Fairview takes Easter service to neighbors

From staff reports

Fairview Baptist Church in Apex, held a frigid Easter service in the Sawyer's Mill neighborhood near the church.

Photo by Norman Jameson

Biblical Recorder

Fairview Baptist Church in Apex considers itself strategically placed because "God has brought in neighborhoods around this place," says pastor Craig Hamlin.

The church commands a prominent intersection of busy roads in a well-populated suburban spread near Raleigh. Members are active in asking residents of those neighborhoods to attend Fairview but at Easter, Hamlin brought the church to the neighborhood. He led a frigid early service in the Sawyer's Mill neighborhood playground. Hamlin has already been asked to return.

"When a believer has a heart for his neighbors, they're going to see their neighborhood as a place where they need to be," Hamlin said. "When God puts in them a missional heart, that is so much better than a program."

One neighbor, recently transplanted from Rhode Island, took personal delight in decorating the trail to the service with a welcome sign and flowers.