Church builds upon relationship with East Elementary

Damya Washington, 4, gets her face painted Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 while Ja-nille Hendricks, 7, Keryn Eckles, 5, and Charletha Adu, 7, make faces during an east-end community block party hosted by the First Christian Church at East Elementary School.
Damya Washington, 4, gets her face painted Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 while Ja-nille Hendricks, 7, Keryn Eckles, 5, and Charletha Adu, 7, make faces during an east-end community block party hosted by the First Christian Church at East Elementary School.

Reaching Jefferson City's East Elementary School through mentoring, school supplies and other incentives, First Christian Church has been developing a relationship with the students and teachers for more than 30 years.

A first-time block party Friday night was the kickoff to a new era of involvement on the congregation's part, expanding its interest to the neighborhood.

A long-existing endowment to the church has supported its community ministries outside the church walls, said the Rev. Beau Underwood, senior minister.

However, it is really the desire of individuals within the church to put their faith in action that keeps such a partnership alive.

First Christian Church members were mentoring students at East long before the Jefferson City Public Schools District implemented its JC Champions mentoring program. Today, church members fold into the district's mentoring program.

As Partners In Education with the school through the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce, they augment other pieces of the school's needs.

For example, parent-teacher conferences had low parent participation. To help, the church provided T-shirts for the children whose parents attended. They found children influenced their parents to come out, and attendance improved.

The church brings ice cream to the annual field day, treats the teachers to an appreciation dinner in May and assists with the school's open house in August. They also provide the principal with a discretionary fund.

When the church's community ministries fund had a little extra, a committee explored what other community ministries with which they might want to get involved. Instead, the consensus was to invest more in East School, its families and its neighborhood, Underwood said.

"It was neat to see the congregation say, 'We want to keep building up, not pick a whole new thing,'" he said.

The Rev. Sarah Kingsbery, associate minister, agreed she was pleased the members wanted to engage the community more deeply.

"This congregation is a special community drawn to help East School; it's near and dear to their hearts," said Kingsbery, who has served the church for about a year.

The Disciples of Christ denomination has the priority of "mission first," Underwood said.

"That's been true at this congregation for a long time," he said. Globally, "the trend used to be raise money and send it overseas. This congregation's emphasis is they exist to serve others."

So the committee approached the school for what else it might be able to do.

East School leaders said they still had attendance issues, and they wanted to improve community relations.

From there, the church committee decided a block party would be a good way to kick off the school year. Then they were surprised at the east-end community's outpouring of support, said volunteer Elaine West.

In addition to business donations of money, food and items, several organizations attended Friday's event to share information.

Even members of the church have stepped up in large numbers to help.

"This is how we practice our faith; we love to share with other people," West said.

Vivian Murphy, who coordinates the church's support of the East School community, agreed: "The real work starts when you leave on Sunday morning. We really want to serve our neighbors."

The ultimate goal is simply to build relationships in the community, Kingsbery said.

"We want to have conversations on how to become better neighbors," she said. "We hope we'll find other assets and needs in the area."