October 1, 2026
MONROE, La. — Two days before Serve Tour Monroe began, local news stations were warning outdoor workers about record-setting heat across Louisiana.
Then more than 1,000 volunteers showed up to serve.
On Aug. 21–22, teams spread across Monroe, West Monroe, Bastrop, and surrounding communities to paint schools, repair homes and churches, clear property, serve families, and walk neighborhoods as temperatures climbed past 100 degrees.
The extreme heat only made the volunteers’ willingness to serve more remarkable. At one neighborhood grill walk, volunteers carried hamburger meals to cars, sharing the gospel through open windows while drivers stayed in the air conditioning. At another, volunteers celebrated a rare breeze in the middle of a 105-degree afternoon. One team member said it felt like “the Lord was literally breathing on our project.”
Somewhere in the middle of all that heat, something sparked.
Churches that normally served in their own neighborhoods were serving alongside churches from across town and across the country. Local congregations brought the needs they knew best. Visiting teams brought extra hands. Ministry partners brought equipment, resources, and expertise.
Together, they saw how partnership could multiply the Church’s impact for the gospel.
At The Well, a church plant in a high-poverty area of south Monroe, Pastor Jack Norman had no shortage of vision for his community. Serve Tour brought people alongside it.
Over two days, volunteers painted the church’s exterior by hand in the August heat. Teams from Serve Society in Oklahoma and First West built an awning connecting the church’s main building with its children’s church, giving kids a covered way to move between the two. Volunteers also packed more than 500 bags of food for students at a nearby elementary school, and Mount Vernon Baptist Church provided a blessing box that could continue meeting food needs in the community.
Next door, Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief cleared trees from an adjacent lot, creating room for future parking and positioning the church for what Norman called “even bigger ministry.”
Norman is already thinking about what could come next. He hopes The Well can eventually partner with businesses in the area to offer young people training in technology, including coding, website development, and artificial intelligence.
“The vision I feel like God has given me is bigger than just what my surroundings are,” Norman said.
Standing at the closing rally Saturday night, Norman began naming the churches and ministry partners that had come alongside The Well: Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief. Serve Society. First West. Mount Vernon.
The list itself made the point.
“We can partner at any time, in any place, and get a lot done,” Norman said, “and make North Louisiana a better place, and do it for the glory of God.”
That kind of partnership was strengthening churches across northeast Louisiana.
At Pine Grove Baptist Church in Bastrop, volunteers replaced carpet throughout the sanctuary and helped expand a bathroom for a congregation experiencing new growth.
A year and a half earlier, Pastor John McKenzie said the church was averaging 10–14 people on Sundays. Now, 25–30 gather each week. As the congregation grew, its building needed attention too.
“You just don’t have the words most of the time,” McKenzie said. “God is so good, and going into the future, that means so much to us.”
First West had members who wanted to participate in Serve Tour but couldn’t easily join the scheduled projects because of age, health, or physical limitations.
So, the church created more ways to serve.
Eight additional projects gave 250 more people an opportunity to participate.
Among the volunteers was a 102-year-old pastor’s widow. With her walker in front of her, she made her way through the crowd, stopping to talk with people along the way. She spent Friday and Saturday at the church praying for teams serving throughout the region.
The response showed what can happen when serving becomes bigger than a particular project or event. People found a place to contribute. Churches found ways to work together. And local leaders began asking themselves a different question.
Why stop?
Steve Kelly, director of missions for the Northeast Louisiana Baptist Association, watched churches organize into hubs, combine volunteers and resources, and tackle needs together.
At the closing rally, he challenged them to remember how simple the underlying idea really was.
“What were the last two days? Voluntary partnerships,” Kelly said. “We can do that 365 days a year.”
He pointed specifically to schools across northeast Louisiana where groups of churches had worked together during Serve Tour.
“Why couldn’t you do that next week or the following week?” he asked.
In western Ouachita Parish, one Serve Tour team had already given a local church a reason to do just that.
A team serving with Indian Village Community Church visited 72 homes in western Ouachita Parish. They prayed with residents, shared the gospel, and identified 14 households that needed help purchasing groceries.
When Saturday ended, remaining grocery gift cards and care packages stayed with the church, ready for future visits. Now, the pastor and congregation had a built-in reason to follow up with the families they met and continue building those relationships.
For some churches, Serve Tour added momentum to relationships that had already been growing for years.
McClendon Baptist Church had spent two years building a relationship with a woman named Shannon through ministry at her nearby apartment complex. She had joined a Sunday school class and attended worship. Church members had shared the gospel with her more than once.
During Serve Tour, volunteers joined McClendon in the neighborhood. Two stopped at Shannon’s door and began talking with her.
They shared the gospel again. Shannon prayed to receive Christ.
“Well, today she was ready,” said James Gardner of McClendon Baptist Church. “Today she was ready.”
This wasn’t a chance encounter. This was two years of showing up.
Serve Tour gives local churches more hands, resources, and opportunities to build upon ministry already happening in their communities. Volunteers come for a weekend, but local churches are there year-round. The people they meet can be connected to a church in their own community, where relationships can continue, and ministry can grow.
That model depends on Christians who are willing to look beyond a single weekend and make service part of the way they live. At the closing rally, Louisiana native and Duck Dynasty personality Si Robertson pointed volunteers to the ultimate example.
“If the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, He came to this earth as a servant,” Robertson said, “the least we could do would be to be the same way.”
“Serve your community. Serve your neighborhood.”
Eventually, the record-setting heat would break.
But after watching 76 churches and groups serve together across northeast Louisiana, local leaders weren’t interested in letting that momentum cool.
They had seen what could happen when churches shared the work.
Now, as Kelly reminded them, they had 365 days a year to keep doing it.
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