Serve Day featured Collaboration with Convoy
of Hope, delivered more than a half million pounds of food and
essential items to those in need
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., July 15,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Church of the Highlands is
celebrating the joy of volunteering as 22,309 people spent their
weekend Saturday helping others in the community. The church's
annual Serve Day, held July 13,
coordinated 141,054 hours of volunteer service bringing people
encouragement and hope. This year, Serve Day also included a new
national partnership to distribute 500,000 pounds of food to the
hungry.
Church of the Highlands' Serve Day inspires
everyone to discover meaning and purpose through service.
Using the Serve App to coordinate and deploy volunteers on a
large scale, Senior Pastor Chris
Hodges issued an "all call" for every member of the
26-campus church to make a difference in their communities. The
church hopes to inspire everyone to discover meaning and purpose
through service.
"The Church exists to make a difference in the lives of people
around us, and Serve Day is just one of those opportunities,"
Hodges said. "We love serving our communities."
Serve Day is a national effort, with 2,772 churches around the
country joining Highlands in celebrating their own Serve Day.
Highlands developed a free app and gives it away free to any church
that wants to use it so they can personalize it to their church to
organize serve projects and connect volunteers. At Highlands alone,
1,040 projects conducted on July 13
met both physical and spiritual needs, serving 24,327 meals and
reaching 131,418 people including the poor, foster families,
widows, people with medical issues, our nation's veterans and the
elderly. Through these projects, they support institutions such
schools, women's shelters, food banks and homeless shelters to
continue their important work.
2024 Serve Day featured new collaboration
This year's Serve Day featured a national collaboration
resulting in the largest service project of the day. Through a
partnership with Convoy of Hope, Church of the Highlands, The
Association of Related Churches, Servolution and 11 other churches,
more than a half million pounds of food and essential items like
socks and shoes got to people who needed them in more than 13
communities across the country.
Convoy of Hope, a faith-based humanitarian organization based in
Springfield, Mo., brought 52-foot
trailers to the participating churches filled with food and
essential items for community members in need. Hundreds of
volunteers at each location unloaded the trucks, packed grocery
bags and distributed them in the community, including at two
Highlands campuses– the Grants Mill campus in Birmingham,
Ala. and the Montgomery Campus in Montgomery, Ala.
The churches involved in the collaboration are Celebration
Church in Jacksonville, FL; Citizens Church in Nashville,
TN; Faith Family Church in Baytown, TX; Life Church
in Memphis, TN; Lifepoint Church in Clarksville, TN;
Lifepoint Church in Fredericksburg, VA; Milestone Church
in Dallas, TX; Substance Church in Minneapolis, MN; The
Way Church in Nashville, TN; VOUS Church in Miami,
FL; Zoe Church in Los Angeles, CA; and Church of
the Highlands.
"We know that getting more people involved in service and
helping their neighbors strengthens the community, provides
encouragement and hope to the hopeless and opens people's hearts to
the love of Jesus," Hodges said.
Serve Day's approach is special because it encourages church
attendees and members of small groups at the church to serve
together, support each other in causes important to their members
and deepen relationships within groups. To get involved with
service at Church of the Highlands, learn more through the Growth
Track at https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/growth-track.
About Church of the Highlands: Church of the
Highlands is a Birmingham-based,
life-giving body of believers with 26 campuses across Alabama and Georgia that exists to help people know God,
find freedom, discover purpose, and make a difference. We honor
Jesus by following his example, including by ministering to over
1,000 incarcerated individuals in our weekly services at local
prisons. More information is available at the Highlands
website.
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SOURCE Church of the Highlands