Community Outreach & Service Opportunities

We are... a people committed to ministering through this downtown location...

Emmanuel Baptist Church is actively involved in local ministries, serving our neighbors through:

  • FOCUS Community Ministry and FOCUS Interfaith Food Pantry, both housed at Emmanuel

  • Annual school supplies collection for Food Pantry families

  • FOCUS Winter Breakfast Program, serving 100-120 people, November through April, Tuesday through Thursday mornings from 7:00 - 9:00 AM

  • FOCUS Breakfast Express – Serving a cold buffet Tuesday and Wednesday mornings during the warmer months.

  • Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless - providing meals, Love Kits (personal care items), and collecting "Pennies for Haven"

  • Active participation in the local CROP Hunger Walk each year

  • New York State American Baptist camping programs at Pathfinder Lodge in Cooperstown

  • Budgeted financial support of local organizations, including Homeless and Travelers Aid, Capital Area Council of Churches and their Emergency Overflow Shelter, Baptist Health Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Scotia

  • Advocacy on hunger and poverty issues

Emmanuel Baptist Church reaches out to our city, state, nation, and the world through:

  • Short term missions trips to Nicaragua, Washington D.C., Rochester, NY

  • Budgeted financial support of mission work around the world through the American Baptist Churches

  • Partner congregation membership in the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America

  • Annual giving to the ecumenical One Great Hour of Sharing Offering, which provides disaster relief, development projects, and refugee ministries.

  • Providing meeting space for the New Poor People’s Campaign in 2018

Emmanuel Baptist Church encourages advocacy through:

  • Frequent discussion of Contemporary Christian Concerns during the Adult Sunday School hour

  • Providing resources at our "Word for Witness" table and discussion of issues for possible action and response (global warming, torture, poverty, hunger, health care)

  • Movie Nights with films which raise awareness about social justice issues. Recent selections included Rabbit Proof Fence about indigenous children in Australia and Weapons of the Spirit about a community that sheltered Jewish people during the Holocaust.