Niles church is ‘radically generous’
Published 10:37 pm Tuesday, September 27, 2011
A local church’s effort to be “radically generous” is raising eyebrows in the community.
The Rev. Don Fleischman, of Fairland Christian Church in Niles, says whenever his congregation does giveaways for the community, people are surprised.
“When we do clothing giveaways, it’s hard for them to believe that we’re just giving it away,” Fleischman said. “They try to pay us something but we won’t take it.”
Fleischman said the church has been holding clothing and household item giveaways for about 20 years but has recently begun holding coffee and donut giveaways.
Fairland will host the community coffee and donut get-together Saturday from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at the church. The church will then host a clothing giveaway Oct. 22 from 9 to 10:30 a.m.
Dubbed “radically generous church events,” the giveaways are designed to build community in the area and to meet people’s needs, Fleischman said.
“The clothes go pretty quick,” he said. “After an hour, pretty much everything is gone. It’s just meeting a need for some folks.”
Fleischman said the church will often see 30 or more families at clothing giveaways.
The items are mostly donations from members of the congregation and community.
“When we first started, they said we’ll run out of things to give away, but that’s never been a problem,” Fleischman said.