Edith Avenue Baptist is a Church that Responds to Poverty

It is amazing what can happen when people start to wonder about what a church is on days that aren’t Sunday.  Edith Avenue Baptist Church started to wonder this.  By wondering, Edith Avenue Baptist shows people what can happen when a community takes a risk.

In seminary, Pastor Grant Alcorn learned not to make changes at a church during the first few years of a pastorate.  He ignored this and instead took a risk.  Within nine months, Edith Avenue has reintroduced itself into the life of Courtenay Heights.  Alcorn proposed that Edith Avenue Baptist Church begin making connections with people outside of the walls of the church.  It was time to show the community who the church is.  The congregation bought in immediately.  They were looking for an opportunity to serve.

Pastor Alcorn was paying attention to what was going on near the church building.  Down the hill, a baseball field was closing.  The church approached the city about changing the ball field into a community garden.  By 2013, Edith Avenue expects that the abandoned field will supply fresh and local vegetables to the local food bank, serve people at Loch Lomond Villa, and be a spot where families in the community can set-up family gardens.  

 

Risk also lead to using the church building in new ways to serve the community.  Edith Avenue holds a monthly “Shelter and Community Cook-Time.”  Cook-Time provides meals for the Salvation Army and Hestia House.  It also allows clients at the local food bank an opportunity to gather once a month to learn how to cook and share a meal.  It is community building and a fun excuse to get together.  

 

Alcorn turns to scripture to find the impetus for such activities.  Amos tells its readers to let justice flow.  Galatians talks about bearing one another’s burdens.  Jesus tells people to ask, “Who is my neighbour?”  

 

Edith Avenue discovered their neighbours in the folks just outside their walls.

 

Edith Avenue Baptist Church is a congregation of about 50 people.  For more information about the community events that are going on at Edith Avenue, contact Pastor Grant Alcorn by phone at 658-0120 or by email at friarg.ga@gmail.com.

This post was originally part of a newsletter that I co-authored about Saint John area churches and Christian non-profits with poverty reduction services. Over the next several weeks I will post the articles that I wrote for this project.