Spotlight: Oak Leaf Church Canton

History: The church started in August 2010 as a video campus of Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville. Lead-ers redirected the focus and Oak Leaf became a separate church plant in January 2011. The congre-gation has grown from 10 to more than 50 families.

Making a difference: A primary mission focus is support for the city of Canton and area schools. Projects so far include providing photographers for grandpar-ents‘ day, a DJ for a sixth grade dance, catering breakfast for teacher workdays and hand-writing thank you cards to teachers.
The church‘s support of Canton is such a commitment that Goodwin said, ―the city cal-endar is our calendar.‖ The pastor hopes the church‘s support will ultimately save the city money, which can be used to attract more businesses to the downtown area.

Goodwin: “We don‘t think that we are a better church or a different church. We just know that there are literally thousands of people who are looking for hope and who do not have joy in their lives, who need to be reached and shared with. We just want to help all the other amazing churches around here spread that hope and spread that joy.”