This summer, congregants at Calvary Temple reflected on the attention they were giving to missions overseas and in U.S. locations such as hurricane-damaged New Orleans.

Contemplating where to next direct their efforts, church members decided they wanted to make sure to be as involved in helping their local community as in helping needy people in other places.

The result was the “I Love Indy” project.

Calvary Temple’s outreach pastor, the Rev. Glenn Palmer, answered questions by e-mail about this church initiative.

Question: How did “I Love Indy” begin?

Answer: A few years ago, members of our young adult ministry, Flashpoint, spent a week in New Orleans helping a ministry that provided food for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. After that trip, the group made the decision that they wanted to do to some sort of missions project every other year. So, this past summer they decided that they wanted to put the same effort and love they put into New Orleans into their own community. Hence the project, “I Love Indy.”

Q: What specifically will your church be doing?

A: After deciding to work in Indy, the next question for Flashpoint was to find an appropriate focus for their efforts. We started looking for agencies that we could help and narrowed our focus to two.

The first was the Community Alliance of the Far Eastside (CAFE) because they serve the same geographical area where Calvary Temple is located. When asked how we could help, CAFE responded with a request for shelters to be built over two benches . . . in a small park they’d just built next to their building.

Flashpoint members also wanted to identify an organization whose reach was citywide, so they approached the leaders of the Salvation Army Women and Children’s Shelter downtown. After touring the facility, Flashpoint leaders realized they could give it a makeover. Especially needed was a play area for children staying in the facility with their mothers.

The young adults laid out what they wanted to do at the shelter. They wanted to transform the lobby and the playroom, update the hallways with fresh paint, create a fun, attractive playroom for the children and an equally warm and loving room for the moms to relax in. They realized that the project was bigger than what they could accomplish on their own. It was then that they began to solicit other ministries within the church to help. It soon encompassed the entire church; including the men’s ministry, women’s ministry and Calvary Temple’s home fellowship groups, called Christian Life Groups.

The Christian Life Groups provided new bedding in the facility. Church members donated money for toys, new furniture, shelves and other equipment. Donations were taken, and eventually the work was done. The men’s ministry took on the project at CAFE. Over the course of a few days, the men were able to construct the shelters at their park.

Our young adults mobilized our entire church to heed the call and serve our community.

Q: Were there precedents at your church for this program, or was this a totally new form of outreach?

A: For years, Calvary Temple has been an active agent in the community through our Caring Place Sunday School, Thanksgiving grocery distribution, the Caring Place Christmas Store and the Prayer Tower. The church continues to be involved globally in world missions.

However, in the times we live in now, it is imperative that no organization, churches included, become too comfortable with what they did yesterday. Our new lead pastor, Rev. Jon Susa, who grew up in a missionary family working in Venezuela, is encouraging our church body to become even more mission-minded, whether that is locally, nationally or globally.