Heartland News

Westhill Park Baptist Church in Regina wants to do more than simply write cheques to show it cares for the world: it is encouraging 200 people to do at least 4 hours of local service in the community.

“Our vision for this year is to: Love God, Love Others and Serve the World,” says Darren Andres, Westhill’s new pastor for Adult Ministries. “This came out of a full staff effort to dream about a new partnership that builds something local on top of the partnerships we already have with CBM and churches in Bolivia, and with Katepwa Baptist Kamp.”

For the local partnership, Westhill Park decided to work with Soul’s Harbour Rescue Mission, a local ministry to people living in poverty that provides a soup kitchen, clothing ministry and help for people with addictions.

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“We’ve been overwhelmed by the response and people are responding really generously. [For example], tonight we have 15 people cooking spaghetti for 300 people and 26 people serving,” Darren said in mid-April. “We hope that for many this will become a long-term pattern. At some point, it will become part of the spiritual rhythm of each person’s life and not need the church as the driving force.”

This dream becomes a success as stories are told. A great one came from a visit to the Soul's Harbour soup kitchen to check out what was needed. The staff at Soul's Harbour were fretting because someone had just donated two sides of beef - intact. They needed a butcher, but did not know one. Westhill Park happens to have a butcher in their congregation. As soon as the butcher, Nathan, heard about the need, he responded, happy to be able to serve them in that way.

“People want to be part of a dream,” Darren said. “Often they don’t know where they fit but then they find they can be useful to God.” He recounted another story of a young man who didn't attend church often but who has become involved in the soup kitchen. The last time they were there serving, he made other volunteers commit to the next date they would serve and prepare the food before they left. "Service appeals to people looking for something larger looking for something larger to be a part of. Also, lots of families want to serve together.”

On the first weekend in May, Westhill Park held its own Serve weekend to offer the community an intense period of service. They will be doing things like building homes with Habitat for Humanity, doing clean up and maintenance at Katepwa Baptist Kamp, building animal shelters, volunteering with Canadian Blood Services, providing daycare at the YWCA, and working in the Soul’s Harbour soup kitchen, clothing ministry and after-church potluck.

Serving is an important piece in the life of the church because this is what it means to be a follower of God. When you tell the stories of what it looks like for 200 people to serve, people understand that. The staff at Westhill Park are excited about the impact their focus on serving is having and about the really generous response they are seeing.