Visit the Local Outreach Team website to view up-to-date information on this ministry.
Faith In Action
In 2008 we decided we had to take bold steps to change the church from being purely attractional to missional. We were convinced that God had placed us here to serve the needs of the commununity. Through the help of World Vision we came up with a plan to get outside the walls and onto the streets. During our Faith in Action quarterly event, we close down our Sunday morning church services and move the church into the community through serving.
We first adopted Argyle Elementary Scchool as a place to serve, then Open Hand Atlanta, and now the City of Smyrna. It is unbelievable what can get done when you descend on a place with 300+ volunteers!
The Echo Effect
This is an after school program for the youth at Argyle Elementary and Campbell Middle schools. It is held every Tuesday and Thursday from 5-8 pm in the church facilities.
The Echo Effect is dedicated to helping Smyrna’s youth strive to learn through education and mentoring.
Our goal is to encourage forward movement through improving self esteem, motivation, and creating a positive vision of our youth’s future. Producing these qualities within each youth will then naturally progress into an effect which will stimulate youth outside of the organization to do as their peers are — learning, motivating, and self empowering — to strive for a better future. Much as an echo can be heard down a long hallway, our vision is to see this echo move through our children and youth of Smyrna.
The Echo Effect will encourage volunteers to aid Smyrna’s youth by mentoring and tutoring. Our volunteers will value equity and respect for our youth and their families. We will offer job-shadowing opportunities as well as educational field trips throughout the year. In addition to these opportunities, we will be coaching basic etiquette and financial proficiencies.
We are geared towards supporting youth in yearning for their own successes and encouraging them to echo their experiences with others.
MUST Ministries
MUST Ministries is a faith-based organization which for thirty-seven years has been dedicated to providing services to persons and families in crisis while maintaining their dignity. MUST is a place where one’s faith can be put into action and where we can minister to the poor, the brokenhearted and those who are in crisis – in a place where “your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (Frederick Buechner)
Founded in 1971 and rooted in the Christian tradition, MUST addresses the basic needs of individuals, families, and children in the Marietta, Smyrna and Canton/Cherokee county communities. MUST brings people of many faiths together to respond to God’s challenge to minister to others with compassion and love, without judgment of the beliefs, background or circumstances of those who serve or of those being served.
We are proud to be partnered with MUST in meeting the needs of Cobb County. We provide barrels in the lobby to collect food donations, so please bring your nonperishable items when you come to church. We also serve meals at the MUST shelter on a regular basis, and many at the church volunteer their time at MUST food pantries.
Open Hand Atlanta
Open Hand helps people prevent or better manage chronic disease through Comprehensive Nutrition Care™, which combines home-delivered meals and nutrition education as a means to reinforce the connection between informed food choices and improved quality of life.
Open Hand seeks to eliminate disability and untimely death due to nutrition-sensitive chronic disease and to serve our community by empowering people to live healthier, more productive lives.
This is a great oportunity for families to serve together by delivering meals to the house-bound. On Faith in Action Sundays, we also serve by preparing meals at their main facility.
Trunk or Treat
At this annual event, we reach out to our immediate community to give children a safe place to “do Halloween” — dress up in fun costumes and get candy — while we offer a friendly environment for the parents. Each year we provide food, candy, and entertainment, and hundreds from the communuty show up for an evening of fun. This is a time for CCC members to meet our neighbors and serve them with joy.
HIV/AIDS Education and Testing
We believe that HIV/AIDS is the unspoken disease of our time. It has been pushed under the radar for political and social reasons. We at Cumberland know that the epidemic is increasing and not decreasing. Through education and testing CCC can play a vital role in the care of those affected by this disease, whether they are inside or outside the walls of our church. We partner with Someone Cares Atlanta to provide educational seminars and testing days throughout the year.
Latest Info:
AIDS at Home
The Obama administration starts to combat complacency in the United States.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
WHEN IT comes to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, there is an alarming complacency among Americans. Perhaps it’s the success of antiretroviral drug treatments. In the eyes of many, those drugs have transformed the disease from one with no cure to a manageable ailment. Or maybe it’s the view that AIDS is more of a worry in Africa or Southeast Asia. But it’s not just happening “over there.” And the Obama administration took a first step last week to remind people that it’s happening right here, right now.
“Act Against AIDS” is a five-year endeavor announced last Tuesday with the mission to snap us out of our somnolence as the epidemic rages around us. The $45 million effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services will highlight the fact that every 9 1/2 minutes, someone in the United States becomes infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. A multimedia ad campaign will direct people to the Web site http://www.nineandahalfminutes.org, which is a portal to a wealth of information on the epidemic, how people can protect themselves and their partners, and where they can seek testing and treatment.
The initial targets of this focus are African Americans. According to the CDC, while blacks make up just 12 percent of the population, they account for “roughly half” of all new HIV infections and AIDS deaths. The agency reports that the disease is the No. 1 killer of black women age 25 to 34 and the second-leading cause of death among black men age 35 to 44. Those frightening statistics are part of a troubling larger story of AIDS in America. Last year, the CDC estimated that 56,300 people became infected with HIV in 2006. The previous estimate was 40,000. The agency defines the epidemic as “generalized and severe” when HIV/AIDS affects 1 percent of the overall population. Last month, the District’s HIV/AIDS Administration announced that 3 percent of the city’s population has HIV/AIDS.
We applaud the administration for bringing together 14 African American civic organizations to help highlight the importance of testing and treatment among their memberships. But more needs to be done. Many, most notably Robert C. Gallo, one of the scientists who uncovered HIV as the cause of AIDS, have called for a domestic version of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has been successful in sub-Saharan Africa. President Obama has charged Jeffrey S. Crowley, his director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, to craft a national AIDS strategy over the next year with three goals: lowering the rate of HIV infections, increasing the number of people in care and reducing disparities in care. For the sake of the nation, we hope the administration maintains its focus on this domestic challenge.
MOPS/MOPS Consignment Sale/MOPS High School
Mothers of PreSchoolers is a ministry that has grown dynamically over the years at CCC. It started with a few moms who had a need to be with other adults for a few hours and who wanted to reach out to other moms in the neighborhood. Today dozens of moms meet every other week, and the group has developed one of the largest biannual kids’ consignment sales in the area. This sale provides inexpensive, clean clothes, toys, and other child-related needs, while helping to raise money for the ministry.
Recently, MOPS has expanded, beginning a MOPS program for teenage moms at Campbell High School. This ministry is having a tremendous effect on the 20+ moms who attend, providing them with mentoring and encouragement.
Victoria’s Friends
Victoria’s Friends is a support group for dancers. This group assists these women with any needs they might have. The founder, Victoria, had a goal to befriend and extend a helping hand to dancers in the same way that she was helped and loved during a difficult period in her life.
This is a great opportunity for the women of Cumberland to serve by going to the clubs to serve with a Friends Team or by making and donating gift baskets and purses for the women who are being ministered to. (www.victoriasfriends.com)
Habitat For Humanity
Over the past three years CCC has partnered with other churches in the area, collectively known as the Cobb County Interfaith Collaborative, to build a house from August to October each year. During the building months, we supply volunteers to go and serve each weekend. This is a fun way to meet new people and and donate some “sweat equity.”
Individual Benevolence
The financial crisis that has hit our country creates many opportunities to show the love of Jesus. This ministry is where the rubber meets the road, because many people first come through the church doors when they experience critical needs. Through careful discernment, we sort out legitimate needs and offer help. We do not give cash, but when appropriate we pay rent and mortgage payments, utility bills, and offer gas cards and grocery store cards. This service is for CCC members and nonmembers.
