The Reconciliation United Methodist Church is a congregation with one message expressed in two tongues.
Pastor Kevin Baker said Reconciliation started having bilingual services four years ago, when the church decided its Spanish-speaking ministry should be an integrated part of the congregation rather than a separate service.
But Reconciliation's bilingual approach is just one of many ways in which Durham churches are moving to reach out to the community and their members. Education and skills training are two other efforts championed by churches under the new approach.
Union Baptist Church, located in Northeast Central Durham, will open a tuition-free private school for at-risk kids living in the region this fall.
"Northeast Central Durham is the geographical area of the city with the highest negative demographics converging in one place," said Ken Hammond, pastor of Union Baptist.
The church has been running an after-school program for the past 10 years, and Hammond said participants have improved significantly.
"A lot of our kids have gone on to college or are in the pipeline to go to college now," he said. "This school builds on that tradition."
Union Baptist has a large percentage of black members, and a Spanish-speaking congregation also meets in the facility.
To further its community goals, Nehemiah Christian Center Church of God in Christ created an independent non-profit company. The company runs Nehemiah's Kitchen, a soup kitchen-type ministry, and the MEPOWER academic enrichment summer camp.
Pastor Herbert Davis said Nehemiah hopes to double the size of the camp this year and expand its ministries to provide skills training in the future.
"We would like to be able to do some transitional homes for people in need," he said. "Whether it is mothers dealing with drugs or alcohol or all [those types of things.]"
Nehemiah said he also plans to build a community family-life center and expand the church's existing computer center to provide space for job development and computer training classes, Davis said.
Reconciliation has also promoted education in the community. The church recently started a tutoring center at Lakewood United Methodist Church Wednesday evenings.
"We have had kids come in from first grade up through high school-we even had some people come in who spoke Spanish and needed help with their English," Baker said.
Reconciliation is a member of Durham Congregations in Action, a ministry organization that also runs the Durham Urban Shelter, Meals on Wheels and the Welfare to Work project.
Both Reconciliation and Nehemiah are members of Durham Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods, a citizens' organization dedicated to finding innovative solutions to benefit the whole community.
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