Times change, but sadly institutions often stay the same. That’s why people living around Park Place Methodist Church in Norfolk, Virginia, haven’t always felt welcome there.
“The tradition of this church has been very formal and we have an informal community that has moved around the church. Unfortunately, we have a generation that has become estranged to Christianity and estranged to the church nearby,” said Pastor Joe McDaniel, Park Place Ministries executive director.
Over the weekend, McDaniel partnered with CBN and several other sponsors to throw a Hip Hop birthday party for Jesus–inviting all of their neighbors to attend.
“We’re going to give out a lot of gifts,” McDaniel said. “We’re going to give out food, but most importantly we’re going to celebrate the birth of our Lord.”
Park Place Ministries hopes that events like this one will help bridge the gap between the Church and the community.
“When we find Christianity in various parts of the world we find crime rates are low; we find marriages are doing better; we find that the family is better,” McDaniel told CBN News. “So in theory where Christ is we have a stronger community.”
“So the idea is to put Christ into the community and rid ourselves of a lot of the problems that we have here in this community,” he said.
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: CBN News
Caitlin Burke
BCNN1 WP 