CHURCH OF THE WEEK
Help Is on the Rise in South Carolina
By Tim Branson and David Sisson
The 700 Club
CBN.com
– You’d think this is a restaurant, yet these folks have gathered for much more than good food. The weekly “family feast” at New Jerusalem Church feeds both body and spirit. After dinner, Bishop Barnett Thoroughgood serves up God’s word.
"It’s one thing to give me the Gospel, but another to give me a piece of bread along with the Gospel. And if I’m hungry and you feed me, then I’m ready to listen," says Bishop Thoroughgood.
New Jerusalem meets a host of needs in Virginia Beach, VA and well beyond. There are children’s programs for all ages and a very active food and clothing bank.
"And being in a neighborhood that’s low to moderate income, the need was so prevalent because we’re not interested in keeping people on that level. We’re interested in not only showing them Christ, but showing them the benefit of being connected to Christ," he says.
New Jerusalem also bought two homes down the street to offer affordable housing to those in crisis or transition.
"I go from having a family to a broken family to actually no one at all it seemed like, so it was a lot of adjustment, and being here seemed, not seemed but proved to be a stabilizing factor in my life at a very uneasy time," says Phillip Moore, who lives in the home.
Crystal Pope lived in the women's home.
She says, "I have an eight-year-old son, and my bishop allowed me to stay at the boarding home for a couple of months until I could get on my feet."
Since it opened it’s doors in 1970, the church has seen countless lives restored.
"Young men who have gone back and taken responsibility of their families and straightened out, come off the drugs and stopped the gambling and all the other things that they were doing, and that’s the power of God’s word. That’s the power of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ," adds Bishop Thoroughgood.
Just ask Crystal, who was saved there and found new purpose for life...
"Things I used to do when I first started coming to New Jerusalem as far as the lifestyle I used to live, I don’t do those things anymore," she says.
She has a new goal -- to be a mighty woman of God!
For their effective social outreach, New Jerusalem Church is “America’s Church of the Week!”.
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