projects, the churches managed a range of aid initiatives. In Winston-Salem, Calvary Baptist Church packed 750 school backpacks. First Baptist Church of Raeford built a wheelchair ramp for a couple in the community. Friendship Southern Baptist Church in Concord put on a “Senior Prom Night” at a local nursing home. Salem Baptist Church in Dobson stocked shelves and bagged groceries at a local food pantry.
The Southern Baptist Convention has faced a series of challenges in recent years: declining membership, a sexual abuse crisis, a crackdown on women pastors, a condemnation of in vitro fertilization, an embrace of Trump and MAGA politics.
Serve NC was a local effort to get out from under those challenges and serve the communities. As Baptists who have taken strong anti-abortion stands, many congregations enlisted their members to volunteer at unlicensed anti-abortion centers that counsel women against terminating their pregnancies. The North Carolina legislature has spent about $49 million since 2013 to support anti-abortion centers.
But mainly, the Serve NC projects were intended to help communities in need.
Wesley Knapp and his wife, Conner Waldrop, volunteered at a weeklong Vacation Bible School in a Raleigh apartment complex that houses refugee families from several different countries. The young couple — he is 25, she is 24 — are members of Imago Dei Church and said the experience of playing with the children, many of whom were just learning English, was fun and eye-opening. On Saturday, they planned to take the children to a trampoline park.
“I think we both left this experience with more of a pull toward fostering and adopting down the road,” Knapp said. “It was just so cool to interact with those kids and again, just the humility that that brought into our lives during that week was super impactful.”
For Zac Lyons, the pastor for missions and evangelism at Imago Dei, the weeklong service project was a way to cultivate a deeper commitment to helping others.
“The real focus is to have people regularly serving in the community,” Lyons said. “It’s a catalytic tool to see they can do this on a regular basis.”
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