Rubber meets the road: State Baptist churches use running as avenue for ministry
- Oct 26, 2007 - comment
Richie Bruce doesn’t have to look far to see the difference his church’s latest ministry has made on him.
Bruce, a member of Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills, in Birmingham Baptist Association, has lost about 40 pounds since Pastor Danny Wood challenged the church to start running at the first of the year.
“He (Bruce) took it seriously. His running started with the church’s Taking It to the Next Level theme this year,” said Joelle Akridge, recreation director at Shades Mountain Baptist.
He wasn’t alone. About 150 people from the church trained and ran together in a 5k in the spring, and several — Wood included — trained and ran in a marathon this year.
“Our church had made some significant gains in 2006, and my fear was that we would settle in and get complacent,” Wood said. “So to make sure we did not do this, I challenged myself, our staff and the congregation to go to a higher level, a next level, in their spiritual and physical life. … It has been exciting to see our people respond both spiritually and physically to the challenge.”
Ryan Whitley’s congregation is another that’s risen to the challenge, training together and holding a 5k annually as an outreach event.
“For the last three years, we’ve been doing a ‘couch to 5k’ 13-week plan to get in shape for the race,” said Whitley, pastor of CrossPoint Church, Trussville, in St. Clair Baptist Association.
Last year, one church member who worked as a volunteer at the race decided that this year, he would run it — he’s lost 105 pounds. “The race helps keep us as a church motivated to keep our bodies as the temple of God,” Whitley said.
Building camaraderie
And it raises funds to spread the gospel, Whitley added. Last year, the race raised $6,000, some of which bought a refrigerator truck for a pastor who takes food to the needy in the inner city every day.
The race serves as an outreach to the runners themselves, too, Whitley said.
“We get the race on the Birmingham Track Club schedule so that the community knows about it. Then we hold it here at the church so they become familiar with the church.”
A family has even joined the church because of the race, Whitley said. “They were runners training for a triathlon, and they were just using this to get in a run. But they became interested in the church, joined and are now an active part of the congregation.”
Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, Birmingham, in Birmingham Association uses its 5k for a similar purpose, said Jody Gambrell, associate minister of recreation. At the conclusion of the church’s annual Perseverance 5k, someone speaks to the 400–500 runners about what it means to be a Christian using the metaphor of the “race of life.”
“It’s a very good outreach event for us,” Gambrell said.
Hardy Sellers, equipping minister for administration at Vaughn Forest Baptist Church, Montgomery, in Montgomery Baptist Association, said his church had good results from its first 5k this year, too — Spring to Life, a race intended to, like CrossPoint’s, introduce the running community to the church.
But some of the best results have come not from the race itself but from the camaraderie in training, Sellers said. The church recently formed Team Vaughn Forest, a group of people who are triathletes or are interested in training for a triathlon.
“We pick certain races and train for them together. The goal is to get people to do something they never thought they could do,” Sellers said.
The group meets certain mornings each week to run, including early on Sundays before church, and prays every time before going out for a run, Sellers said.
“We welcome new people and get to know each other well,” he said. “These friends become more real than your ‘Sunday only’ church friends, because you get to know each other when you’re tired, hungry, just out there doing what you need to do.”
The group offers physical and spiritual accountability, Sellers said, and it attracts runners looking for a church home suited to them.
Bill Hurt, pastor of First Baptist Church, Decatur, in Morgan Baptist Association, agreed.
“We have a group of guys who runs together, not all of whom are church members,” he said. “We end where we start each time, and we have prayer requests there — job interviews, potential contracts that businessmen are signing, physical condition of spouses and children.”
Running together can grow two relationships at once, Hurt said — your relationship with Christ and with others. “Fitness can be a great avenue to build relationships with those in your church and in your community.”
This article is reprinted from the October 18, 2007, issue of The Alabama Baptist, the newspaper of the Alabama Baptist State Convention.