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Eight churches that joined forces in mid-June to conduct a successful Vacation Bible School are working together for a community-wide "Back to School Community Day'' Saturday.

The event will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in a field between Southside Baptist Church and Motel 6, off Business 85 on the south side of Greensboro.

The goal is to attract at least 500 children to the event and provide them bags of school supplies, said Matthew Bowden, youth director at Southside Church. That was approximately the average attendance each night for the VBS, said the Rev. Patrick Fuller, Southside's pastor. Nearly 650 children registered for the Bible school, he said.

Pastors of the eight churches learned a unique lesson and reaped great spiritual rewards from that program, Fuller said. Thus, they decided to work together again for the back-to-school block party, Fuller said.

"We found out we can get a lot more accomplished working together than competing for the attention of the children in our neighborhoods," he said.

Three predominately black congregations and five mostly white churches sponsored the VBS at Southside Baptist Church. Seven are Baptist churches, and one is an Assembly of God congregation.

Each church has taken responsibility for getting various supplies and for helping invite children to play games and enjoy popcorn, cotton candy, ice cones and refreshments, Bowden said. The area is being blanketed with flyers inviting children to participate. Mail invitations are being sent to those who participated in the Bible school, Bowden said.

The churches are well-organized and have imposed deadlines to help make the project work:

• Aug. 13: All school supplies have to be brought to a central location.

• Aug. 14: 10 a.m.-noon, passing out invitation flyers and separating school supplies into packets for distribution.

The success of the Bible school has cleared a lot of hurdles for all of the churches involved, said the Rev. Rodney Mitchell, pastor of Rocky Knoll Baptist Church.

"The most exciting thing about it was that it showed what could be done by working together," Mitchell said. "It was an opportunity to see what can take place when churches get together in a common purpose for the Lord. I looked out across the children gathered each night, and it was like a glimpse of heaven with the diversity of people there -- white, black and Asian," Mitchell said.

"We had 24 decisions for Christ, and many prospects for each church were identified. The churches split the prospects by location," Fuller said. "This opportunity has opened the door to a new fellowship and new friendships. It also has allowed the churches to encourage one another and press on for Jesus."

"It was fantastic. You couldn't tell who was a member of which church because everybody went together," said the Rev. David Phelps, pastor of Groometown Baptist Church.

"I've been here nearly six years, and I've never seen anything like this before. That's what the church ought to be -- not you against us but all (working) for the kingdom of God."

"Everyone was working together in a wonderful spirit of unity," said the Rev. Brad Hargett, pastor of Central Assembly of God. He said there was "a level of excitement that I had not seen in our individual endeavors."

Hargett said being the only non-Baptist pastor in the VBS group wasn't a problem.

"I sensed that my coming and participation was fulfilling their vision of bringing unity to the body of Christ and reaching our community with the love of Jesus," he said.

"It was awesome," said the Rev. Phillip Cole, pastor of Water of Life Community Church. "I have been in Greensboro all of my life and never have seen so many churches (of different races) come together. That had to be of God.

"All of the people I have talked to are happy about it," Cole said. "It is something we could not have done ourselves. If you let God make it happen, it is going to stick. My desire would be to see this idea catch on in other quadrants in the city."

"I don't think there was anybody who didn't like it," said the Rev. Larry Foust, pastor of Whosoeverwill Baptist Church.

Foust said that he has been pastor of minority churches that have belonged to the Piedmont Baptist Association for the past 16 years.

"We need to invite more (black churches) to join," he said. "It is time for us to come together."

The churches also included Christian Fellowship Missionary Baptist, Water of Life Community, Whosoeverwill Baptist and Pinecroft Baptist.

The hand-in-hand work among these churches won't end with the back-to-school party.

"We're now talking about doing a Christmas program together," Bowden said.

Contact Bob Burchette at bburchette@triad.rr.com