T-shirts on Sunday morning; Westminster to hold 6th annual Faith in Action Sunday service
Published 10:32 am Friday, June 12, 2015
Sunday church attendees at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Austin are leaving their Sunday best in the closet this weekend as they get ready to go into the community and serve others.
The sixth annual Faith in Action Sunday service will go from about 9:30-10 a.m. Sunday, and church members will leave to serve at several projects around 10:15 a.m. until about 1:30 p.m.
Olmsted
“They show up in their shorts and T-shirts rather than their suits and ties, and the focus is on serving and we have fun with it,” Senior Pastor Mike Olmsted said.
He said there are usually about six projects each year for people to work at, and many of the church members volunteer.
“We’ve done it six years now, and it started as just a way to take a Sunday [to serve],” Olmsted said. “And the slogan was “Don’t got to church, be the church.’”
This year, members have six projects to take on, including working with Real Hope for the Hungry assembling nutritious meals for children and families; fundraising for a project to build a well through Charity Waters; working with Habitat for Humanity on a wall build; writing letters for troops abroad; making shoes, hats, scarves and more through Sole Hope; and visiting homebound members at nursing homes.
Church leaders got the idea through another church program they saw and liked.
“And our church has a real heart for missions, from actually serving to mission projects, supporting missionaries,” Olmsted said. “But we wanted to do something that was actually local as well.”
Olmsted said church members have supported the program each year. He hopes these projects will be used as a springboard to get church members into the community, helping and ministering in a variety of ways, so people know there are people concerned about others who want to help.
“We would love to kind of hear some of the needs that do exist and ways that we can help with them,” Olmsted said.
Olmsted hopes for good weather this year as groups go out, but he said rain won’t stop them from serving.
“We’ll work through it whatever we’ve got to do,” he chuckled. “We’re hardy folk.”
