Fruits of Community Involvement

For his first pastorate, Burkett Smith came to the Evangelical United Brethren church of Bear Lake. He discovered that the members had little concern for their neighbors in this dwindling western Pennsylvania town. Invited to serve as an honorary member of the Bear Lake Volunteer Fire Department, the new pastor accepted—and learned that not one of his church men was in the fire company.

At the next church men’s meeting, Smith told the fellows they should be active in community affairs. For instance, why weren’t any of them members of the volunteer fire department? The young pastor’s words made sense to at least five men. Next time the fire company met, they were present for their first meeting.

The following Sunday morning at Bear Lake E.U.B., as the service was about to begin, five men from the fire department who’d never before attended walked in. They filed straight down to the front row.

That Sunday Burkett Smith preached on the Christian responsibility of parents. Next Sunday the five were back at church—this time with their families. And within the next few months, all five of the firemen became Christians, together with their wives.

—Joe Bayly, in Eternity (10-61); quoted in Men of Integrity, Vol. 4, no. 2, (March/April 2001).

See: Matthew 5:16; 1 Corinthians 9:19-22; James 2:17