BELHAVEN — Members of the Belhaven community are gearing up for an inaugural community Thanksgiving worship service this weekend.

On Nov. 23 at 7 p.m., a community Thanksgiving worship service will be held at the Wilkinson Center in Belhaven. Led by Team Coalition, a faith-based community group made up of five area churches — White Plains Church Ministries, First Christian Church of Belhaven, First Baptist Church of Smithton, Trinity Methodist of Belhaven and St. James Episcopal Church of Belhaven — the event will feature a message from each of the church’s pastor, as well as singing led by a community choir, said Burke Holland, pastor at First Christian Church. As of now, Holland who represents First Christian Church, Ed Drew representing First Baptist Church of Smithton, Kris Noble representing Trinity Episcopal, Douglas Cogdell representing White Plains Church Ministries and David REives representing St. James Episcopal Church, will all speak at the event, Holland said.

Holland said the event, however, is not exclusive to the five churches and its members. The group has extended invitations to all the churches in the Belhaven area.

“Those are the five churches that are mainly involved in Team Coalition, but we open an invitation to anyone who wants to join us,” Holland said. “This is an event we felt that we could host in the community and have a community gathering of people and some messages of Thanksgiving from the pastors. All of us are equally involved so it’s a community thing.”

Holland said he plans to deliver a message of living Thanksgiving to those present, he said.

“Just saying thanks to God is not nearly enough for all he has done for us,” Holland said. “And the lives we live daily should show a sense of Thanksgiving for what God has done for us.”

Noble, who also leads the community choir, said the group is made up of singers from the churches in Team Coalition, as well as other community churches. Prior to the service, the group will join in a time of praise songs. The choir will be accompanied by a couple of guitars, a set of bongos and other instruments, performing songs like “Put Your Hand in the Hand,” “Give Thanks” and “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “Peaceful, Easy Feeling,” by the Eagles, Noble said.

“It’s really good,” Noble said, in regard to the “Amazing Grace” selection. “I’ve done it before with other groups and it comes out really nice. We’re kind of focusing on the theme of unity in community. The purpose is to kind of pull people together and invite them to be a team for Christ.”

Drew echoed Holland and Noble’s comments and added the event is a good forum for black, white and Hispanic people to come together and worship together to celebrate Thanksgiving.

“This is the first combined worship service for the Belhaven community, and we’re very excited, especially about promoting the theme of unity in community, which we’re all about,” Drew said. “This is also a way for all the ethnicities and races to come together in one accord, regardless of the way we worship. We believe we have a lot to be grateful for and this is why we’re doing this.”