By Justin Fedich
The Selma Times-Journal

Jerry Light, pastor of First Baptist Church of Selma, has big plans in store to reunify the Queen City through worship.

The Unity and Faith committee held a meeting Thursday evening to continue to plan its first annual citywide “Return to Worship Week,” which begins Sept. 13.

The week is devoted to getting the city of Selma to reconnect through faith.

Light said the idea for “Return to Worship Week” came to him and a few others during the walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March. After seeing Selma come together as a community for a common goal, Light thought it would be a great idea to give the city another important reason to unite as a community.

“Selma needs to grow closer to God because of so many problems that are coming down the road,” Light said.

The Unity and Faith committee is going around to neighborhoods where there are churches nearby and placing door hangers on residents’ doors encouraging them to come to church on Sunday, Sept. 13.

The timing of “Return to Worship Week” was well thought out by Light and others.

“When you get back in the routine of the school year, a lot of time the stresses and problems come, especially for parents, and we want to give them an opportunity to get started on the right leg by getting back into worship,” Light said.

Light said he has noticed a drop in church participation recently.

He hopes the efforts his committee is making over the next few weeks restores some people’s faith and renews their desire to attend church.

“I realized that any given Sunday, many of our churches have less than 20 percent capacity and Selma used to be a city that everybody went to church and that’s just simply not true anymore,” Light said.

Out of the 110 churches in Selma, Light said 35 are involved in “Return to Worship Week.”

Light said the committee has given out close to 2,500 door hangers to the roughly 50 people involved in spreading the word. Anyone is welcome to join in and participate to help spread to the residents of Selma.

“I hope that we have a more unified city. I hope that people will see that we have more that we have in common than we have that separates us,” Light said.

To get involved, contact either pastor Jerry Light at 877-4400 or Juanda Maxwell at 412-6346.