Phillip Bryant came to Washington in April 2014 to be closer to his daughter. But, originally, it wasn’t supposed to be that way. He had every intention of opening a restaurant in Greenville where he previously lived. And that restaurant was intended to be his ministry, a medium to bring people to Christ through offering those that were on a hard path a job and with the job, skills and guidance that would help get them going in the right direction.

“I had a lot of plans for that,” Bryant said. “But as I started to watch my little girl grow, it just wasn’t suitable to have my little girl here and me running a restaurant in Greenville.”

Through a lot of prayer, asking God for guidance, Bryant decided to take a leap of faith and move to Washington to be closer to his daughter. But knowing few people in the community, Bryant wondered how he would continue his ministry. He looked at potential locations to set up his original idea of a restaurant in Washington, but Bryant would wait and regroup, he said.

“The Lord just really said to be still,” Bryant said. “For the last year, I’ve learned a lot about this community. I’ve visited a lot of churches and got to see the body as a whole.”

As a current student at Piedmont University, Bryant is going to Bible school for a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies, with a minor in nonprofit management, he said. This summer, he took a class centered on the books of Daniel and Revelation, which really opened his eyes to things going on in the world and the possibility of the rapture taking place, he said.

“It just really had me to the point of thinking about my family and friends that don’t know Jesus,” Bryant said.

At that point, Bryant decided to put his ministry into action and organized a worship night. Christ Calling Christians, Bryant’s ministry, held it’s first Down on the River worship night Aug. 22 at Festival Park, something Bryant organized to bring various churches together from all denominations. The worship team is made up of members from area churches: Susan Todd of Covenant Church, lead singer; Andrew Castles of Church of the Good Shepard, lead singer and acoustic guitar; Teresa Hamilton of Harvest Church, bass; Micah Clemmons of Harvest Church, drums; Cory Hawkins of Southpoint Community Church, drums; Rebekah Ward of Church of the Good Shepard, lead singer and acoustic guitar; Garyn Mizelle of First United Methodist Church and Old Ford, electric guitar; Brandon Snow of Greenville Church, electric guitar; and Bryant of Church of the Good Shepard and Convenant Church, keyboard.

“The main things it’s been for is to bring the church (as a whole) together,” Bryant said. “We’ve been so separated. (The members) are all different people that didn’t know each other before we came together for this worship team. That was unity right there.”

Bryant said he hopes the connections made upon forming the worship team will set the tone for future events and partnerships between churches in the community. Bryant also created a website, bococommunity.com, which was made as a bulletin, of sorts, giving the community access to see what events various churches in the area have scheduled. And though denominations believe different doctrinal things, Bryant says salvation and bringing people to Christ is a top priority.

“The ministry’s purpose is to be a community mediator between the churches,” Bryant said. “That’s the best way to explain it. Because of doctrinal differences, churches don’t communicate with each other. It’s our nature to segregate each other. We’ve got to break that bondage. We’ve got to work better together. The stronger and more united the team is, the better it can work.

“It’s ok to believe different little things (in denominations), but all those things are secondary issues compared to salvation. We’re all equal to God. When it comes to the secular world, we need to be a little bit more in unity together. This is about salvation. That’s the point we were trying to make (at worship night).”

CCC will continue with further worship events, Bryant said. Bryant also hopes to extend the ministry to Greenville and New Bern with worship events by the rivers in the respective cities.

Bryant said he also hopes to use the website as a way for churches to support each other. And through bringing churches together, Bryant hopes to strengthen the ministry through continuing worship events, as well as community outreach, he said.

“Whatever events that other churches are doing, we want to get behind them and promote what they’re doing,” Bryant said. “Whatever outreach churches are doing, I want to be able to promote it on bococommunity.com. It’s a voice for churches (in the area), but it’s a voice as one.”

For more information, visit bococommunity.com.