Tucked in a small corner of rural North Carolina is a church that’s dropping 20,000 candy-filled eggs for the community with the mission of sharing the gospel.
This is not a big, flashy mega church; in fact, Element Church in Forest City is a local church with a simple mission to share Jesus with their town and county.
The town has a population of 7,387 according to the 2023 census. The county surrounding the church has close to 67,000 people who live outside the town.
This is the church’s biggest outreach to the town and the whole county. Pastor Neil Perry said they hope to be “A big light in a little community.”
Element church was planted 17 years ago and started in a local high school. They are a Southern Baptist church. Pastor Perry attended Southeastern Theological Seminary. When he graduated, he felt called to plant a church in his hometown.
Pastor Perry told Starnes Media that they began the egg drop several years ago by tossing eggs from an airplane. They said they have now perfected the process and now use a helicopter to drop eggs for one of the largest Easter egg drops in the country.
The egg drop is held at McNair Field, a local Coastal Plain League baseball park. This is the home field for the Forest City Owls.
For this church, it’s not just about the eggs and the excitement. The church strategically uses this outreach to share the gospel with the community.
The church says this is all done for gospel advancement. The big egg drop and all the festivities are really just a great way to connect the community to Jesus and a loving church community.
They believe in fulfilling the great commission on a personal discipleship basis. Pastor Perry said, “It’s not about filling a room, it’s about making disciples and connecting one-on-one. This is what Jesus did.”
Element Church’s mission is to disciple one life at a time, to reach people far from God, even if that means dropping 20,000 eggs from a helicopter to familiarize them with the church and Christ.
When asked why they named it Element Church, Pastor Perry replied, “It’s a funny story, actually.” He explained that a youth student at the time had suggested the name, and he hated it.
That was until he looked up the definition of element. The world means abstract parts that come together to make a whole. He said that is just the job of the church body. We are all parts that come together to form the whole body.
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