It’s the third Saturday of the month, and Melissa McElwee is hurrying about the kitchen of a small building in Dillsburg, Pa., surrounded by a handful of other volunteers, equally in a flurry of activity. They’re all preparing dinner—ladling soup, making sandwiches, slicing desserts, pouring coffee. As the volunteer staffers of The Messy Kitchen, an outreach project of the Mountain Ridge Church, Dillsburg, Pa., these men and women work to make the evening’s “Soup’s for Supper” event—a free monthly dinner open to the entire community—a success.

“Every single person who volunteers at The Messy Kitchen . . . has a heart for serving others,” says Melissa, who leads the ministry. In the fall of 2006, The Messy Kitchen started off by assembling and delivering meals to members of the community—not just church attendees—during a time of need. Soon after, it began to offer regular support to other charitable organizations in the community—including the Dillsburg branch of New Hope Ministries, a Christian social service group. In fact, it was their work with New Hope that first tipped off Melissa and other volunteers to the potential of The Messy Kitchen: while collecting donations of cookie dough to bake for New Hope’s holiday food baskets, volunteers received enough materials to make over 11,000 cookies—well exceeding all expectations. “We knew God was leading us in a direction that was bigger than we had ever considered,” admits Melissa.

Shortly afterwards, Mountain Ridge Church purchased a building and established The Impact, a community meeting and resource center and the new headquarters of The Messy Kitchen. Though the congregation itself still meets in rented space in Dillsburg’s Northern Middle School, they deemed an outreach center like The Impact more important than any official church building. “We wanted to create a place where neighbors can get out [and] meet one another while enjoying a free meal—no strings attached,” explains Melissa. She credits Ken Landis, the pastor of the Mountain Ridge Church, for the encouragement necessary to start this ministry. “As our pastor has so simply stated time and time again, church is not about us—we need to use the gifts that God has given us to help the community.”

When asked, Ken readily admits his belief that giving back to the community is one of the most mature expressions of Christian faith, if not the most. “Jesus told us this,” he says bluntly. “Don't begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. You have been treated generously, so live generously.”

And living generously is what The Impact and The Messy Kitchen are all about. Back at the Saturday night gathering, Melissa and the other volunteers bring out the food and everybody starts to eat. “Each month we see more and more new faces,” Melissa says. “We have had some families visit [our church], but that’s not why we do it. We just want people to know that in a time of need there are people out there who care, and they in turn can do the same thing for someone else. We are all here to serve others.”