Please note: First Baptist Church in South Orange hosted a "Coffee with a Cop" evening earlier this year. Inspired by this, Central Baptist Church in Woodbury hosted a similar event.  Here is Rev. Carla A. Romarate-Knipel's (Senior Pastor) report:

Our Meet and Greet with the Woodbury Police went very well on Wednesday evening, July 8. We thank God!  About 40 % of the police force came. All together about 50 people attended. It was supposed to take place between 7-8 pm, but the police and folks who came stayed around until 8:30 pm.  Everyone had a great time and I was happy that we got off to a good start.

It was a pretty diverse group: young people from Boys & Girls club (that CBC Woodbury hosts); neighborhood kids; church members; folks in the neighborhood; business owners, city council members; the pastor of one of our local African-American Baptist churches (non-ABCNJ) and his wife; and the former mayor of Woodbury (who is also a church leader in Central Baptist).  All our refreshments were donated by church members and one young man who has a water ice business gave it to our church for free, and served the water ice himself!

I talked to the incoming chief of police and he said he's open to doing it again in Fall.  God willing we hope to do this at least once or twice  a year.

by Rev. Dr. Carla A. Romarate-Knipel Senior Pastor Central Baptist Church of Woodbury 37 South Jackson Street Woodbury, NJ 08096