Outreach

In Your Own BackyardMany Indianapolis congregation members are practicing

their faith by reaching outside their doors to meet the emotion-al, spiritual and often basic needs of food, clothing and shelter in their communities.

The congregations vary in size, location and outreach approaches. But they have in common a mission to serve. Here, leaders from five Indianapolis area congregations share their outreach experiences, challenges and visions.

King of Glory Lutheran Church

Six years ago when Pastor Paul Swartz arrived at King of Glory Lutheran Church in Carmel he started a cataclysmic shift in the church, moving it from a membership to disciple-ship model. He said his goal was to replace a sense of entitle-ment among congregation members of pastoral care, clean rest-rooms and neat grounds, with a mission of service to others.

“Discipleship looks to the needs of others,” Swartz said. “Like the Jordan River flowing into and out of the Sea of Galilee, people and churches need outlets for what we have been given, or else we turn inward, become stagnant, and dry up—like the Dead Sea, which has no outlet.”

Outreach provides that channel for King of Glory. “The Great Commission shows us that we are here for a purpose, that God has chosen to use us,” Swartz said. The church has 1,200 disciples, including children, who partake in a number of missionary activities.

Volunteers have helped Habitat for Humanity build homes in Noblesville and in Beattyville, Kentucky, a town located in one of the poorest U.S. counties.

Random Acts of Christian Kindness (RACK) volunteers anonymously hand out water bottles on the Monon Trail and roses on Valentine’s Day, deliver ice cream sundaes on Sundays to fire stations, and host Bible studies at work.

“One member of a Bible study suffered a miscarriage, another had a suicide in the family,” Swartz said. “They told our disciple they would not have gotten through these experi-ences without the support and love of their Bible study group.”

King of Glory disciples can be spotted in and around Carmel at Panera, Bob Evans and Le Peep for off-site breakfast Bible studies.

About 100 disciples participate in the city’s Interfaith Hospitality Network every quarter, offering housing, prepar-ing meals, washing clothes and providing entertainment to approximately 15 homeless individuals and families.

“We want to equip our disciples to be the church wherever they go, not just go to church,” Swartz said.

The shift to discipleship at King of Glory has not been without a cost. Some members left the church, but King of Glory attracted new congregants and some returned who left previously. “They’re coming now for entirely different reasons,” Swartz said. “We bear responsibilities when we pick up the cross. But we become our truest selves when we live a life of service to others.”

congregational

Congregational Stories is a series of reports on a variety of

issues facing congregations. Many of these stories are about

Indiana congregations who have found assistance through

the Center for Congregations. It is our hope that these

stories are helpful to other congregations that may be

facing the same or similar challenges.

King of Glory Bible Study

Swartz agrees with Bill Hybels, pastor of the 12,000-mem-ber Willow Creek Community Church in northwestern sub-urban Chicago, who says the local church is the hope of the world. “If you want exciting ministry, discipleship is the way to go,” Swartz said.

Garden BaptistGarden Baptist, a small American Baptist church in Wayne

Township, is harvesting the seeds of years of prayer to be of service. Six years ago, the 50-member church on the Marion-Hendricks county line watched housing developments pop up north and south of its five-acre lot. Kids from the new develop-

ments flocked to the church’s out-door basketball court, baseball field and shelter house to play, unsupervised.

“The congre-gation believed the children and their families were put there for Garden Baptist to

minister to them,” said Kim Reedy, head of Christian education. “We didn’t have to go far to reach out to them. They just showed up.”

To minister to the children, the church developed a sum-mer camp, now in its fifth year. Approximately 22 children, age nine to 13, attend the camp weekdays and Sundays from Memorial Day weekend until public school begins.

The church pays a Christian college intern and a neighbor, Frank Bonner, who is an elementary school teacher and foot-ball coach, to lead the camp. The children make crafts, play sports, go on bowling or swimming outings, and perform community service, such as picking up trash or organizing a canned food drive. Guest speakers from the Indy parks depart-ment or the fire department demonstrate their professions. The last half-hour of the day is spent in the chapel in prayer and song.

Reedy said many of the children come from single-parent homes without structure or consistent supervision. Initially discipline was an issue, but camp activities are well planned and rules are enforced, Reedy said. She added that vandalism has decreased at the church and in the neighborhood since the camp began.

“These kids are starving for attention and affection,” Reedy said. “They need God in their lives.”

Funds for the camp come from the church budget, the Lilly Endowment’s Summer Youth Program Fund and an annual car show held on the church grounds that raised $1,600 last May.

Although Garden Baptist cannot measure the long-term impact of the summer camp, Reedy said her hope is the chil-dren will make wise choices when faced with tough decisions because of what they experienced and learned at camp. “We may never know it happened, but God will,” she said.

Southwest Church of the Nazarene

Children also are loved and served at the Southwest Church of the Nazarene in south Indianapolis. The church has a bus ministry that picks up 90 children, ages five to 17, in area neighborhoods for a Wednesday evening gathering. The children hear Bible stories, play games, make crafts, eat snacks, then get back on the bus to go home.

The bus ministry began seven years ago with one van of children driven by a mother. The one van grew to two vans, and is now three buses and a van.

“The children are our little evangelists,” said Associate Pastor Tary Wasson. “They told their friends about us and that’s how we’ve grown.”

Wasson and church volunteers call the children every Wednesday afternoon to confirm their pick-up time. “This program works because we love the kids, we’re consistent and we’re there,” Wasson said. “We’ve made a way for them to get to church because many of their parents are not interested.”

Wasson said the children come from a mixture of back-grounds, from government-subsidized apartments to upper middle-class homes.

Southwest Church of the Nazarene Bus Ministry

Garden Baptist Summer Youth Program

Approximately 60 volunteers show up every Wednesday to fuel the buses, drive the children and staff the gathering. Wasson said some congregation members were hesitant about working with a large group of often rowdy children who were not used to being in a church. But over time the congregation has embraced the bus ministry, right down to the member who cleans the buses.

“He said he’s not really a kid person, but the bus ministry has increased his time in prayer, especially when he’s scrap-ing gum off the floor of the bus,” Wasson said with a chuckle.

“He’s really praying for the kids then.”

Wasson said the children who come on Wednesday also attend Sunday morning children’s programs, until they reach middle school. “We were losing them after fifth grade, almost 100 percent,” Wasson said.

To bring them back into the fold, in the past year the con-gregation has created a transition ministry for middle school students not old enough for the high school youth ministry.

Wasson hears a call for an after-school program as well. “The wings of the spirit are beginning to move us that way,” she said. She added that the bus ministry is nothing new. It works because of its constancy.

“An outreach program doesn’t have to be something new,” Wasson said. “We’re so trendy—even in the church. I have been calling and picking up the same kids for seven years. They know I love them, and I’m going to be there for them.”

Jones Tabernacle A.M.E. Zion ChurchTanya Douglas has been coming through the doors of

Jones Tabernacle A.M.E. Zion Church since she was three years old. But as director of evangelism, she does all she can to get outside the church.

“It is our mission as Christians to go out where the people are in order to bring them in,” said Douglas. “We cannot say we are doing God’s work if we don’t go into the community.”

Jones Tabernacle has numerous outreach activities to offer hope to residents of the Brightwood-Martindale neighborhood in Center Township. The neighborhood is bordered by 38th and 25th streets north and south and Sherman and Dr. Andrew J. Brown avenues east and west.

About 520 congregation members canvas the neighbor-hood eight to 10 times a year. They go door-to-door handing out prayer tracts, offering spiritual uplifting, and assessing the needs of their neighbors, whom they consider members of the

church whether they are or not.

“Jones Tabernacle embraces the entire community,” Douglas said. “We’re dealing with a lot of second generation families who, other than funerals, have never been to church. Many of our neighbors have not been saved, some do not have family, but we want them to know they have Jones. Our pastor, Rev. Harry Spigner proclaims that anyone we minister to becomes a part of the Jones family in our hearts, prayers and actions.”

The volunteers minister to the spiritual, physical or emo-tional needs of the people they visit. They bring back prayer requests and offer resources to help with daily living challeng-es such as child care, health care, career placement and literacy.

“As we determine the needs of the community we then tar-get those needs with resources,” Douglas said. “We have 500 members in this church—that’s a lot of resources to call upon.”

Other outreach activities include Helen’s Closet and Food Pantry; a children’s ministry that includes a drill team, liturgi-cal dancing, youth Bible study and a children’s choir; mentor-ing with Aftercare for Indiana through Mentoring (AIM); and after-school tutoring.

“We try to meet people right where they are,” Douglas said. “We hope in our interactions they will grow in the Lord, but we already love them for the Jesus in them.”

Neighborhood FellowshipAnother minister told Pastor Jim Strietelmeier that his

inner-city church is a jewel in an awful, broken place. On any given night, prostitutes, drug dealers and homeless families walk past the 23,000-square-foot building on the near eastside of Indianapolis at 10th and Rural.

Inside the 100-year-old structure, there is peace. Not just on Sunday, but every weekday when 17 children, many of whom were failing in public school, receive a parochial edu-cation from a caring teacher and church member volunteers.

Helen’s Closet and Food Pantry

Strietelmeier and Stix, a former biker, bouncer and bounty hunter who found refuge at Neighborhood Fellowship, often serve as “lunch ladies,” dishing up hot lunches delivered by Second Helpings, a not-for-profit organization that distributes re-prepared food from restaurants to organizations for the dis-advantaged.

The church building has seen better days. Until recently, you could see the basement from the top floor where the roof had leaked and ruined the floor. Room by room, the church is ministering the old house of worship back to life. The re-build-ing of this broken church could be a metaphor for the lives it touches.

Strietelmeier paraphrases Isaiah 58, verses 6-9, to illustrate the theological mission of his work: “The glory of the Lord will be our rear guard when we undo the heavy burdens of oth-ers, give bread to the hungry, care for the poor, and satisfy the afflicted soul,” he said.

Although Neighborhood Fellowship has outreach pro-grams, it is not program minded, Strietelmeier said. The church’s outreach tends to be individually responsive, rather than programmatic to meet the need of a group.

“But when we get a number of individuals with the same need we will create a program,” he said. “We had a group of kids who needed diplomas, so we created the school. We had hungry and poor neighbors, so we created a food and cloth-ing pantry. We have a high rate of alcohol and drug addiction in this area, so we may turn part of the top floor of the church into a medically supervised rehabilitation or training center, similar to Wheeler Mission.”

Neighborhood Fellowship also gives space to Outreach, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that provides food, clothing, blankets, hygiene supplies, counseling, family reunification assistance and Bible studies to homeless youth under age 25. The church hosts a drop-in center as a safe haven for the street youth to do laundry, eat a meal, relax or talk to staff.

Strietelmeier said he never worries about money. A group of Christian businessmen and families pays the mortgage to the church building. Neighborhood Fellowship pays only for utilities and renovations.

“We live in a fairytale world where God uses generous people to meet our needs,” he said. Indeed, Neighborhood Fellowship provides an outreach opportunity for mission-minded churches to help support it, including Brookville Road Community Church, Crosspoint Christian Church and Second Presbyterian in Indianapolis; Franklin Community Church in

Franklin; Brandywine Community Church in Greenfield; Grace Community Church in Noblesville; and Zionsville Fellowship and Zionsville Presbyterian in Zionsville.

Relationships are the currency of the poor, he said, and that is how this inner-city church reaches out most effectively.

“People in the city are good at relational skills,” he said. “That’s all we have; we don’t have resources. Suburban churches have more resources, and we need each other.”

Each of the approximately 100 members of Neighborhood Fellowship is expected to perform outreach. Several families, including his own, have taken in foster children.

Anyone who knocks on the church door is greeted per-sonally by Strietelmeier or another elder: “I believe outreach begins simply by knowing someone’s name.”

Neighborhood Fellowship

RESOURCES

Churches That Make A Difference by Ronald Sider, et al. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2002. This book explores the biblical mandate and how-to’s of developing and maintaining an effective holistic ministry that combines evangelism and social outreach. This comprehensive, practical resource will

help your congregation embrace change, resolve conflict, overcome social barriers, and move

into a life-changing outreach of holistic ministry.

Community Ministry by Carl Dudley. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2002.

Dudley begins this readable and practical resource with a frank look at recent

social and political changes that have created both challenges and opportunities

for churches establishing social ministries. A series of simple steps help

the author guide readers through a process designed to help them better understand

their community’s needs, enhance their awareness of their congregation’s strengths, discover their calling, and build relationships with other organizations who share a similar mission or vision.

The Externally Focused Church by Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson. Loveland, CO: Group Publishing, 2004.“We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.” This quote expresses the book’s thesis that “service is, and should be, the identifying mark of Christians and the church.” Through

community service, the congregation engages with its community—thus allowing the

church not only to tell the gospel, but also to show it. Passionate and relevant community service may be the most effective way to communicate the gospel.

Restorers of Hope: Reaching the Poor in Your Community with Church-Based Ministries

that Work by Amy L. Sherman. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1997.

This book tells the stories of seven church-based or parachurch ministries

that have helped transform communities and lives. It describes the programs and

why they work, provides how-to advice to congregations wanting to begin their own

ministries, and examines both the benefits of pitfalls of collaboration with government agencies.

Questions for Reflection

What questions and ideas about outreach •and community ministry does this article prompt?Does your congregation work with its •neighbors to improve the community? How? Are there other community projects you would like to see?What needs do you see in your community? •What are small steps your congregation can take to help its neighbors that would open the lines of communication and help begin a community outreach tradition?

Center for Congregations staff are happy to talk with you about any issues this article raises about outreach If you would like to know about additional resources, consultants, or marketing firms, contact the Center nearest you.

Neighborhood Fellowship

Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. Postage Paid

Indianapolis, IndianaPermit No. 1882

303 N. Alabama St., Suite 100Indianapolis, IN 46204

Our MissionThe mission of the Center for Congregations is to assist Indiana congregations in finding and using the best resources to address the practical challenges they face. The Center shares its learning through pieces like Congregational Stories and offers education events and workshops, all focused on important practical issues confronting congregations.

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Funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. Affiliated with the Alban Institute

In Your Own BackyardCenter for Congregations staff Brent Bill, Susan Weber, Nancy DeMott, and Jane Mastin and guest writer/photographer Leslie Flowers contributed to this ussue.

5/06, reprinted 12/08