The past 120 years in the life of the Corinth Road Baptist Church may have seen its congregation grow from a few dozen to over 300 Sunday attendees, but its purpose has not changed.

Reaching out to neighbors, the community, the country and the world to share the Word of the Lord is paramount to its existence.

This sharing can come in many forms, such as the members who spent a week in Decatur, Ala. at the Edwin L. Hodges Ministries. Hodges is a retired minister who realized just getting Bibles into the hands of missionaries around the world was not enough; they needed brochures as additional teaching tools.

A little over five years ago he appealed to all Christian churches to send along any biblical materials they felt appropriate and he began sending them out to 113 countries and in 37 different languages. To date, this ministry has mailed 15 million pieces totaling almost one million pounds.

Members of Corinth Baptist travel to Decatur often to help out in this endeavor, and a spokesman for the ministry said the Corinth members who helped out last week did such a good job that, for the first time in a long while, requests for materials were completely caught up.

Member Laura Dean has just returned from spending several months in Uganda. Nineteen members constitute a mission called the “Love Lifters,” headed by Elaine La Favers. They administer to several dozen shut-ins by way of phone calls, personal visits and cards. Once a quarter those shut-ins who are able to leave their homes are escorted to the church for special luncheons or an ice cream social.

“We're super friendly and extremely mission-oriented,” said Alan Sanders, chairman of the Board of Deacons. He teaches a witness class that instructs people in the techniques needed to approach people and slowly lead them to Jesus Christ. It is a three week course that enables people to develop a friendship with those they would like to reach and eventually through that friendship talk about eternal matters.

Over the past several years members have witnessed to people in Jamaica, Rumania, Hungry, Austria and India. Witnessing on a local level is important to the church also, and it supports the Fayette Samaritans, the Fayette Pregnancy Crisis Center and at Christmas members participate in an Angel Christmas Tree, looking after children of families who have parents in prison.

As a way of ministering to its own members, the church's fellowship hall has just been remodeled from stem to stern. There is new carpeting in the room that will seat 400 at a time, new flooring in the kitchen as well as all brand new equipment. It will be tested today with a homecoming pot luck luncheon.

On hand will be a former pastor, the Rev. Elmer Stephens. Services are at 9:45 a.m. for Sunday School and 11 a.m. for worship services. Sunday evening services are at 6 p.m. and on Wednesday evenings there is supper at 5:45 p.m. and worship services are at 6:30.

The church is at 398 Corinth Road and can be reached at 770-461-4456.

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