Girard, First Christian Church
Article compiled and written by the CCK Communications Team. Originally published in the January 2023 issues of the Kansas Messenger.
In southeast Kansas just seven miles from the Kansas-Missouri border, you can find the First Christian Church of Girard, just a block away from the town square where the Crawford County Courthouse resides.
Maybe that’s why members of this small, tight-knit community of Christians with diverse backgrounds and opinions have such a spirit of service to the community where they live. They connect with and equip people in Girard by being the hands and feet of the Body of Christ through service in many different capacities.
From the food pantry to the thrift shop, to the schools, hospitals and community art events you will find members of FCC Girard serving, always seeking to love others as Christ has loved us.
Unique to other churches in Girard, FCC is led by a female pastor, Rev. Renee Goodwin, and they foster a spirit of welcome to all followers of Jesus regardless of doctrinal, political or ideological viewpoint. When it comes to equipping her congregation. Rev. Goodwin points to a healthy adult Sunday School program.
Over two-thirds of the regular Sunday morning worship participants also participate in one of two Sunday school classes, or in the mid-week Bible study where they connect with the gospel, with their own lives and with events going on around them.
Rev. Goodwin explains, “My hope as pastor is that what they learn in these classes helps to instill the peace of Christ within the participants, so they can respond with God’s grace and love flowing through them in an increasingly hostile and divisive world, and they can let others know that they learned how to do that at church”.
You’d be hard pressed to find a better description of the spirit of “Connect and Equip.”
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles describing Kansas churches and their mission to connect & equip. If you’d like to suggest your congregation for an article, contact copy editor Jessica Marston or call 316-775-1236.