MISSIONS AT IMMANUEL
Women’s Missionary Union
The objective of the WMU of Immanuel Baptist Church is “to teach missions, engage in mission action and evangelism, support missions, and provide and interpret information regarding the work of the church and the denomination.” We have two groups dedicated to these tasks. Both meet once a month; one meets on Monday evenings and the other meets on Tuesday mornings. The two women’s groups support numerous organizations, individuals, and projects: Agricultural Development Initiative, Support for missionaries Van and Jackie Ingram and Todd and Karen Helm, Christian Women’s Job Corps, International Friends, Metropolitan Women’s Prison, San Diego Collegiate Ministries, Tennessee Adult Homes, Vanderbilt/Belmont Baptist Student Unions, and many more. The WMU groups also lead the church in special prayer and missions emphases.
Mission Study for Children
Missions Friends, GAs, and RAs meet weekly during the school year at 6:20 p.m. on Wednesdays after Church Family Supper. They study about missionaries around the world and here in the United States. In May there is a recognition service for all the children when they share with the church all they have learned.
Mission Opportunities
Our motivation for doing missions is partly explained by the question Barbara Brown Taylor writes in her book Leaving Church, “What if the church’s job were to move people out the door instead of trying to keep them in, by convincing them that God needed them more in the world than in the church?” This we believe. We also believe that not only does God need us more in the world, but we also need to be more in the world because our encounters with God’s people teach us something about the One who created us.
Listed below are some of the ways we are seeking to be, and to find, the hands and heart of God in our community and beyond.
Bordeaux Long-Term Care Home
Since 1946, Immanuel members have been enhancing the quality of life for the residents at Bordeaux Long-Term Care Home. Opened on December 5, 1893, the hospital provided a variety of medical services in its first 74 years; however, since 1967, Bordeaux has focused solely on the delivery of quality, long-term care to its residents. Once a month, IBC members take goodies and visit with the residents. Contact Sue Senter (615-292-9704) for more information.
Inter-generational Mission Trip to New York City
July 25 - August 2, 2008
Immanuel members, high school age
and older, will lead day camps for neighborhood children at Metro Baptist Church in Manhattan and Greater Restoration Baptist Church in Brooklyn.
Please contact Alan Sherouse for more information. See Staff Page
Christmas Baskets
Every Christmas, members of Immanuel and the Vietnamese congregation collect money to purchase items which are then sorted and delivered to Vietnamese families in the community. Learn more about our Vietnamese congregation.
Other Organizations and Projects
We also include in our budget and in our prayers the following organizations and projects.
Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty
Siloam Family Health Center
Belmont University
Woodcock Baptist Mission Center
Baptist World Alliance
Baptist Center for Ethics
Pastoral Counseling Center
Mills-Buttrick Scholarship
Boulevard Bolt [ website ]
Since 1994, volunteers from Immanuel Baptist Church, The Temple Ohabai Sholom and St. George’s Episcopal Church have labored to raise money for the homeless of Nashville through the Boulevard Bolt, a five-mile run/walk on Belle Meade Boulevard on Thanksgiving morning. Since then more than $1M has been raised to benefit the homeless people in and around Nashville. It’s a great way to spend a few hours on Thanksgiving morning. Please contact Becky Atkinson, Debbie Maxwell, Abigail Reynolds, or Judy Skeen or go directly to the Bolt’s website for more information. (Call 615-297-5356)
Habitat for Humanity
[International Website] [Nashville Area Website]
In March of 2007 the Boulevard Bolt and its three sponsoring congregations built a Habitat House for the Bayar Mohammed family. The house was completed on April 1 and was dedicated on Sunday, April 29 at 1 p.m. at Providence Park, a Habitat neighborhood in southeast Nashville.
Room in the Inn [website]
Room in the Inn, a ministry of the Campus for Human Development, provides food and shelter for up to 225 homeless people each night in more than 150 area congregations from November 1st to March 31st. Immanuel Baptist Church is one of the participating congregations.
”These ‘houses of the good’ are a blessing to the men, women, and children who receive a safe place to rest during the coldest months of the year…What each volunteer provides, though, is never simply a place to stay. What each offers is a chance for people to feel respected and cared for when they often feel invisible or ignored. There is an abiding gratitude for the roof and food and services that each congregation supplies, but the real warmth comes from the fellowship they experience with each volunteer.” (from the CHD website)
IBC invites 12 men to stay the night in our Fellowship Hall several times each year. Church volunteers usually work with members of their Sunday School classes, but there is always a place to serve. Please contact Mark Sullivan or Susan Sullivan for more information.
Operation InAsMuch [ website]
Taking our cue from the teachings of Jesus recorded in Matthew 25:40, we look forward to Operation InAsMuch every year. In October of 2007, 130 volunteers from Immanuel Baptist Church participated in this 'one-day ministry blitz, mobilizing believers beyond the walls of the church.' Through 17 different projects in the Metro area, our people cleaned, painted, weeded, planted, cooked, visited, and generally tried to make ourselves useful. We worked through agencies such as the Woodcock Mission (pictured to the right), Ronald McDonald House, Siloam Family Health Center, Magdalene House, Freedom Recovery Community (a new project of The Next Door), the Developmental Learning Center, Tennessee Baptist Adult Homes, and Bordeaux Long-Term Care Home. We even provided water to thirsty early-morning joggers on Belle Meade Boulevard. Please contact Lerma Hearn for more information.