On March 5, Lenn Knapp will share his gardening tips — he grows vegetables during fall, winter, spring and summer — during a free course at First Presbyterian Church. (Special to the American Press)

As Lent approaches, First Presbyterian Church members are continuing to focus on the health and wellness of the community they serve.

“Our building was not meant to just be a place to have a church home,” the Rev. Chandler “Chan” Willis, pastor of the church since 2011, said. “It was meant to be a community center for activity — not just religious activity but for other events in the life of the community. We want to host Neighborhood Watch meetings, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, concerts, birthday parties, anything the community would do.”

Willis said since the beginning of the facility’s construction design, the thought for church members has been how to best serve the community seven days a week, not just for an hour on Sundays and Wednesdays. That thought process continued through Advent as the church studied “The Advent Conspiracy” series.

The series advances four founding principals — worship fully, spend less, give more and love me. The message is to avoid getting caught up in the consumerism surrounding Christmas in order to celebrate the holiday more fully.

“As we can probably all attest to, Christmas has become so much about material stuff that we buy, that we give to each other and we beat ourselves up to get the best gift to buy somebody,” Willis said. “In so doing, we lose sight of not only the focus of Christ but also we may not give just for the sake of giving. Do we actually think about what we give?”

He said “The Advent Conspiracy” made church members realize the need to focus on Christ’s example of how to live.

“He gave us his time, he gave us his presence and he gave us a very costly gift and one that was very personal,” Willis said. “Along that line, we want to do something for the neighborhood that would be personal, that would cost us something in terms of our own effort to do it, and it would also show in us God’s presence to the people who would come in a practical way.”

He said some community members may be fearful of the idea of coming to church, but they may come to find out how to garden, quilt, sharpen knives or understand legal jargon.

“We want to be more than how we exercise our faith on Sunday morning,” Willis said.

Church member Ann Knapp said their congregation will be putting this into practice during Lent.

“We concluded that giving of the self was one way to show love,” she said. “We all have talents and gifts we can share.”

Every Saturday in Lent, a different church member will share their talents with the community. Each event will be 10 a.m.-noon on the church grounds at 4590 Corbina Road in MorganField. Starting on March 5, Lenn Knapp will share his gardening tips — he grows vegetables during fall, winter, spring and summer. On March 12, Southwest Louisiana Law Center Executive Director Mark Judson will help attendees better understand the intricacies of the law. On March 19, Paul Brown will demonstrate how to sharpen knives. On March 26, Kaki Brown and Jan Fontenot will offer basic sewing lessons. The series will conclude on April 2 with a demonstration on preparing bread and oils by Liz Fusilier with Sassy Oils.

“The reason we built out in MorganField in the first place was to be active in the community all throughout the week, not just on certain days and hours,” Willis said. “We want to make connections with people.”

Willis compared “Sharing Our Talents” to the proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

“We’re going to give them some fish, but we’re also going to teach them how to fish, too,” he said with a laugh.