Influence: Tell us a little about your outreach to the local elementary school.
Scott Berkey: We are closely connected with our local elementary school, Laguna Elementary. A few years back, our congregation adopted Laguna. We had over 1,000 volunteers donate their time, and our church family contributed over $100,000 to the renovation and updating of the campus. This has opened incredible doors for us. We now have an intern on Laguna’s campus daily who serves in the classroom as a teacher’s aid, and our children’s ministry staff volunteer in various classrooms on a weekly basis. This past winter, we provided a soccer league for the school. We saw over 100 kids (25 percent of the school) come out to soccer practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  

What opportunities have you had to disciple students you might not otherwise encounter?
Several of the students attending Laguna are now active participants in our weekend services. We even have a few kids participating in Junior Bible Quiz. We have had opportunities to pray with teachers about things going on in their personal lives. The teacher who I volunteer with each week refers to me as Pastor Scott when she is talking to the students about me.  

Share a story of a student who has been particularly affected by this ministry.
Many kids have been impacted by our presence on the campus. For Christmas this year, we were able to purchase sweatshirts, socks and bags for all the kids of Laguna. It was fun because when we delivered them students and teachers were excited and others were in tears as they realized that Victory Worship Center really did care about them. About two weeks later, the district superintendent stopped by our church offices after he had visited Laguna. With tears streaming down his face, he thanked us and told us how encouraging it was for him and the staff at Laguna to know that we as a church cared for the boys and girls of our community enough to make sure they had warm clothes to wear during the winter months. 

What other outreach opportunities have you used to reach the community?
At Victory we want to be known in our city as a church that cares about families. This year, rather than doing a traditional Easter egg hunt at our church, we took our egg hunt to a local mall. We had thousands of people literally circling the entire mall in a line. It gave us opportunity to serve families who may never step foot on our campus. It also gave us the chance to connect with the management staff of the mall. It was a ton of fun. The best part was the property manager of the mall brought her family to church the next weekend. 

Scott Berkey serves as children's pastor at Victory Worship Center in Tucson, Arizona. This article was originally featured in the August/September issue of Influence. For more print content, subscribe.