Creative, Courageous Care - Christianity Today

The man’s clothes were grimy and tattered. His eyes were bloodshot.

When he asked the minister for “a couple of bucks,” the minister knew he was more likely to spend them at the liquor store than the corner grocery, but he assented anyway—with one request: that the homeless man would visit his church. “We have a soup kitchen throughout the week, and we’d love for you to be our guest on Sunday morning as well.”

“No,” the man said with a weak smile. “I believe in God and everything, but I’m not ready to go to church yet.” He explained that there were things in his life that needed straightening out first.

It’s a common refrain from many people—both homeless and wealthy. They put off any real engagement with God and the church until they feel they’re rid of their dirt. The irony, of course, is that the church is where people are supposed to be going to get cleaned up.

Many in today’s culture see an invisible sign over church doors that reads: PERFECT PEOPLE ONLY. THE BROKEN NEED NOT APPLY. They have embraced the peculiar notion that church is where all the good people gather to say pleasant things and congratulate themselves for not being like “the world.”

As any pastor knows, however, far from being saintly individuals who have it all together, church people are just as dysfunctional, needy, unsure, and complicated as those outside the church.

We do everyone a disservice when we forget that the church is a hospital. When we fail to identify with the most broken parts of our world, we miss the opportunity to be Christ to others: feeding the hungry, healing the sick, encouraging the brokenhearted, putting people in touch with the One who transforms broken parts into wholeness.

Jesus said it well: “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”

One of today’s undertold stories is the way churches are looking at brokenness and not blinking. They’re reaching out to the neediest in inner cities, suburbs, and rural towns. We’ve asked eight such churches to tell us what they’ve learned.

—The Editors

Substance Abuse

A Different Kind of Oasis.

Where men find freedom from drink.

In January 1959, just three years into his tenure as pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, Jerry Falwell founded the Elim Home for Alcoholic Men.

Falwell’s father was an alcoholic who died from liver disease when Jerry was 15 years old. Seeing his father whither away, decimated by the effects of drinking, powerfully affected Jerry’s life.

When he came back to Lynchburg after Bible college to start Thomas Road Baptist Church, many of his dad’s old drinking buddies flocked to him for relief from their own demons.

He realized that these men, and others like them, needed a place to get away from the temptations and find deliverance from their addictions.

Today, Elim Home, located on a rural stretch of tree-filled land just north of Lynchburg, ministers to men oppressed by alcohol or other drugs. The men reside comfortably, two in each room.

About 100 men per year go through Elim’s eight-week residency program. They study the Bible, receive personal and group counseling, and learn how to take responsibility for their plight.

Thomas Road Church spends about $200,000 annually to operate the ministry, but it receives support from other churches and donors. The program is free of charge to participants.

We don’t follow a Twelve Step formula, nor are we in the business of detox. If anyone has severe addictions, we recommend they go into a medical center first, and then enter our program as a transition between addiction and sobriety.

The men are often surprised when they come here because secular treatment centers typically hammer them every day about the ills of alcohol and drugs. We tell them, “If you’re not already aware of the seriousness of where you’re heading, I doubt that we’ll be able to say anything to convince you.”

Rather than focusing on the negative, we major on the positives of what their life can be if they surrender to God’s will, get involved in a good church, and lead Christ-centered lives. We teach what the Bible has to say about a host of life issues. As part of the program, they attend worship at Thomas Road Church. While not cramming religion down their throats, we give them opportunity to receive Christ.

From personal depths

I have firsthand knowledge of the problems that liquor creates for a family. If not for God’s grace, I might have been a candidate for residency at Elim.

My dad was an alcoholic for more than 30 years, and as a young man I began following in his footsteps. Alcoholism in many ways is a learned behavior. And I was a very good student.

But in 1962, God intervened. Dr. Falwell did a 30-minute live radio program every morning at six o’clock. My mom had begun listening and had an interest in visiting Thomas Road Baptist, so she convinced my dad to go one Sunday. My wife and I were invited along. None of us were Christians. But over the course of a month, we were all saved. Though it was not easy, in time, both my dad and I found freedom from alcoholism.

Dr. Falwell had known my dad prior to that, and he saw the radical change in my dad’s life. Two years later, he asked my dad to take over the ministry at Elim Home. When my dad developed health problems in 1980, I came on board to help. After his death four years later, I took over as director.

Radical influence

Elim Home has a team of five full-time staff members, and we have wonderful volunteer support from the Thomas Road congregation. They spend evenings working at the home, and they see the men on Sundays.

Sometimes as the men are getting ready to leave Elim, they’ll ask the church to pray for them. When the church sees these men—many of whom have been in and out of prison—turning their lives around and becoming productive, it has a tremendous impact.

When Bob Fitzgerald came to Elim 13 years ago, he had lost several jobs because of his drinking, and his wife had filed for divorce. He was an intelligent man with a degree in psychology, but alcohol had wreaked havoc on his life. He came to Elim desperate to get a handle on his problems.

While here, he became a Christian. When his wife came to visit him, she told me, “I saw something in him that I’d never seen before.”

Bob returned to his home in Richmond, Virginia, reconciled with his wife, and started the New Life Foundation, where both he and his wife counsel people struggling with substance addiction.

Elim is a biblical name taken from Exodus 15:27. It was an oasis where the nation of Israel experienced rest and renewal before their journey on to the Promised Land. In a sense, that is our mission: to provide men with spiritual renewal while preparing them to live the rest of their lives to God’s glory.

It’s gratifying to see men reconcile with their families and become good husbands, fathers, and leaders in their communities.

David Horsley is associate pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, and director of Elim Home. www.trbc.org.

Debtors

Financial Freedom

Radical training for the financially unstable.

Sometimes more is less—particularly when it comes to money. Despite our nation’s thriving economy and people making more money than ever, personal debt is skyrocketing. In our church, many of those who make more are typically less adept at managing what they have.

Before going into ministry, I worked for many years at a bank. I’m keenly aware of how bad money management tears at marriages and cripples families.

When we planted our church eight years ago, I regularly taught on stewardship and financial stability in sermons and Bible studies. A number of people came to me in serious financial trouble—some at risk of losing their homes.

I launched a 12-week course on biblical financial principles—how to save, invest, and manage a budget. After the course, I continued to see the same problems in the church. People making $60,000 a year were three months behind on their $700-a-month mortgage payments. Families driving luxury cars were living paycheck to paycheck. Too many people were using a Visa card as if it were money in the bank.

Overwhelmed, I awoke one night from a restless sleep: God, why are so many of your people such poor stewards, and how do we address their real need? Suddenly, as if God were giving me a vision, I grabbed a pen and paper and began to write. I had been training people in the “how to’s” of money management while neglecting true spiritual training—discipleship. These people needed to be mentored.

Jesus didn’t just talk to his disciples; he asked them to follow him, to observe how he did things, and eventually to go out and do it themselves. I was convinced that financial indebtedness would require a radical solution that goes beyond book knowledge to one-on-one training.

So in our church, healthy families mentor families facing financial hardships. We recruit couples adept at handling their finances and team them with a needy family.

Like many churches, we have a benevolence fund to help financially strapped families pay bills or buy food. But the goal is to get them beyond the emergency stage, to begin climbing out of indebtedness. Our financial recovery program lasts one year.

During the first three months, a joint account is set up bearing the names of both the healthy and needy couple. All of the needy couple’s income is directly deposited to the account. During this first phase, only the healthy couple has access to the account. They pay the needy couple’s bills and give them a reasonable allowance for groceries and other living expenses.

During the second phase, the needy couple still has no input; they closely observes their mentors as they manage the budget and make financial decisions for them. They’re simply watching how a financially healthy family makes decisions: why they budgeted that amount for groceries; why they pay the minimum amount on this bill and extra on that one.

During the third phase, the needy couple starts making money decisions, though their mentors still have the final word. This stage gives the needy couple some freedom but with clear boundaries. The mentors’ job now is to prevent bad decisions and guide the needy couple toward independence.

During the final three months, the needy couple is given complete control of their finances. The other couple now functions merely as consultants.

In addition to their monthly financial meetings, the couples meet regularly for prayer and Bible study. Needy couples who successfully complete the program eventually are asked to serve as peer counselors for other struggling couples.

So far, ten families have completed the program. Each has found success, to varying degrees, managing their money with discernment and wisdom.

You may have a hard time believing people would submit to such a radical process. But the families who participate are usually so desperate that they are ready to try anything. It takes a radical approach to undo the damage of years of bad choices, poor planning, and spiritual bondage to credit cards and car notes.

Michael D. Reynolds is pastor of New Life Celebration Church of God in Dolton, Illinois.

Single Parents

The Love Clinic

Reaching the Hagars among us.

Raising kids without the support of a spouse often creates a sense of powerlessness and isolation. However, this fast-growing segment of our nation offers today’s congregations great opportunities for ministry.

When I began to specialize in a “relationship ministry” in the 1980s, it was a novelty. Yet as our society’s fabric continued to unravel, relationship ministry became a requirement for most churches.

The Love Clinic, a branch of my church’s various social ministries, facilitates healing for the wounds of fractured relationships through Bible-based instruction, frank dialogue, fiery testimony, and a lot of prayer. We do not condemn or criticize; we are in the construction business.

Since launching the program in 1995, we’ve assisted believers—both married and single—with relationship concerns. However, the concerns of single persons predominate the Love Clinic’s agenda.

Single moms thrive here because they discover that they are not alone, that there are solutions to their problems, and that there are others who will walk with them.

Single motherhood is as ancient as Hagar of the Old Testament. Just as Hagar found herself and her son Ishmael cast into the wilderness, single mothers can encounter harsh desert-like days. Hagar was a victim of the “throw-away love” syndrome that is so widespread in our day.

She simply was no longer needed by the man in her life (Gen. 16:1-16; 21:8-21). Abandoned with a child, she found herself without support. Hagar may have been traumatized, confused, hurt, or angry. But the good news in this saga is that she found an oasis of power and perseverance when she held on to the promises of God. Today’s single moms can discover a similar hope.

Whether divorced, widowed, or never married, all single parents present the church with unique ministry opportunities. In the seminars that I lead, I emphasize the importance of single parents growing strong in the Lord. I tell them that their children will mimic both their strengths and weaknesses. I advise them in a way similar to the instructions given to airline passengers as a plane is about to take off: “In case of emergency, place your oxygen mask on first, then help those around you.”

Our ministry has helped women move out of a variety of wilderness experiences. A heart attack claimed the life of Kimberly’s husband Todd. In an instant, she became a widow with four young children. She needed to reorient her whole identity. The Love Clinic and the members of our church shepherded her. “Life is finally starting to make sense again,” she told me recently.

Teresa, a 21-year old mother of two, has never been married. Through discipleship and basic life instruction, we led her away from the spirit of illegitimacy that had her repeatedly bearing children out of wedlock.

“Babies gave me something to live for,” she said. Now Teresa knows that Christ is her reason to live too. “I have learned that God has expectations for my life.”

Like it or not, single-parent homes are becoming the norm. Without the church, many single parents would have nowhere to turn. We can gather the Hagars and lovingly lead them out of the wilderness.

Sheron C. Patterson is senior pastor of Jubilee United Methodist Church in Duncanville, Texas. www.TLCMAG.com

AIDS Sufferers

Christians on Christopher Street

Ministering in New York’s most prominent gay neighborhood.

“Is there anything we should be doing as a church that we’re not doing?”

For The Village Church of New York City, this simple question led me to a difficult answer: “Since we are a church in the middle of Greenwich Village, shouldn’t we have a ministry to people with AIDS?”

A month later, The Isaiah 58 Project, or i58 as it’s affectionately called, was created. Using Isaiah 58:10-11 as our guiding Scripture, i58 seeks to minister to people affected by AIDS in the Village’s Christopher Street community.

To begin, i58 did something radical for an evangelical church: we partnered with secular AIDS organizations. We reasoned that we must become part of the local community, and if that means being salt and light in the established organizations, well, then we’re there.

So i58 cooks, serves, and prepares Sunday dinner at Bailey-Holt House, New York’s oldest AIDS residence. A few doors down from BHH there’s a shop displaying a shirt that sums up how this particular community views Christians. It pictures Christ with his hands stretched wide, and it reads, “Jesus, save us from your followers.”

On the first day we served, the building manager gathered our volunteers together and said, “Okay, no talking about Jesus, your faith, or church while you are here.”

We humbly agreed, but a funny thing happened over time. The residents began saying, “You’re different from the other groups that come here. You don’t treat us like charity cases. That means a lot to us.”

Showing love and concern to a physically and spiritually broken community opens doors to share the gospel. Since that first day when we could not even mention Jesus, we have handed out Gideon Bibles and Scripture cards, posted Scripture in the dining rooms, and taken prayer requests.

Later, another organization contacted us to help them cook and serve food on Saturdays to 75 people with AIDS. Excited by the prospect of expanding our outreach, we sat down to meet with their staff.

“Hi, I’m Debbie. I’m a Jewish Lesbian,” the conversation began.

“Hi, my name is Ron. I’m an Evangelical Christian.” Oh boy, here we go!

“Why would an Evangelical Christian have any interest in the gay community?”

“We’re just doing what Christ would be doing if he was living here in The Village.”

“What is your church’s stance on homosexuality?”

OK, Holy Spirit, give me a quick answer. “We believe in the inerrant Word of God,” I replied.

A bit hesitant, she decided we could partner with them.

The first weekend we helped serve dinner, Debbie approached me and said, “Wow, I’ve noticed a big difference in your volunteers—you actually care about people. Our clients want you back.”

Our prayer meetings have become a safe haven for Christians dealing with the disease. One visitor commented, “This is like a little slice of heaven. There’s white, African-American, Asian, American Indian, rich, poor, Wall-Streeters, and the unemployed all seeking God in their brokenness.”

And then there are the life stories of these awesome people. Riley takes the subway in from Brooklyn for prayer meeting. A quiet gentleman with a heart for the Lord, his body is so frail I’m amazed he’s able to make the trip.

In a soft voice he told us about 36 years of living a triple life. He taught Sunday school and played the organ for morning worship, and then he would leave to rob the houses of his fellow parishioners, returning in time for the closing hymn. After church he was off to the West Village gay leather scene. Today he lives as a Christian with AIDS but considers it a blessing, “I would never be this close to the Lord if I was healthy.”

Earlier this year, John, a friend from church, expressed an interest in participating in AIDS WALK NY. I wasn’t interested, partly because the proceeds would go to a gay-based organization.

After much prayer, I realized that though theologically we had nothing in common with the organizers, this group helps people with AIDS come to our prayer meetings, provides meals to our Christian brothers and sisters affected by the disease, and is the best resource for current information. It became obvious that here’s another opportunity for Christians to bring Christ into a high-profile, secular event.

Not knowing what to expect, a dozen people from church gathered early outside Central Park for a time of prayer. There were thousands of people, a wonderful cross-section of New York. It seemed every group was represented, except for Christians. We were there, with a big THE VILLAGE CHURCH banner, for a reason.

During the walk people along the route with megaphones shouted out the names of each group passing by. “And let’s hear it for The Village Church!” was repeated throughout Central Park and the Upper East Side. God’s numbers were small, but we were noticed.

Ron Koustas is director of the Isaiah 58 Project at The Village Church in New York City.

Teen Pregnancy

Where to Turn

Offering help and hope to unwed mothers.

“Pastor, I’m pregnant.” No pastor wants to hear these words coming from a teenage girl. Her life will never be the same.

How do I respond in a way that expresses both disappointment and support? How do I speak to her confusion and shame in a way that does not condone premarital sex but lets her know she is still loved, by Jesus and by me?

That’s the pastor’s dilemma. Each year, almost 1 million teenage girls—10 percent of all women age 15 to 19—become pregnant. The United States has the highest teenage pregnancy rate of all developed countries. Unfortunately, many churches don’t know what to do with this problem.

Don’t forget that the pregnant girl’s parents suffer shame as well, especially if they are a church family. They face gut-wrenching disappointment over sacrifices they made to secure a young daughter’s future, which now seem so futile.

So my desire in ministering to these hurting families is to offer compassion over condemnation. We don’t want any family to feel that the church—a house of prayer—has become a house of judgment.

While we must be serious about the lasting consequences of sin, grace reminds us that past offense should not stop youth from practicing and growing in their faith.

Even one teen pregnancy in our church may be a warning that we need to pay closer attention to our youth. We do need to teach and preach and encourage abstinence. We should be wary of creating a church culture that fosters promiscuity or where hurting teens seeking attention try to find it by early pregnancy.

But we also need to remember that these young people are hurt and lost. They will go somewhere to find help. Our actions may determine whether that somewhere is toward God, or away from him.

Constructive ways to respond to teenage pregnancy

1. Communicate disappointment privately. When a young lady in my church became pregnant, I expressed my disappointment to her—in private. I was disappointed by her actions, not by her as a person. I did not rebuke her publicly.

2. Celebrate life. The church may be the only support for teenage parents. I encourage the congregation to send meals to the family and to help out with diapers and other baby items. By celebrating these births, we are not celebrating sex outside of marriage, but the miracle and choice of life.

3. Incorporate teenage parents into church life. If they’ve acknowledged their moral failure and have taken responsibility, we encourage teen parents to continue in youth group activities. However, we make it clear that the child is their responsibility. Sometimes this means they miss some of the activities of the youth group, but that’s part of the reality of parenthood.

4. Encourage them to share their stories. The teen parent can be an effective helper in addressing issues of abstinence and pregnancy. The teen may also be a confidential source to alert youth ministry leaders of other at-risk teens.

5. Connect them with resources. The church can serve as a conduit to refer the teenager to faith-based agencies that deal with pregnancy, adoption, or parenthood.

Martin D. Odom is pastor of St. James A.M.E. Church in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Divorced

Relationship Recovery

Our broken (and rebuilt) marriage led to a ministry to broken homes.

“I feel like I have a big D on my forehead.” “I don’t fit in anymore.” “I could never work in the church again.”

My husband Larry and I have heard such words from family, friends, and fellow church members whose lives been broken by divorce.

A national survey by the Associated Press in December 1999 found that at least 29 percent of all adults in our Baptist denomination have been through a divorce. Larry and I were part of those statistics. Each of us had already been through divorce, and we added to the figures when our second marriage failed.

Devastated and guilt-ridden, I joined a DivorceCare support group at a local church. Through a 13-week program, I learned to let go of the hurts and disappointments of a 15-year first marriage and a 16-month second marriage. It was liberating to experience God’s forgiveness and understand the need to forgive others. Unconditional love took on a new meaning for me.

Larry and I had been divorced for two years when God began developing a passion within me to use the adversities of my past to help others. As part of this process, I sensed God leading me to pursue reconciliation with Larry. My willingness to forgive and accept forgiveness suddenly moved from the abstract to the here and now. It was a painful but necessary process. Larry and I began dating again in September 1996, two years after our breakup.

In 1998, I presented the idea of a DivorceCare program to our pastor. Suddenly, we began seeing the many broken marriages in our church and community. Our pastor responded with full support and purchased the materials immediately. He recommended I facilitate the class.

Larry was a participant in the first class, along with nine others. We shared our stories, studied God’s Word, and prayed.

Slowly, God exposed the ugly spiritual baggage so many of us were holding on to. During the course, Larry was able to identify lingering issues from his previous 21-year marriage. Emotional scars of bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness began to heal. Larry completed the 13-week study in April 1998, and in November we were remarried.

Today, Larry and I both lead our church’s divorce ministry. Together, we share our story with other divorced individuals.

Becky (not her real name) had been divorced for 11 years and had been emotionally unable to run even simple errands. She would not allow herself to make friends. She slept on the sofa for months after her husband left her—she could not make herself enter the bedroom again. She felt numb and alone. Her self-worth was gone.

Becky began coming to our DivorceCare sessions. As we shared our stories and studied God’s Word together, I could see her slowly coming out of her self-imposed prison. By the thirteenth week, she told the class that she has “a second life now” and realizes that she “is somebody.”

DivorceCare has become a great outreach for our church. It has enabled us to comfort with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

Jan Kyle directs the DivorceCare program at Waterville Baptist Church in Cleveland, Tennessee. www.divorcecare.org.

Refugees

“I Was a Stranger and You. … “

A church offers a home for those far from theirs.

Four refugee families stepped off the plane on June 7, 1999—19 people and 27 pieces of luggage, everything they owned. They had spent one month in a refugee camp in Macedonia and another month at the processing center in New Jersey. One of these families came to my home.

Zaim Ferati was a businessman in his native Kosovo, the only member of his family to finish four years at the university in Pristina. When Milosevic came into power ten years ago, Zaim was the manager of a company with a thousand employees. Then it was gone. Much has changed for the Kosovars since then.

Zaim and many Kosovar men had to leave their families and hide to avoid being killed. Zaim’s wife, Ganimete, told of being separated from him for two weeks as she and her three small children walked across the mountains to refuge.

Now they stood at our door. Zaim was anxious, quickly bringing his belongings in, while Ganimete huddled her children. They had been through a lot.

My wife, Karen, and I had once considered our home a private haven from hectic days. It was hard to imagine sharing our space with strangers, yet God had called us to do just that. Now, our refuge had become their refuge. I suddenly realized my own selfishness.

For several years, our church has served refugees and immigrants in our community. Church members serve as sponsors, helping refugees to relocate and settle in. English as a Second Language (ESL) classes are offered at the church. Our story is just one of many accounts of Christians offering welcome in the name of Christ.

As refugees, the Feratis received welfare and health assistance. After several weeks Zaim was grateful to find work as a meat cutter at a processing plant. We helped them get set up in an apartment. They moved out of our home but not our lives.

Our two families come from different worlds. They are Muslim and we are Christian. But a foundation of trust was built.

Two months before returning to Kosovo, Ganimete became pregnant. She was experiencing violent morning sickness with no family to care for her. She didn’t want to have the baby in Kosovo. Yet, if they waited, they might not be able to return. She knew only one recourse—abortion.

“You can’t do this,” Karen said. “We will be your family. God has taken you through too much; he’ll get you through this.”

After a few weeks, Karen took Ganimete to see a doctor. Ganimete was flush with excitement when she heard the child’s heartbeat. “Thank you, Karen. I want this baby.”

The Feratis now have a fourth child, born in America. His name is Mirkim. I asked Zaim what the name means. He became thoughtful and said, “It means ‘Far From Home.’ Mirkim will remind us that we are far from home.”

Vernon Owens is pastor of worship and administration at Kennewick Baptist Church in Kennewick, Washington.

Compassion and Care

A Truly Great Church

Real success is within reach.

What makes a truly great church? Is it a vibrant worship band, imaginative drama, and wide screen audio-visual presentations, all leading up to dynamic, relevant preaching of the Word of God in a state-of-the-art sanctuary?

If so, then the steep cost of being cutting edge and high tech, and the shallow pool of jaw-dropping talent means that being a great church will be out of reach for most.

But what if being a great church is a function of something much simpler? What if greatness in God’s kingdom is measured instead by serving? Then a truly great church would be one that feeds the hungry, clothes the unclothed, helps the hurting, and sets out to improve its community. Any church, especially those in impoverished areas, could become truly great.

The Dream Center began with that vision and was born out of the witness of two great biblical accounts: the story of Nehemiah and the story of the church in the Book of Acts.

Perhaps the most important thing about the story of Nehemiah is what it doesn’t say. Nehemiah is not a story of a man who says, “I want to build a great city.” Rather, it is the story of a man who goes to his king and says, “There is no one to look after the welfare of the people of my city. Please let me go and care for them.” It is meeting the needs of the people, not the act of building a city, that captured his heart.

Isn’t that also the message of Acts? The great explosion of the church wasn’t the result of a strategic planning retreat. Rather, it was about ordinary people, moved by the grace of God, sharing the provisions they had been given by Jesus—the message of the gospel, their financial resources, their labor, and their love. Wherever they shared these provisions, more were added to their number.

What ingredients are necessary to start a truly great church? An unmet need and a Christian willing to share in Jesus’ name.

One Saturday morning I was out picking up trash on my block as part of the Dream Center’s weekly “Adopt a Block” outreach. A Cambodian woman watched me with great interest. Finally, she said to me in broken English, “Pastor, you preaching.”

I laughed, assuming her limited English had caused her to say something she didn’t intend. I assured her that I wasn’t preaching; I was picking up trash.

Then she nodded and said again, “Pastor, you preaching without preaching.”

Six years ago, the Lord changed my heart from wanting to build a great church to simply seeking the welfare of the people in inner-city Los Angeles. I began the Dream Center through the simple act of taking a bag of groceries to one family because they didn’t have food.

There were times in the beginning when only a few of us went from door to door in the neighborhood. But by being out there in the community, asking about needs, and working to meet them one by one, our lives were so radically changed and blessed that others in our congregation began to join in.

Today, the Dream Center operates over 140 ministries to meet needs of people in our community. Those ministries provide food and clothing, drug counseling, teen and homeless outreach, and even a 24-hour medical clinic. Each ministry began because one of our volunteers saw a need and felt moved to meet it.

True, people enjoy a good worship band and a well-preached message. So do I. But deep inside every Christian is a yearning to meet the need of the world with the provision of Christ. Once you start building a church on compassion and care, it’s the most contagious thing in the world.

Matthew Barnett is pastor of The Dream Center in Los Angeles, California.