Belong Church Atlanta announced its collaboration with North Atlanta High School, marking a significant milestone in their commitment to making a positive change impact on the city of Atlanta.
Following the successful provision of 500 toys for children during the 2023 holiday season, Belong ATL is set to relocate its services and events to North Atlanta High School on Sunday, Jan. 21.
Pastors LaBryant & Phineka Friend
Pastor LaBryant Friend from Belong ATL said he and his wife, Phineka, are very excited about the move.
“I have always felt like we were supposed to be in Atlanta, so to make this type of move now, I am very, very excited for it to happen,” he said.
Originally from Huntsville and Selma, Alabama, LaBryant and Phineka have been pastors “all the time”.
“We’ve done everything from youth pastor thing, executive pastoring, senior pastor, so about 16 years now,” he said.
LaBryant said when he and his wife moved to the Atlanta area in 2017, it was primarily because they wanted to follow their call to the city of Atlanta.
“For about two years, we did ministry right inside of southwest Atlanta. Four years later, we primarily moved to Dallas (Georgia) because there was a space available to us,” he said. “But the entire time we were there, we always knew that there would be a moment where we would have the opportunity to come back to the city of Atlanta. So, time and opportunity came, and we were presented with an opportunity to move our services and events to North Atlanta High School, and it was just one we couldn’t say no to.”
Their last service in Dallas was Dec. 10, according to LaBryant. They were located there for about 16 months.
“Majority of our partners do not live in the Dallas area, so for 16 months, we had people that were committed to what God was calling us to do, driving over an hour every week to come out there,” he said. “We’re talking about 150+ people were driving in every week to be a part of what we’re doing, so their commitment has just really blown my mind and so I’m excited to see how cutting their drive time about 30-35 minutes helps.”
Why North Atlanta High School?
The partnership and collaboration between Belong ATL and North Atlanta High School was initiated by both pastors who reached out to the high school.
“We approached them about collaborating in high hopes of gaining access and getting an opportunity to be a part of their community,” he said. “Once we met with their principal, Mr. Douglas, and their support staff, shockingly, they overwhelmingly said they felt like we needed to be there as well and opened their doors for us.”
LaBryant said what drew him and his wife to seek out North Atlanta High School was to make sure they had a location that would be close enough to graze Paulding County while also being able to be back in the city of Atlanta.
“We knew that we wanted to be back in the city and that was paramount, but we also knew that over this last year, we’ve made some phenomenal relationships in the Dallas Harlan County area, so we wanted to be sure that we had a location that would still be close enough to graze Paulding County while also being able to be back in the city of Atlanta,” he said. “When we were looking for locations, one of the driving forces behind that was how do we make that happen the easiest? And that North Carolina location was just a perfect one.”
The Partnership
The partnership will be, as LaBryant described it, a “set-up and breakdown” church, where every week, they will come into the school and set their stuff up. Once they finish, they’ll break it down.
“We’re really excited about this, one of the things that change for us because we’re collaborating with North Atlanta High School now is we become what we call a setup and breakdown down church, which simply means every week we will come in and set our stuff up and once we’re finished, we’ll break our stuff down,” he said.
This gives, according to LaBryant, the church an opportunity to become partners in a community to help impact the influence of the students and the entertainment within the context of more than one high school and the surrounding area.
“In that first service, we have two service opportunities that come in at 10 a.m. and noon, and we’re just expecting the opportunity to teach the hearts and minds of people in a way that we’ve always felt called to,” he said.
Their first partnership with North Atlanta High School was the provision for 500 toys for children.
“One thing that we shared with them (North Atlanta High School) was we didn’t want to just use their building, but we wanted to collaborate,” he said. “So, for us, it’s important to not just use a facility but to become a part of the community that we’re now engrossed in. They were in the middle of preparing and creating this toy drive, and it was just the perfect time. We found out two weeks before and we told them, ‘Hey, in any way we can support it, we can and will’. We ended up bringing close to 600 toys to North Atlanta High School for their children.”
For context, the high school’s football team sponsored a community center, that was sponsoring one of the elementary schools in the community.
“It was four children aged from kindergarten through 12th grade and right before the break, the principal dressed up as Santa Claus and they had a big to do all around it,” LaBryant said.
Within the context of the partnership with the high school, LaBryant said building and bridging other community partnerships in the city is the main goal.
“We have stated pretty adamantly that if we don’t have to recreate the wheel, we’re going to believe in the power of collaboration and there’s a lot of beautiful things that can happen when we bring our resources together,” he said. So, one of the things I think is pivotal is our ability to partner with several organizations in and around the Atlanta area.”
Services & Events planned
One of their promises to the school is an initiative called “Feed the Streets” and the goal is to feed and/or serve 10,000 families throughout the course of 2024.
“We’re partnering with a program in the city that’s going to allow us each week to not just financially sponsor, but to also be the hands and feet, essentially helping to serve people in and around the city of Atlanta,” he said. “So, we’re excited about that collaboration and then throughout the school year, there’s going to be a myriad of different collaborations that we do with more than North Atlanta High School. Our ask for them has just been, ‘hey, whatever you all need support, backing behind a community project. That’s an internal project. We want to be sure that we are not just financially supporting, but that we’re hands and feet as well.”
The duration of the partnership is categorized as “year-to-year”, according to LaBryant.
“This project will definitely be throughout 2024, but this is an honest and open-ended collaboration and the opportunity to be a part of that community as long as we design it,” he said.
LaBryant also said they will be at the school every Sunday for sure and then throughout the week is on “absolute basis”.
“What we have promised them is opportunities for mentorship and we’re willing to do whatever we need to do to do for them,” he said.
For more information, visit https://www.atlantapublicschools.us/northatlanta and https://www.webelong.church.