Covenant News

Michigan Church Puts 'Faith in Action' in Community

SARANAC, MI (July 13, 2004) - For the past dozen years, a Covenant church in Michigan has helped make its corner of the world a little brighter through community service projects.

During this year's project, titled "Faith in Action," volunteers from Saranac Community Church (SCC), put in a new sidewalk to improve access to the church and worked at a local state park, improving trails while picking up litter in a beautification effort. Parishioners also helped a local parachurch agency.

According to volunteer coordinator Virgil Biggs, as many as six projects annually are completed by volunteers ranging in age from grade-schoolers to senior adults. About 70 church members on average volunteer for projects, which include painting, installing roofing, landscaping and brush removal, demolition of buildings, and constructing handicap-accessible ramps, among other things.

The church of 200 has performed repairs on more than 50 homes since then, said Biggs, who does preliminary work each year by scouting out the neighborhood to find out who might need assistance. The church has set aside about $5,000 for the work camp, which usually lasts one week, Biggs added.

"At first it might appear that people would be offended," Biggs said. "But I have only had one person not agree to let us do the repairs. Frankly, they are so grateful and most shocked that we are willing to pay for everything.... I had an 80-year-old woman share that it was the first time in her life that anyone had done something for her without expecting something in return."

Saranac Community Church is located in a western Michigan town of around 5,000 between Grand Rapids and Lansing. A former United Church of Christ congregation, it became a Covenant congregation in 1998. Pastor John Madvig stated that the church's concern for the community helped convince him to accept a call to pastor there.

"It was one of the key points of the church profile when I was considering my call to the church," said Madvig, who came to Saranac in 2001. "The intentional reaching out to people was important, especially since most of the projects are for those who aren't part of the church. But the projects have led some people to calling this their church home.

Madvig continued, "I think the church comes together in this ministry. People of all ages get involved. We have grade-school children helping and a 93-year-old woman drives around to the sites and videotapes the events to let people at the church know what we're doing. We don't have a whole lot of ethnic diversity but we do have economic diversity. We have been experiencing layoffs (in town), like most of Michigan. I remember that we helped one woman who was retired and couldn't keep up with her property. Another family had their trailer condemned and we rebuilt that. And Virgil (Biggs) has a pretty good ear on the needs of the community and that helps the projects come together." SCC has been involved in service ministry but has also committed to a mission focus "nearly one quarter of the church's budget goes into mission efforts at home or abroad" and SCC parishioners are currently involved with a parachurch ministry in Ecuador.

For more information on the church, call Madvig at 616-642-6322 or check the church website at www.saranacchurch.org .

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