“Many of the neighbors and people in the community have a positive view of the community and their neighbors,” he said. “They appreciate life in the community and what they have. It is working.”

The Rev. Mike Campbell spends what little spare time he has catching up on movies. Campbell, 46, is senior pastor at Redeemer Church, at 640 E. Northside Drive. After spending more than a decade in Miami, the Bluefield, Va., native moved to Jackson almost seven years ago, with his wife, Keren, and their three children.

“We came from a major city to work here. We want to do good for the city. This is our home, not a stepping stone for us,” he said. The good he is doing for the church and the city is building a multi-racial congregation.

“A core group of members at Redeemer wanted to build this type of congregation. And after less than seven years, it is working,” he said.

A successful multi-racial congregation is defined as one that contains at least 20 percent of a minority race. The makeup of Redeemer is about 68 percent white, 30 percent African American and 2 percent other ethnicities, Campbell said.

Campbell, his family and the congregation have “hit the streets” in traditional and non-traditional outreach efforts in the community. They invite community members to fish fries, weekly Bible studies, fall festivals and the like, as well as their nontraditional approaches.

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