Oak Leaf Church Canton

Website: www.oakleafcanton.com

Services: 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Worship style: humble, grassroots, acoustic

Average Sunday attendance: 115

Minister: Will Goodwin

Denomination affiliation: None

Mission statement:

“Leading people from where they are to where God wants them to be.”

History:

The church was started as a video campus of Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville in August last year. Leaders redirected the focus and Oak Leaf became a separate church plant in January. In six months, the congregation has grown from 10 to 50 families.

Pastor’s path:

Goodwin, who earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Valdosta State, worked six years at North Cobb Christian School, where he developed the magnet program for the arts. After spending 15 years traveling as a Christian musician and worship leader, he missed being with his family on Sundays and began praying for God to direct him to a permanent local position. He discovered Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, where he worked for almost four years. The pastor there asked Goodwin to begin the video campus in Canton.

“My wife and I moved to Canton to become familiar with the area, and fell in love with it,” he said. “Once we moved to the city, we felt this was our home.”

Ministries:

The children’s program, for elementary ages, offers a message for the younger set at the same time the adults are in worship.

“We put a lot of time and energy into that because we believe that children need an environment where they can learn about Jesus on their level. Instead of forcing them to listen to the boring preacher, they get the same message during children’s church.”

A primary mission focus for Oak Leaf is to offer support for the city of Canton and area schools.

“We have some lofty goals to be involved in the school system and help sponsor sports programs and PTAs … anything school related,” Goodwin said.

Projects so far include providing photographers for grandparents’ day, a DJ for a sixth-grade dance, catering breakfast for teacher workdays and handwriting thank-you cards to teachers.

The church’s support of the city is such a commitment that Goodwin said, “The city calendar is our calendar.” The pastor hopes the church’s support will ultimately save the city money, which can be used to attract more businesses to the downtown area.

“The fewer vacant storefronts, the more the city will thrive,” he said.

Another avenue of ministry is support for the homeless. Members work with existing ministries, such as Church on the Street and Forever Fed.

“For us, it’s less about what we do on Sunday morning but how we live on a daily basis in the community,” the pastor said.  “We just want to come alongside and bring volunteers to serve and do whatever we can to help.”

Thoughts from the pastor:

“We don’t think that we are a better church or a different church. We just know that there are literally thousands of people who are looking for hope and who do not have joy in their lives, who need to be reached and shared with. We just want to help all the other amazing churches around here spread that hope and spread that joy.”

If you would like your church to be featured in a future Snapshot, contact Candice Hannigan at candihan@bellsouth.net.