If you don’t yet know Roderick Cummings, maybe you should.

Cummings steps in as the new pastor of New Enoree Baptist Church and is officially installed Sunday at the end of the church’s weekend-long celebration.

But Cummings is not only a key part of New Enoree’s worship. In June, he also became CEO of the church’s outreach program, the Living Hope Foundation, which manages various ministries in the area.

“What drew me was the outreach they had for the community and the love they had for the people of Newberry,” says Cummings, 31.

So while on Sundays Cummings stands behind the church pulpit, you’ll otherwise find him reaching out to Newberrians with Living Hope.

This past summer, the Living Hope building on Louis Rich Road taught students so they could keep learning fresh between school years at an educational camp.

Cummings organized the camp the first month he arrived, he says.

Living Hope also helps the hungry with its Daily Bread Food Pantry, feeding around 170 families every month, and has computer and literacy classes twice a week, says Cummings.

It also partners locally in a nationwide mentoring program, tutoring Newberry High students, and this month will open its new after school care for students who could use a little company or extra homework help outside of the classroom.

There is also a clothing ministry and thrift store, and a month ago, Living Hope hosted 20 youth from the Department of Juvenile Justice for community service work.

“You can’t separate the church and some of the ministries that are alive and well here,” Cummings says.

Cummings says the drive behind all the outreach comes from the Bible, and Jesus’ words in the book of Matthew to “go ye therefore” to all nations to teach Christ’s commands and baptize.

Plus, Cummings himself learned how far a little help can go.

He grew up in Edgefield under the care of his hardworking mother, but his father wasn’t around after his parents’ divorce.

Cumming’s mom worked third shift at an industrial plant and slept during the day, so Cummings not only had to skip after-school activities, but needed a male role model and mentor.

Cummings found that man at a local church. The Cummings home was near a church where bishops looked after the youth in the rural neighborhood.

Cummings lived in Deacon George Bowman’s “district,” so every Saturday, Bowman called Cummings or dropped by to remind him to be ready for church the following Sunday.

So Cummings not only grew up in church, but was mentored by Bowman and others in the neighborhood who stepped in, teaching Cummings about car care and “how to be a man,” he says.

Without the help, Cummings, who today stands 6’5” in a suit and bow tie in his office, might not have made it.

“I would probably be another statistic,” he says.