Be The Church - Lifeway Church GR8 Event

For Josh Price, Senior Pastor of Lifeway Church in Celina, it’s not enough to go to church, he believes people need to “Be The Church”.

One way Price feels they can do this is by giving back to the community. Three years ago, Lifeway Church started the GR8 Campaign, which is designed for members to leave the walls of the church, head out into our community, and serve those in need with eight different defined service projects. Celina resident Tracy Heckle organized this year’s entire event, down to the matching t-shirts. Along with designated contributions from Lifeway Church, monies from the shirts were used to help purchase the supplies needed for the campaign. This year, the heavy rains impacted the 2018 GR8 Campaign, which was held on Sunday, September 23, but they more than doubled the number of volunteers from last year and were able to give back in a big way.

“I am blown away by the number of people here this year, it’s incredible,” said Heckle.

Lifeway partnered with local non-profit, Grace Bridge, for a number of projects. Volunteers of all ages helped clean and organize the Grace Bridge Food Distribution Center, packed boxes to be distributed to those needing assistance, packed personal care boxes and cleaned and organized the Grace Bridge Warehouse. Celina Firefighter Ryan Worthey and his wife Mindy worked on the warehouse project.

“It’s work, but it’s not really work, we get a lot out of it also,” they said.

Mike Rutig, Connections Pastor at Lifeway Church, said, “Working with Grace Bridge makes sense. We are able to be here in the community and work closely with a group that is doing so much for Celina.”

At the church building, handymen (and women) patched up holes, touched up paint and made various other needed repairs for the Love Your Church project. Others at the church signed up for the Operation Christmas Shoe Box. These individuals went shopping for materials to pack shoe boxes for children all over the world who never get a Christmas. The shoe boxes were prayed over before they are sent out.

A large group of volunteers showed up to participate in Lifeway Church's GR8 event.

Photo by Renee Marler

A couple of projects were put on hold due to the rain. Becasue the ground was too wet, the group was unable to clean out and add fresh mulch to the Grace Bridge Gardens or sand and repaint the park benches in the Celina square. Price said they will be rescheduling those projects in the future.

While the official GR8 event may be over for the year, Lifeway Church pastors and members say they try to use GR8 as a baseline for showing Christ in the community year round.

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