A much-larger-than-usual crowd recently showed up for a back-to-school clothing giveaway at Elm Grove Baptist Church, enabling the church to have a significant gospel opportunity with every family at the event.
Pastor Clint Gentry said 223 school-age children, from preschool to high school, received free clothing — with each student receiving five outfits. An adult had to accompany each child.
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The church has hosted the giveaway since 2018 with church members donating clothing items. Gentry was youth pastor at that time, and has been the senior pastor for the past six years.
“Our church has a lot of school teachers, and one of our teachers, Leslie Ray, is the coordinator. She and some teachers wanted to help kids — other churches were doing school supplies so those needs were being met. But other needs, like clothing, were not being met,” Gentry recalled.
That first giveaway attracted a large crowd, but in recent years the number declined, especially during COVID. Last year there were slightly less than 100 students served, but this year there was a dramatic increase.
‘Awesome’ crowd
“It was from 1-3 p.m., but we probably had 50–75 people lined up in front of the church at 12:45,” Gentry said of the July 26 event. “I said, ‘Wow, this is awesome.’ I got a speaker and started telling people the gospel. I told them, ‘Today we are blessed to be able to gift you — these are free — you get a certain amount of clothing per kid.’ My segway was, ‘we want to give these to you freely because they reflect the free gift of salvation that Christ has given to us.’”
The church had its gym set up like a clothing store where people could enter and see the clothing offered.
“We had people helping in that process. And every family got a goody bag that contained hygiene items and other things,” Gentry said. “In that bag we would give each family a gospel tract. On the way out we tried to target people and ask if they needed any help. We were able to have private (gospel) conversations with them.”
At least 25 church members were on hand to help people in the distribution, Gentry noted, and said many church members contributed clothing.
“Our church as a whole was blown away,” Gentry said of the event. “We had enough clothing, but there were some sizes we didn’t have so we have extended past that (July 26) date. All last week we were working with our entire church family to meet the needs of some of the kids who came late. We’ve been able afterwards to meet those needs.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Chip Hutcheson and originally published by Kentucky Today.
