The tanking economy has not been kind to Nancy Layne. She moved back to Coos Bay last fall to help care for her mom, taking some part-time jobs to pay the bills. But when her employers cut costs, she found herself without work.

Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she turned her attention to helping others in her situation. She asked her church, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, to help start a monthly dinner to help people in need.

As South Coast families struggle to make ends meet, churches have been expanding their assistance programs and rolling out new ones. Volunteers are cooking food to fill empty bellies, clearing out overgrown parks and backyards, and tackling home-improvement projects for the disabled.

While some churches have programs specifically for their own members, others cast their bread more broadly. One pastor has asked other church leaders to come together for community-wide work events, and one volunteer has assembled a team of workers from five congregations.

Layne is trying to bring churches and service organizations together for community dinners that give people financial advice. Her focus is middle-class family breadwinners who have recently lost their jobs or are underemployed.

“I’m talking about the people where their pride gets in the way or they don’t know about what’s out there,” she said.

Gloria Dei hosted the first meal Jun 28. Of the 40 people who attended, organizers helped one person pay an electric bill, another find a job doing yard work, and a third got help righting an upside-down mortgage.

The next meal at Gloria Dei is at 6 p.m. Aug. 9.

Layne knows asking for help isn’t easy for some people. She was a single parent for 18 years and wasn’t always fully employed. Since losing her jobs, she’s been living off inheritance money.

“I always tried to be independent,” she said. “If I had just asked, there were people willing to help and assist.”

One of them is Steve Plinski. About three years ago, he went on a retreat to Agness with some friends. They decided to put God’s love in action, forming Christians in Action.

They’ve done that by reroofing homes and building ramps for wheelchair users. Grant Gill, a program director at Bob Belloni Ranch, received a new ramp for his North Bend home last week. Gill, who has a birth defect that limits his mobility, went to the Oregon Senior & Disabled Services office, which contacted Plinski.

Plinski came over one day for measurements. Materials arrived a few days later. Before Gill knew it, he had a ramp.

“I can’t even say how much it means to me,” he said. “I don’t know how I was going to do it without their help.”

Plinski’s team includes members of five Christian denominations and a Buddhist.

“We should unify among the churches and look at our commonality instead of our differences, whether Baptist or Catholic or whatever,” he said. “We want to share our blessings and get together and do it as a group.”

The Rev. Rich LaMar of College Park Community Church had similar thoughts this summer when he organized members of his church to go into the community for a special service day.

They went to seven locations where they cut grass, cleared gutters and offered cookies to those they helped. Eventually, LaMar would like to see other churches join the activity and extend it to include projects such as reroofing houses, clearing out garages and changing the oil in a car.

“It’s my vision that the churches come together for the purpose to minister to the community, but also invite people who aren’t part of a church,” he said. “Church happens when you go out and do stuff.”

LaMar talked to several other church leaders to join in the effort, including Phil Jeffery, senior pastor at Bayshore Fellowship of North Bend. The church had about a dozen people volunteer, doing work similar to what College Park did. They also have focused on raising funds to help veterans returning home from war.

He appreciates LaMar’s efforts, especially focusing on the community need.

“There are a lot of people falling through the cracks in so many different ways,” he said. “We need to stop worrying about doctrinal issues. It’s about helping the community.”