Greencastle Christian Church to host a Night to Shine

The festivities will be held at the church from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

While no stranger to making those with disabilities feel like the most important people already, Greencastle Christian Church will be rolling out the red carpet tonight for residents with disabilities tonight as part of the Tim Tebow Foundation's A Night to Shine.

The festivities will be held at the church from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and is aimed at honoring and valuing people with special needs. Greencastle Christian Church is one of many churches around the world selected in hopes of bringing a community and families living with disability closer together in fellowship.

"Whether you are a teenager with special needs all the way up to being an adult with special needs or you are a caregiver of a person with special needs, you will be recognized. The event is an opportunity to be loved on, take a step back from your regular pace of live and be celebrated. We want to put them in the spotlight. From the moment they get on our church campus, the VIP's will walk the red carpet and we will have people on either side of the red carpet cheering them on and at the end of the red carpet, they can get their hair touched up, nails done, shoes shined, little things like that and then they head right into the dance. This is a free community event, and we are excited for it," Greencastle Christian Church Pastor John Tischer told The Putnam County Post.

Tischer said he has always had a heart for people with special needs.

"From the very beginning of my time at GCC, which has been over 11 years, we did our own special needs prom. We worked closely with Comprehensive Services and for a few years leading up to Covid, we did our own Special Prom. It went really well and we had a great partnership with Comprehensive Services," he said.

The "Special Prom" had to be shelved due to Covid and some major renovation projects at the church, but Tischer said the desire to start it back up never left.  

"Covid hit and that put an end on it, and then we went through some major renovations. We just felt like it was time and I applied for a grant with the Tim Tebow Foundation. After a few months, I was contacted and we were awarded a first time grant and got free money to make this happen," Tischer said. 

The veteran pastor continued, saying the night means so much to him and his church.

"In our current culture, the church is often known for what it is against. The big C church gets a lot of bad publicity and some of it is brought on by ourselves and some is not. My philosophy always says we are called to love on people. I believe that is what Jesus is calling us to do, and this is an event to do that. We believe people are created in the image of God, and we are going to treat them as such and love on them. I think that speaks and is what Jesus called us to do," Tischer said.