MADISON — For more than 30 years, seven churches in rural Madison County near Tallahassee have worked together "to be servants in their communities in ways they couldn’t individually," said Jeannine Reynolds, a deaconess and Church and Community Worker with the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM).

Called the United Methodist Cooperative Ministries of Madison County, that cooperative effort is impacting not only the Madison community, but other parts of the world.

The ministry began in the late 1960s, uniting seven of the county’s eight churches, according to Charles Weaver, Tallahassee District superintendent. The churches had less than 200 members each. "It was a way for the churches to make a social witness in Madison County that they could not do individually," he said.

Today, the churches range in size from 18 members to more than 450 in a county that has about 19,000 residents. And while each church maintains its own identity and ministries, they work together on local and global mission projects.

"Considering the county, how poor it is and how few resources it has, a lot of people have come to the fore to address the problems that exist," Reynolds said.

Much of the Cooperative’s ministry takes place at the Community Center, built in the 1970s by the Cooperative on donated land and using volunteer labor.

The Pine Tree Craft and Quilters meet there every Tuesday night. Made up of members of the Cooperative’s churches and residents, the quilters make blankets and quilts for babies in Africa, which they send to Delbert and Sandy Groves, members of the Florida Conference who are GBGM missionaries to Zambia, and Native Americans in South Dakota.

"Locally, they make layettes for infants that are handed out by the health department as a motivation for women to get prenatal care," Reynolds said. They also make "quillos," pillows with a quilt inside, for children at the Vashti Center for Children, Youth and Families, a United Methodist service agency in Thomasville, Ga., and provide personal hygiene items to women living in shelters after leaving abusive situations.

The Center houses a clothes closet for people who need low-cost and free used clothing and is the site for monthly youth dances and weekly line dancing for people of all ages. "The line dancing has brought in people we don’t ordinarily see at church," Reynolds said. "It’s a good way to let people know what we’re all about."

Cooperative ministry also takes place outside the Community Center, Reynolds said. The seven churches, along with those of other denominations, provide Sunday worship and Thursday Bible study at the Madison County jail. They provide Bible study and volunteer mentors and tutors for the boys at the Greenville Hills Academy, a local juvenile detention center. And with grants received from the Florida Department of Children and Families, Cooperative Ministries is providing emergency money to families in crisis.

"Last year, we helped 62 households to prevent evictions or disconnection of power needed for cooking and heating," Reynolds said.

Through Cooperative Ministries, the churches have formed working relationships with such groups as the Juvenile Justice Council, Domestic Violence Task Force and the Healthy Start Coalition, a government program that teaches prenatal care and parenting skills.

"We try to meet whatever needs there might be," Reynolds said. "It’s easier to do with all of the churches rather than individuals setting up outreach ministries by themselves."