Athens Christian Center Celebrates 20-year Birthday Party and Mortgage Pay-off!

Sunday, August 20, 2006, Athens Christian Center hosted a double celebration – twenty years of ministry and the “Burning of the Mortgage”.  The fun began at 10 am at the church building located at 128 Church St. where we took a look back at 20 years of ministry to the people of Athens.  Then party will move to Wilson Park in Athens for a picnic which included a hog roast and birthday cake. “Prizes were given away throughout the day as we played tug-of-war, volleyball and Frisbee golf.  A clown offered the children much entertainment, free balloons and face painting.
 
At 2:30 pm, the “Burning of the Mortgage” celebration began.  “This is a very exciting event for us because we have had to move so often in our last 15 years that some think we should have named ourselves ‘The church on the Move’,” explains Pastor Tanner.  “ACC has met in store fronts, barns, community buildings and homes.  We are thrilled to finally have a permanent building for the ministry.”

The fun continued as with a time of musical celebration with praise and worship.  The kids will enjoyed a movie and a puppet show by God’s Chosen Few.

“Athens Christian Center has maintained an emergency food pantry for the past 20 years,” said Pastor Tanner.  “Each month we give more than 1000 lbs of food away; so in keeping with the tradition of feeding the hungry, we thought that one of the main focuses of our celebration should be food.”  Tanner explains. 

We have been avidly involved with children and youth through our summer camps as well as youth and children’s programs at the church.  Providing healthy alternatives to many of the destructive lifestyles modeled for youth today has been a goal.  One of the ways that we involve youth is through our music.  Youth are encouraged to join our mentoring program where they can learn an instrument or receive vocal instruction and then become part of our youth band, “Inside Out”.   That is why we will be ending the party with music – it’s who we are!  The mission of Athens Christian Center is ‘Growing the family of God through Scripture, music and fun’, and everything that we do revolve around those three things!