#Giving Tuesday: Empowerment Houses

You can give on our Facebook fundraiser page today!

After our neighbor Loretta became homeless and passed away from an ongoing condition, we at 1208 Greenwood Church decided it was time to have some answers to the housing crisis in Jackson. So we set out to create what we call, "Empowerment Houses."

While we still have much to learn about these houses, they are meant to provide temporary housing for those in Jackson who need it while they find stability and move towards a flourishing life. We sense that many of these houses could be established with grant money in the future, but first we need to pilot our program to prove its effectiveness and work out the kinks. That’s why we want to start this project by raising money for our pilot house, “The Loretta House.”

Thank you to the wider Jackson community and beyond for partnering with us this #GivingTuesday to help this project get its feet on the ground!

Writing for Nerd Church

We recently expanded on our mission to “create space, foster growth, love people, and love God,” by implementing the longterm vision to plant churches inside of our building that create space to reach those we’re not currently reaching. One of these churches was called, “Nerd Church,” but has now been aptly renamed, “1208-Bit.” It will be the first official launch of a 1208 church outside of our Sunday night dinner church.

I did a livestream from our church Facebook page today to show some of the ways I’ve been trying to build a bridge between church and nerd culture over the years in my writing and how I’m hoping these books will be helpful in our outreach to my fellow nerds in town. It’s an attempt to do what Paul did in Acts and use people’s culture to strike up a conversation with them.

I don’t necessarily plan on anyone buying these books at our advertising launch at MeggaXP (our city’s version of ComicCon), but I’ll have a few copies of my nerdier books present at our booth to strike up conversations and show people that we embrace all kinds of conversations that are sometimes shoved under the rug in church. We’ll also be handing out flyers that advertise our upcoming game night events, which will eventually evolve into the official launch of 1208-Bit come late fall/early winter.

Children's Ministry Help Needed

Over the last months we've seen an increase in the children attending on Sunday mornings. This is wonderful for our church, and we're needing to recruit some more helpers for our kids' programs.  We have just a handful of people working to create a meaningful time of teaching and discipleship for our young people each Sunday, and some of the volunteers are helping out in both classrooms, which usually means working back to back weeks each month. We'd love to get some more people involved in this effort....more helpers means a lighter load for everyone involved. 

We need leaders and helpers for the toddler thru Kindergarten room, leaders and helpers for the 1st grade thru 4th grade room, and helpers for the middle school/high school room. Leaders use the curriculum to plan a lesson/activity for the morning, and helpers assist in whatever ways are needed. 

Thanks for your consideration in this. We really do need you!!  Let Myisha Cunningham know if you're available to help and the ages and role you'd prefer. Thanks so much!