For close to 10 years, there has been a worship service at 5 p.m. This started out as a Mustard Tree Ministries worship service, and is now one of the worship services that First-Centenary offers each Sunday. However, it’s not your typical worship service. When Jamie started volunteering on Sunday nights about 5 months ago, she discovered a community and family that fellowshipped, worshipped, and broke bread together. Many people assume that this service is only for those involved with Mustard Tree Ministries. However, it is a vital part of who we are as First-Centenary. If you have never been present for a 5 p.m. service, you are invited to come a little early and make a new friend over a cup of coffee. As always, everyone is welcome around the dinner table after the worship service.

In the fall of 2022, we entered into a partnership with Brown Academy, the closest elementary school to our church. Brown Academy is a Title 1 school where most of the students are on free or reduced lunch. However, that has not stopped the staff and administration from enabling them to become a STEM school (a designation that only 88 schools across the state of Tennessee hold). So far in the partnership, we have been able to provide breakfast and coffee during teacher orientation,
offer every student in the school a backpack full of school supplies, and have a team of volunteers that offer reading and literacy support to kindergartners and first graders. Rick & Mary, along with other volunteers in the literacy initiative, support students who may be struggling or behind in their reading or writing skills. The literacy initiative complements what the students are learning in the  classroom with one-on-one mentorship and support.

When First-Centenary announced that the 2021 Christmas Eve offering was going to build a soccer field with our new mission partners, ACD Guatemala (a Christian non-profit serving children and families in the Western Highlands of Guatemala), both Sally Richardson and Matt Phillips felt God calling them to serve. They both had the opportunity to experience this ministry first-hand in October during a mission trip, and it was eye-opening. Much like our relationship with our international partners in Romania and Costa Rica, ACD Guatemala is an organization that is looking to make a sustained and systemic impact on their community for The Kingdom of God. They are doing this through offering school scholarships, after school education, clean water initiatives, sports and recreation ministry, providing eco-friendly stoves, and a new micro-enterprise supporting women and young children through an incubator kitchen.