By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A local church is considering launching a new program that would bring church and the community together in a collaborative effort to provide useful information to citizens on topics such as health and family services.“Your local Seventh-Day Adventist Church planned a seminar weekend, hoping to launch a long-term project including local municipal government offices and members of the community. The Adventist Church houses a wealth of resources supporting global communities and your local Adventist pastor believes this community would benefit from these services,” said Bruce W. Wilkinson, director of outreach training, Northern New England Conference, of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, based in Camillus, N.Y.
Wilkinson, along with his son, Peter, and Darrel Muehlhauser, pastor of the Presque Isle church, met with Presque Isle Fire Chief Darrell White on July 14, to discuss ways the church and municipal departments and local organizations could work together to create a better-informed public, through various means, starting first with a community interest survey.
“Presque Isle was selected as the region to launch the program. I’ll be speaking at the local church this weekend,” said Wilkinson, during an interview on Thursday at the fire station.
Wilkinson said he was in town to meet with members of the church and its board to see how they’d like to handle such a program, if one is established.
“It’s a way to connect the church with local offices. The program includes all sorts of seminars, pertaining to issues involving family and youth. We also want to survey the community on how the church is doing and whether it is fulfilling its obligation to the community,” he said.
“If it develops as we hope, later we’d like to have a one-hour think tank, with municipal departments invited to discuss ways the church and community can work together to better provide services the survey deems are of interest to respondents,” continued Wilkinson.
He said there’s more to today’s churches than the stereotypical “weddings, funerals and Sunday services.”
“Churches offer much more than the occasional church service or family-oriented event. They’re designed as a link to the community. That’s why we want to invite the Presque Isle Fire Department and other offices to be a part of a long-term project,” Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson said one of the goals is to find ways to make better use of resources in the community.
“We’ll be asking people things like ‘what do we have that you need’ — things like that will be included in the survey,” he said.
Survey questions include topics such as the role TV and movies play with regard to crime and violence, as well as whether or not churches today are fulfilling their obligations to communities. It also asks what types of seminars would be of interest, be it health issues, family finances, religion or some other topic.
Wilkinson said once results were in, plans are to publish them in the newspaper.
“We don’t have a set date yet for completing the survey, but once it is completed, we want to publish the results in the Star-Herald. This will kind of give us the ‘pulse of the community’ — tell us how the church is doing and what is of interest to people living here,” said Wilkinson.
Once the data is collected, Wilkinson said seminars will be designed accordingly.
“We’ll find out what is of interest and design programs around those interests,” he said. “That will enable the church, as well as city offices, to better serve the needs of the community. But for now, it’s a matter of the board deciding how to move forward with the program.”
White expressed interest in the proposed program.
“We do an open house usually on a Saturday as part of fall fire prevention activities. The open house is done in conjunction with The Aroostook Medical Center and the Presque Isle Police Department,” said White, noting all three agencies offer participants a wide range of safety tips and informational data to take with them.
Wilkinson said resource areas are designed to enhance the lives of residents, no matter their ages.
“Resource areas include health services, such as diabetes awareness and stop smoking seminars, family services such as family finance seminars and marriage enrichment weekends, youth services covering topics like drugs and relationships, and spiritual services such as Bible studies and personal pastoral counseling,” said Wilkinson.
For more information, call Wilkinson at 315-415-1378.
