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About Us Continued . . .
In May of 1993, as the local school board determined that the school could no longer legally host the Baccalaureate service prior to the graduation ceremony as had been their custom, the Alliance stepped forward again to fill a spiritual need. Under the leadership of John Duncan, pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church and a committee of interested ministers, the first Baccalaureate service held usually the Sunday before Graduation was begun. That first year—although the service was then and continues to be entirely voluntary for the seniors—we honored almost one hundred of that first class. This community service has continued to grow in participation and community appreciation since that time.
In 1993, we also became co-sponsors, with a local committee, of the annual March for Jesus. Since beginning MFJ we have participated in several national and international marches. Each march has been significant to the spiritual life of this community, as well as, significant in the spiritual life of those who participated.
As we begin 2000, the issue of the “needy” has surfaced once again. As our community has almost tripled in size within the past ten years, we have seen a tremendous increase in requests for assistance to families in trouble. Although People Helping People is operating and fulfilling its purpose, and even though that agency has been joined by two other ongoing operations, Joseph’s Locker (privately run by a local family) and Manna House (a once a month outreach by Southside Baptist Church), we still have tremendously needy people in our community. Now with the emergence of the internet, we are attempting to set up an intranet site that will allow us to keep tabs almost immediately to forestall the abuse of the system. Heading up that project is the local pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church, John Austin.
Since its beginning with its stated purpose to address two basic needs, the Alliance has grown to recognize that together we can accomplish far more for the Kingdom than we can if we only work to build our own kingdoms. Current leadership has the vision of majoring on the things that we agree upon and leaving those minor issues that separate us to be determined when we reach eternity. As the Bible describes, we are the spiritual gatekeepers of this community. When we stand together, righteousness in the community will become more recognizable. None of us are more important to the cause of Christ than the sum of the whole of us.
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