LAKELAND — It had the ordinary bazaar components: face painting, popcorn machines, arts and crafts, home-baked goods, and entertainment. Then, there was the not so ordinary: a church intentionally creating a safe place where members could meet their unchurched neighbors and
discover the needs of the community.

“We were not inviting them into our world, but creating a space where the two worlds —churched and unchurched — could come together,” said the Rev. William Oakley, pastor of College Heights United Methodist Church in Lakeland. “People could be on church property without thinking they were being roped into a service or some commitment.”

The church closed down its street Oct. 10 and opened its grounds to the community for a first-ever Fellowship and Community Outreach Bazaar. The invitation was accepted by “easily 1,000 [people] and probably a lot more than that,” Oakley said.

The purpose of the bazaar was not to make money, but to get to know the community and allow the community to get to know the church, said the Rev. William A. Fisackerly III, a retired pastor and co-chair of the planning committee.

Neighborhood associations, local government offices, law enforcement agencies, emergency services and the Citrus Regional Bloodmobile were among the groups that participated. Nearby churches were also asked to present information on their ministries, Fisackerly said, adding that most churches were surprised by the request.

According to Oakley, more than 180 church members worked on the project. “The bazaar was a success for the church before the event itself, bringing members of the church together to cooperate,” he said. The church benefited from “working together and enjoying each other’s contributions.”

Oakley says the idea for the event was stimulated by the Council of Bishops’ Initiative on Children and Poverty and Operation Evangelization, Florida Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson’s campaign to reach 400,000 members by the year 2000.

Those programs started conversations within the church about what it could do to reach out to its community. “We thought, ‘Gee, how many kids are there in our neighborhood and what are their needs?’ ” Oakley said.

Although the church has provided meeting space for community groups like Crime Watch, church members wanted to do more to break down the barriers between themselves and their neighbors. Oakley said they wanted the community to know that despite the church’s “foreboding” appearance, “it’s where real people go and meet and worship.”

And now, he says, the barriers have begun to come down. People who went to the bazaar have visited the church for worship and several families are attending regularly.

“We know how hard it is to communicate to the community that the church is open,” he said. “So, we gave [the community] an experience with church that was not churchy.”

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 © 1998 Florida United Methodist Review Online