Community Activity – MBC – in, with and for the community

001Moortown Baptist Church is a real community church. By that we mean that as well as providing any number of activities for our ‘regulars’ we never miss an opportunity to take the good news of Jesus out to our neighbours.

There is no better example of this than in the work MBC does in and with local Primary school.

Each year we host Rewind to Christmas and Rewind to Easter, two days of fun and learning which show upwards of 600 local school children what we as Christians consider the real meaning of these two festivals to be.

As well as what we might call these ‘big’ events MBC is also active day to day in many less obvious ways. For example a number of us regularly go out to lead school assemblies, a number of us serve as school governors and a some of our congregation visit schools to help children with their reading.

WallAnimation1Away from our direct school’s work, in 2011, MBC spent the best part of a year planning and executing a massive community wide project that we called What Matters. This resulted in a full weekend of special events and in us mounting a unique art installation containing literally hundreds of original photographs showing the people, places and things that matter most to us and our neighbours. Here again this was a project which saw a massive amount of input from local schools; one of which (Allerton Church of England Primary) even called upon the services and guidance of a highly respected professional photographer. 

More recently MBC has become increasingly involved in Leeds Citizens, an alliance of faith, education and community organisations, working together for the common good of Leeds. It exists to build the power of ordinary people, so they can take action for social justice, win change and build relationships across diverse communities. Leeds Citizens uses Community Organising to help people of all ages run exciting campaigns that get decision makers to listen and act on the issue that matter to them.

Even more recently some of our members have played a pivotal role in the setting up of a local community support group called Living Local. Operating in the Lingfield’s and Fir Trees the group runs a Community Hub on Lingfield Drive.

Oh, and not forgetting that Moortown Baptist Church was the birth place of the Leeds and Moortown Furniture Store; a registered charity which for more than thirty years has been addressing the needs of people in Leeds by collecting donated furniture and via scores of statutory and voluntary referral agencies passing it on to people in need. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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