PADUCAH, Ky. (KT) – A lunch-and-learn event is seeking to forge partnerships between churches and Hope Unlimited Family Care Center, a pregnancy center and prenatal clinic in western Kentucky.
The Friends of Life Luncheon & Open House is a project birthed by Friends of Life, a Kentucky Baptist Convention initiative formed to mobilize Kentucky Baptists to support pregnant women and speak up for the unborn.
Pastors representing churches from the West Union Baptist Association are being invited to attend the Feb. 5 event, where they will hear from KBC Executive Director Todd Gray, a KBC pastor, a pregnancy center volunteer who is also a pastor’s wife and Nicole Farley, CEO of Hope Unlimited.
“I would love our churches to know that we value their partnership with us because of the discipleship piece…We need the church in that discipleship because we’re not the church…we’re a nonprofit that serves specific needs,” Farley said. “But our number one goal is to share the gospel. Everything else is secondary.”
Hope Unlimited builds bridges to the gospel through prenatal care like ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, lab services and care with an obstetrician, prenatal and parenting education, court-ordered parenting classes and Hope’s Closet, a thrift store.
Farley described pregnancy center work as a mission field where the mission field “comes to us.”
“When we have the privilege of sharing the gospel and someone makes that decision for Christ, we want to just naturally connect them to a church.”
And Farley noted that within her eight years working in the pregnancy care world, the most fruit is borne when staff and volunteers who have built relationships with clients and patients are able to invite them to church.
“We need to see more of that, but we can’t see more of that if the church isn’t there,” she added.
Raising awareness for how churches and individual members can get involved—whether through prayer, weekly or monthly volunteering, serving as mentors or handymen, working in medical, providing financial support or donations or staffing the thrift store—is the heart behind the Feb. 5 open house.
“There’s something for everyone,” Farley said.
Farley said that if every KBC church in her county “had one person that had a passion for people in this business of family, we would never hurt for volunteers.”
“Pastors will discover, in meeting Nicole Farley and her staff at Hope Unlimited, that they have a partner in ministry who has the same goal as they do—make disciples for Jesus Christ,” said Gray. “That goal is best accomplished as Hope Unlimited can direct their clients to local churches that will welcome them in and help them grow in Christ.”
In addition to lunch and a tour, those who attend—whether local pastors or a church representative—will receive a book provided by the KBC, an informational magazine from Hope Unlimited and a card breaking down the various ways churches can get involved on their terms.
“The purpose, the bottom line of this lunch and learn is to help our churches know what they can be doing so that they have a clear understanding of what they can be a part of,” Farley added.
“I am excited about the possibility of seeing more churches in the West Union Baptist Association, and across the state, connect and partner with their local pregnancy resource center,” Gray said. “They have a common goal and can serve each other well by working together to help families know Jesus and learn to walk with Him through all life’s challenges.”
Pastors are encouraged to learn more and sign up at friendsoflifeky.org.
Friends of Life KY 