WS Chronicle

BY TIMOTHY RAMSEY 

THE CHRONICLE

The Fellowship Church worshiped with the community and helped out those in need during its second installment of its Winston Worships service. The first installment was held in the spring of 2016. Pastor Tony Jones said the response was so great they decided to do it again.

The church was joined by gospel recording artist Casey J, who sang a number of songs. Along with Casey J, Kendall McDowell & Raw per-formed for the audience as well as singing backup for Casey J during her set. McDowell said he and his group were honored to perform during the service.

“I think it’s very important as Christians that we always remember our place in the kingdom and that’s to be a blessing to others, so that’s why we came,” said McDowell.

Fellowship Church also partnered with Suols 4 Soles, who provides shoes for the underprivileged and people in Third World countries. Instead of charging a monetary admission for the service, people were asked to bring a pair of shoes to donate.

According to Jones, with the donations from the service combined with what his congregation has donated, the total number of pairs has risen to over 500 and counting.

“It’s a worship series that we do and this is a show of unity. It was an institution that we started one time and it was phenomenally successful so people have been asking when we were going to do it again,” said Jones.

Jones said for this installment they wanted to add another component than just singing, so they partnered with Soles 4 Souls.  The Winston Worship service was the highlight of the shoe drive, which will last for the entire month of September. He said their goal is to reach 1,000 pairs of shoes by the end of the month.

Jones said the charity said there has never been anyone that went to the lengths the church has to help their cause.

“We are just happy that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus and that’s all we want to be,” Jones continued.  “It goes beyond just having church to being a church.  We just want to show people shoes are very usual for us.  We can afford to give something away to bless someone else.  We are glad God used us as a vehicle to do that for someone else,” he continued.

He says the reason they wanted to go further with the Winston Worships and partner with Soles 4 Souls is because he says as a church they haven’t done as much outside of the church as they could.

Next spring, Jones says, Fellowship Church is planning another installment and says he wants to give a platform for other artists such as Kendall McDowell who are not known nationally but are talented artists.  He says they will have to brainstorm about how to make the event bigger and better.