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The Community

Christ calls us to be his presence, and these ministries are our attempt to be faithful to that call. Our desire is to be his hands and feet in our community. As you read about these ministries, please pray for those involved. As you pray, God may call you to action. If so, there is a place for you in service here. To find out more, Vicki Swyers, Buckner director of community ministries, can be reached at vswyers@third-baptist.org, or by phone at (314) 533-7340.

The Paul Sasser Relief Fund helps church members and our neighbors who are experiencing financial difficulties, including eviction, utility disconnection, inability to pay for prescriptions and transportation problems. Money from the fund also provides hospitality for those unable to pay for Wednesday night dinners at church. A special offering is taken for the Sasser fund on the first Sunday of every month, at the conclusion of worship.

Third's Food Pantry and Clothing Closet are open on the third Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to noon. The church partners with the St. Louis Area Foodbank to provide the groceries, and the clothing is donated by church members. No advance registration is required to participate. The pantry is located on the church's third floor.

About 15 church members volunteer at Cole E-mints Academy nearby through a program called KidsHope USA, which pairs churches with local public schools. Our mentors meet with their KidsHope children once a week for one hour and offer encouragement, help with academics and mostly importantly, love. A prayer partner is assigned to each mentor and child. The church also lifts up the school in prayer and supports the teachers throughout the year.

Our 3-B Tutoring program meets on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Rose Holman Learning Center on the fourth floor of the church. The program serves students from the region's public, charter and parochial schools. Tutors are volunteers, mainly students from nearby St. Louis University and church members. They help students with homework, reading, math and other skills. The learning center has a computer lab that is equipped with Orchard educational software and has Internet access. Another bonus: Basketball and other recreation at night's end.

CityArts provides music lessons and arts programs for children in our neighborhood and church family. The program's goal is to bring arts instruction to children who might not have an opportunity to take lessons elsewhere. In addition to private lessons, CityArts has provided an arts component for the Rockwood School District's SMART Academy, which meets at Third Baptist in July. At the 2009 SMART Academy, CityArts partnered with COCA, Portfolio Gallery and Jazz St. Louis for afternoons of dance, art, drama and music.

In November 2008, about 30 Third Baptist volunteers fanned out in our neighborhood and conducted interviews at non-profits, churches, hospitals, schools and government offices within a one-mile radius. Their goal was to discover the needs, strengths and opportunities in our neighborhood so that our church could better discern God's call for community ministry. The resulting Community Assessment was used by our Community Ministries Team to shape the church's ministries in the following year. Here are some of the community partnerships that resulted from Assessment Day:

  • Community Action Partnership, also known as the Human Development Corp., used our building space for a training program for teens called Operation Springboard for Youth. The class included about five teens from Third.

  • The theme of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Annual Meeting at Third Baptist in April 2009 was service, and our community assessment was instrumental in lining up projects for CBF volunteers at Cole E-Mints Academy; the VA Medical Center; Salvation Army/Harbor Light; the Habitat for Humanity Restore.

  • Third co-sponsored St. Francis Xavier (College) Church's "Racism in St. Louis: The Challenge To People Of Faith" on Saturday, November 14, 2009 and was involved in helping to plan the event.

  • Volunteers from Third began helping in the clothing ministry at the St. Louis Harbor Light/Salvation Army shelter.

  • Boxes of hats, gloves, scarves and socks were donated to Places for People after one of the assessment volunteers told her co-workers about this agency's need for them.

  • The Community Ministries team cooked and served a meal at Father Dempsey’s Charities in August and has invited its residents to participate in the food pantry/ clothing ministry each month. A Thanksgiving meal with the residents also is planned.

  • Flock to Serve day in September 2009 included a work crew for Habitat for Humanity, which is building in the nearby Jeff/ Vander/Lou neighborhood.

  • Calvary Community Development Corporation invited the church to participate in its 6th Annual Health Fair in October 2009.