Faith and fireworks

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, July 4th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Finally today: fireworks. Churches across the country will host outreach events this weekend—but one congregation goes all in.

BROWN: WORLD associate correspondent Elizabeth Shenk recently visited a congregation that doesn’t just attend the fireworks: they host them.

ELIZABETH SHENK: Even at dusk, it’s still over 80 degrees in Dunn, North Carolina. The air is full of glow sticks and music. Nearly 2,000 people have gathered to see a free fireworks show at Central Baptist Church.

NEAL:  You talk to people like, ‘Hey, we're the Central Baptist Church,’ and some people are like, ‘Oh, you're the fireworks church.’ …

That’s James Neal, the discipleship pastor for this church of over 1,000.

NEAL: You know, and like obviously…we'd rather be known as the fireworks church than the mean church or the cult church… because…it's an inroad for us to share the gospel.

Neal is the one in charge of huge outreach events like this. He starts preparing in January.

ANNOUNCER: Who’s ready for fireworks?

NEAL: This is purely…a first foothold for a lot of people in this community to get on this campus and to also see that…we're just normal people who love Jesus and wanna share that love with other people.

SOUND: [COUNTDOWN]

This is the second year Neal and his crew set up a stage and all the sound equipment outside, with one eye on the sky as a heavy cloud cover rolls in.

NEAL:  The weather, I guess is sometimes the thing that you hate the most because you have absolutely no control over it…

For the first 20 years, choirs and preachers coaxed people into the air conditioned church. Only the fireworks and hotdogs stayed outside. Bringing the singers and gospel message outside gets them directly to the people—and the elements.

NEAL: Thankfully, I think out of all these years we've only been rained out once, which is just a blessing. And I take it by faith every year. I don't even really look at the weather after a while or I don't put a lot of faith in it.

The fire department is stationed at the far end of the field behind the launching site. Firefighter Buddy Monds is keeping a close eye on the pyrotechnics.

MONDS: We usually have us some hoses, lines and water cans on standby if anything happens.

Law enforcement vehicles idle in the parking lot while the church’s volunteer security team, headed by Larry Williams, scans the crowd. Williams and his family started attending Central Baptist after coming to the fireworks show, and he wants it to continue despite the recent targeting of Christian gatherings.

WILLIAMS: The last thing we want to do is prevent outreach from our church. We feel like the posture that we have right now is working for us, and so we're just gonna continue to maintain our vigilance and pray that the Lord will always protect us.

Over the years, the fireworks show has become an integral part of the church's community outreach effort.

 NEAL: We've actually had people say that their first exposure to our church was through the patriotic explosion.

Every year the church reviews the budget and every year they pray for the funds to do one more show. And that has always meant hiring Zambelli Fireworks to run the pyrotechnics.

NEAL:  I think that if we said, ‘Hey, we're not having fireworks,’ there might be like an uprising…not within just the community, but within our own church.

For over two decades, the church hasn’t lacked the money or the volunteers. And families, like the Williamses, have made Central Baptist their church as a result.

NEAL: I've learned through all these years that it might look different than I expect. But what God does and in God accomplishes through our team and through these events, then that is something that we can celebrate and they in turn give all the glory to God because he's the one that deserves it anyways.

ANNOUNCER: Have a great and safe 4th of July…If you don’t have a church home, see you Sunday.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Elizabeth Shenk in Dunn, North Carolina.

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