We're looking forward to a great summer here at Elias Community Church in Macon, Georgia. As a multi-focused, incarnational non-profit organization with the mission to serve the people of the surrounding community, our broad mission statement has given us the freedom in Christ to be whatever He calls us to be at any given time. Nevertheless, our main outreach has been directed toward the young people within the neighborhood. One of the most recent privelages we've had concerning youth ministry was the opportunity to host the After-School Elias Program that lasted from January through May of this year. It's great to know that kids look forward to this program again during the upcoming 2009-10 school year.
This summer, we will have a few of the ASE (After-School Elias) kids meet here a few times per week to improve their reading skills. Also, from July 13-17th, we will host the Vacation Bible School that will be under the direction of Joy Dunnam and the members of Covenant Church of Milledgville, Georgia.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
new pictures coming soon!
despite the long incubation, we will soon post a series of photographs of the children that Elias ministers to. keep watching!
Monday, December 22, 2008
The Church for Fort Hawkins
The Elias Community Church is tied to the Fort Hawkins community, just east of the Ocumulgee River in Macon, Georgia. It's named after a fort, the remnants of which still stand, that was built to keep the native americans out of the area so the american settlers could move in.
It was a very prosperous area, but as in so many urban stories, the "flight" of the monied to the outskirts of town, construction projects, and other demographic shifts lead to a typical impoverished american urban setting. Only a few blocks away are macon's subsidized housing "projects." Church street is aptly named, but one of the three churches is abandoned and falling down, another is still vibrant but draws mainly successful parishoners from atlanta with it's radio broadcasts, rather than targetting those immediately around it, and the third, a methodist church that seemed to have a predominantly white congregation in a nearly exclusively black neighborhood, closed it's doors about 5 years ago. A fourth church, around the corner, is also closed.
It is into this context that a few people felt called of God to move into the former Methodist Church and reopen it's doors as Elias Community Church. Orriginally without denominational ties, it has been adopted and supported by the Southern Baptist Mission Board as a missionary church. For the past three years, it has been ministering in this neighborhood, particularly to the children.
When we say it is the church for Fort Hawkins, we certainly don't mean that it is just there for that little piece of the world. We mean that Christ cares about fort hawkins, and every child there, and that his bride does too. Elias Community is about many things, and one is that we are "for" each other and the people of Fort Hawkins, Georgia.
It was a very prosperous area, but as in so many urban stories, the "flight" of the monied to the outskirts of town, construction projects, and other demographic shifts lead to a typical impoverished american urban setting. Only a few blocks away are macon's subsidized housing "projects." Church street is aptly named, but one of the three churches is abandoned and falling down, another is still vibrant but draws mainly successful parishoners from atlanta with it's radio broadcasts, rather than targetting those immediately around it, and the third, a methodist church that seemed to have a predominantly white congregation in a nearly exclusively black neighborhood, closed it's doors about 5 years ago. A fourth church, around the corner, is also closed.
It is into this context that a few people felt called of God to move into the former Methodist Church and reopen it's doors as Elias Community Church. Orriginally without denominational ties, it has been adopted and supported by the Southern Baptist Mission Board as a missionary church. For the past three years, it has been ministering in this neighborhood, particularly to the children.
When we say it is the church for Fort Hawkins, we certainly don't mean that it is just there for that little piece of the world. We mean that Christ cares about fort hawkins, and every child there, and that his bride does too. Elias Community is about many things, and one is that we are "for" each other and the people of Fort Hawkins, Georgia.
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