The varied and large IMPACT Family Resource Center of First Baptist Blue Springs, Independence, Missouri, includes a monthly meal for the community.
“We gather around tables family style. We eat, laugh, tell stories and pray,” said Matt Sprink, pastor of community engagement and missions/director of community engagement. “After a few minutes it is hard to know who is hosting and who is being hosted. I love that. It reminds me that we are all guests at Christ’s table — and there is plenty of room!”
It provides First Baptist with multiple opportunities to engage the community and create disciples. Though the program centers around providing food needs, it meets others as well.
“For more than 25 years, our church has faithfully responded to and met the spiritual and financial needs of our neighbors through our IMPACT ministry,” Sprink said. “In particular, we help families and individuals with food insecurity needs. Our desire is to see our neighbors and love them well.”
IMPACT began from a small church closet. Today, it is spread throughout the Blue Springs community.
Serving more than 400 families a week, its services include a drive-thru food pantry, mobile market at an alternative high school, monthly community meals, on-site engagement at short stay hotels, support at area senior centers and more, Sprink noted.
Besides food, it provides clothing, toiletries, diapers and “caring listeners.”
Meeting needs
When necessary, IMPACT partners with other local organizations to help folks with housing needs, or aid them with rent and utility payments. The overall purpose is to meet needs and show Christ’s love.
“The desire has always been to minster to the whole person,” Sprink said.
“When we share tables at the community meal with our neighbors, when we linger to pray at the car window with families collecting groceries, when we serve coffee and cookies to friends at the hotel and give them our ears, when we make sure teenagers have food and toiletries and welcome them as we restock shelves to chat, we are seeing relational and ‘faith gaps’ close, even as we help to close the dinner table gaps of families in our community.”
Because of the ministry, he said, folks have come to Christ, been baptized, plugged into Bible studies, joined the church and begun to serve others in the community. “As we serve our neighbors, we are not simply giving out food, we are giving away our very selves and pointing to life in Christ,” he said.
IMPACT started when First Baptist Church began talking with local government and police officials. “We simply asked, ‘Where are there some unmet needs in our community?’” Sprink said. “Once they pointed us in a direction, we made calls, set up meetings and offered to help. God has been good to go before us and give us favor!”
“The ministry of IMPACT would be impossible without our incredible team of volunteers and the multiplying work of the Holy Spirit.”
He believes the IMPACT model can work with any size church due to societal trends.
“Within our state, with cuts and closures in other local support agencies, churches are uniquely positioned to rise to the challenge of loving our neighbors and meeting tangible needs across our communities.”
“With the reality of food scarcity and increasing needs across our communities, we must be all the more attentive, we must be all the more creative, and we must continue to sacrifice and offer to God what we can and invite him to multiply as only He can.”
Room to grow
As Blue Springs has expanded the IMPACT ministry it’s garnered local support.
“City officials, members of the school district, and even members of the local police force see us as partners and value our engagement.” Sprink noted.
He believes the program still has room to grow.
“Our mission as a church is to embody the Great Commandment and the Great Commission to know Christ and make Christ known. Loving our neighbors is at the heart of who we are as a church. I anticipate more of this incarnational model, moving out and towards others in love, guiding us in the years ahead.”
He says the IMPACT ministry is not about Blue Springs. “This is about Kingdom.”
Sprink hopes other churches will “love and engage their neighbors in creative ways that minister to the whole person.”
He’s available to speak with and encourage churches interested in engaging their communities, and can be contacted through First Baptist Blue Springs.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Michael Smith and originally published by the Pathway.
