August Challenges
As our community returns to school this year, we are asking Faith Community to make Jesus known by joining us in supporting our children, school staff and schools.
Challenge 1: Pray for our students, teachers and school staff as we start a new school year.
Challenge 2: Donate granola bars, individually wrapped snacks, and hygiene items for the Hopewell Junior School Resource Closet. (No peanut products, please.) Donations can be dropped off in the church office throughout the month of August.
Challenge 3: Make or bring breakfast items for the Prayer Breakfast that Faith Community offers each year for the teachers of Hopewell Schools. This year's Prayer Breakfast will be held on Tuesday, August 17. To donate food or drinks, please visit our online Prayer Breakfast Sign Up and let us know what you will be contributing.
Become a Team Member
As you might imagine, there are many teams of people who work together to fulfill our mission. Becoming a part of one of these teams is a great way to get connected and make a difference. Take a look at the various roles we have to offer and find one that best fits your passions and experiences. You’ll be glad you did!
Ways for You to Connect
Take a look at a few of our ministries below, then click to request more information.
Sunday Morning Summer Programming will begin June 3 and run each Sunday throughout the summer. The theme is “Finding Jesus: Under the Sea.” We’d like to provide Sunday School for both 9:30 and 11:00 am services. Please contact or click below if you are interested in leading for a Sunday. Worship one/Serve one.
FaithKidz is our Sunday morning worship experience designed to teach preschool through 6th-grade kids about Jesus in a safe, fun environment. Each week loving adults teach lessons from the Bible in a creative, age-appropriate way. We have multiple opportunities to serve in FaithKidz ranging from every week to just helping out occasionally.
We are committed to the spiritual development of all students and encourage youth to have a thriving relationship with Jesus Christ. Committed youth leaders help mentor and guide our youth to make sure they feel loved and understood. We have multiple opportunities to serve 7th- through 12th-grade students ranging from small group leaders and band mentors to behind-the-scenes help.
Small group leaders play an important part in the spiritual growth of both the group members as well as our church family. If you feel called to lead a small group, we will help you prepare by providing small group leader training. In addition to helping you learn how to listen to the Father, you will learn how to invite and challenge others to grow and change as they strengthen their faith.
Faith Community business support ministries assist other ministries in the church by providing tools to help them fulfill their missions. There are many areas where you can share your skills ranging from our finance and property teams to creative pursuits such as photography and graphic design. If you have a business-related skill, we will help you find a place where you can plug in and help out!
Care Ministry at Faith Community allows us to share in God’s grace and foster relationships by providing love and care to others during times of need. Our Care Ministry is a network of ministries with trained leaders and individuals who have
Our Prayer Ministry is composed of people who pray for the Faith Community and for people in need of prayer. There a variety of ways that you can serve on the prayer team.
Our First Impressions Teams welcome our guests by creating an atmosphere of grace, warmth
Our Media Teams are an important component of Sunday worship, providing lighting, sound, visuals and other media support. We also have a team that produces our Live Stream each week. Training is available for those who are inexperienced but would like to join one of our teams. People serve on a rotating basis.
Our traditional and contemporary worship services are filled with a rich variety of music and other worship arts. If you are blessed with the gift of music, we have many different opportunities where you can serve ranging from choirs and praise teams to bells and instrumentalists. In addition, we have a drama team that performs skits during worship to enhance the Sunday message.
Outreach and Missions
We also have teams who focus on the community. Are you an aspiring world changer? Take a look at this list and give something a try. We’d love to have you on board.
On Campus
Faith opens our doors four times a year to provide temporary housing for families who are going through transitional homelessness. Family Promise of Butler County allows families to stay together during this difficult time. While our guests are staying with us, we provide rooms, meals, and interaction with our congregational hosts who demonstrate God’s love and hope. Ways to Serve: Cook and serve the meal for about 20 people, spend the evening with the families playing games with the children, or spend the night at the church getting the families up and out in the morning. Check our events calendar for upcoming Family Promise weeks. Stepping Forward is a ministry of Faith Community that helps equip low-income individuals and families with skills, tools, and relational support in order for them to achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency. Every Tuesday night Stepping Forward offers a free community dinner, life skill classes for adults, a computer lab, assessment and referrals to needed services, and children’s programming for 0–18 year-olds including homework help. In addition to job and life skills classes, Stepping Forward also offers a variety of FREE care classes and groups to help provide support, hope and strength to parents and families in our local community. Ways to Serve: Table Hosts (Tuesdays from 6:00-7:00 pm) are part of our weekly #sharingthelove outreach. Sitting at a table and enjoying a meal together is a great time to share encouragement, testimonies and prayer. Some of the people who come are lonely. Others have health issues and need prayer and healing. Some do know Jesus by name, but their experience of the Good News is either weak or challenged by the difficulties of life. Are you a good listener? Or would you like to become one? Either way, this would be a great opportunity to share God’s love in a very practical way. In addition to Table Hosts, other opportunities to serve include welcoming guests, helping with dinner (cooking, set-up or clean-up), staffing the computer lab, helping in the children’s homework room, engaging with kids in our nursery, children’s or youth rooms, and providing referrals (training required). Note: Time commitments vary depending on the area where you serve, but it would be during Tuesday evenings.
As a choice food pantry, families can make individual shopping choices in each of the nutritional food categories at our Faith Food Pantry. Families can visit our Pantry once per month. Open three times a week, we are currently serving over 1,000 people each month. Serving in the Food Pantry requires training and advanced scheduling. Ways to Serve: Restock shelves, welcome guests, register guests (training required), help guests shop.
Thank you for helping us make Jesus known by graciously supporting our Faith Food Pantry. We continue to serve an increased number of community families, and by signing up to donate these items for the next 6 months, you will help to keep needed items available. Donations can be placed in the barrel outside of the main entrance. Thank you for your generous gifts to help community families! To participate in this food donation program, please click the food pantry signup genius.
In Our Community
Each year, Faith Community plants and tends a large garden to supply our Food Pantry. On average, the garden provides over 2,400 pounds of fresh, healthy produce that we use to stock our pantry! This is a huge blessing to the many families who cannot afford healthy food options for their families. If you enjoy gardening, please consider joining our team! We meet throughout the summer on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 9 am, or we can arrange for you to “sponsor” a row to weed and pick at a time that is convenient for you. For more information, please contact Craig Schimming at
We are making Jesus known in our Lakota community by working with Lakota Child Nutrition to offer summer lunches to children who receive free and reduced lunches during the school year. The Lakota Child Nutrition department will be providing lunches for kids ages 1-18 from 11:00 - 11:30 am on Monday and Thursday. We are looking for volunteers to help prepare parent lunches to distribute. Volunteers are also needed to assist children with their lunches, talk with them while they eat, read books to them, and do simple activities (planned by the site coordinator). Children are welcome to volunteer when accompanied by an adult. The lunch program will be at Countryside Village (Clubhouse), 5050 Hamilton Middletown Rd., in Liberty Twp. To Volunteer, click on the Volunteer Sign Up Genius link. Donations are also being accepted (click on our Sign Up Genius link for details). Help us provide the ingredients for a meal for the 40 families at Countryside Village served by our Summer Lunch Program. All food donations should be dropped off at Faith Community United Methodist Church, 8230 Cox Road, West Chester, OH 45069 during church office hours (Monday-Thursday 9-2:00 pm). Thank you for your continued support of our outreach efforts! Our church has individuals and teams that regularly partner with Habitat for Humanity to help build homes for low-income families. In addition to helping with construction, we sometimes have teams who help provide lunches for the volunteers. The mission of Kairos is to help grow and nurture strong Christian communities within state and federal correctional institutions. Teams from Faith Community have served at the local Warren Correctional Institution in Lebanon, Ohio. (Note: To serve with Kairos requires specific training).
Around the World
Faith Community partners with Mayan Families, a small non-profit grass-roots agency in the Highlands of Guatemala. Our construction team travels to Guatemala each year to help build homes for needy indigenous families. Check our events calendar for 2020 dates.
The devastation of any hurricane requires a long-term recovery effort. Faith Community continues to work with area agencies to help families in Mississippi whose lives have been impacted by this natural disaster. Team members may assist with building, painting Check out these links to enjoy PHOTOS from our recent mission trip in March 2019.