Burlington Center Mall Ministry: The Birth of a Vision

Burlington Center Mall Ministry: The Birth of a Vision

The story of the Burlington Center Mall Ministry (BCMM) illustrates the process of developing and enlisting support for a new holistic ministry. BCMM began in 1993 as a prayer project of Phil Olson, then Minister of Mission at First Presbyterian Church. Challenged by Mission 21 India's prayer strategies and a lethargic period of congregational life and ministry, Phil felt a growing burden for targeted prayer and a passion for reaching unchurched people.

For several months Phil asked God where his focus should be. He felt led to pray for three townships. He got a map and colored them in and prayed over them. Then he asked God for a prayer partner from each township. After a month of praying, he enlisted prayer partners. Then Phil developed a calendar of neighborhoods and people groups unique to each township. The prayer partners spent a month driving around each township, praying and thinking about possible ways to do ministry for township residents, and praying that as the vision was shared with others they would be receptive. At this point, Phil conceived of the idea of an off-site ministry.

About this same time, First Presbyterian's Session (governing board) was working on a five-year long-range planning process. Not coincidentally, one of the mission goals that emerged was to develop an off-site outreach ministry. First Presbyterian's leaders realized that in our present culture, the church is no longer the hub of community activity. Church services have plenty of competition on Sunday morning: soccer, the golf course, the beach, second or third jobs, or just staying in bed. Instead of asking people to come find the church, First Presbyterian wanted to find the people and share the life-changing truths of the gospel. So Session members, particularly the Mission Team, began considering ministry options.

In the three townships, Phil was still exploring possible ministry sites. Several were investigated, but each time there was some roadblock. Phil asked himself where Jesus would go to minister if he were walking the streets of Burlington County today. His answer: the marketplace. Phil wrote a paper exploring this idea, "Let's Go to the Mall!" and sent it to fifty Christian leaders across the country for their ideas and input, asking if they knew of existing mall ministries. Phil and others from First Presbyterian visited two other nearby mall ministries, Echelon Mall Ministry (Voorhees, NJ) and the Church on the Mall (Plymouth Meeting, PA) to learn from their successes and failures.

During a church leadership day of prayer and fasting in November 1996, the First Presbyterian Mission Team went to Burlington Center to talk to the mall management about the possibility of renting space. The management could not understand why anyone would want to be in the mall whose goal was not to make money. This provided the mall ministry with its first witnessing opportunity!

Phil continued to pray about funding and leadership for the emerging mall ministry. After several months he felt called to speak with a church member about paying the first year's rent. In God's amazing timing, that person had just received a lump sum and was asking God what to do with it! Also during this period, Phil and the Mission Team chair each prayed and made separate lists of three possible names for the mall ministry director.

Elsie Nicolette was going through a career change at the time and was pretty sure she knew what God wanted her to do. It wasn't directing the mall ministry. But each time, just when it looked like she had a new job, something happened. Elsie began evaluating what she really wanted in a job. In June 1997 she became the Mission Team chair. Elsie was surprised to discover that her list of things that she wanted from a job matched the emerging job description for the person to lead the Burlington Center Mall Ministry. Her calling was confirmed when she later learned that she was the only name on both lists!

While the mall ministry was conceived from the beginning as a collaborative project with support from multiple churches, First Presbyterian's embrace of the ministry was crucial to its development. One way the ministry committee engaged the congregation early in the process was by encouraging members to prayer walk at the mall. They provided a guide to help people identify what to pray about - like lonely folks sitting on benches, mothers with tired or rebellious children, frustrated merchants dealing with cranky customers, and the folks waiting to see Santa who needed to know the real meaning of Christmas. The committee also kept the congregation informed through brochures and bulletin inserts that described the mall ministry's goals and listed volunteer opportunities.

What factors led to the congregation's adopting the vision of a mall ministry? One, lots of trust in the church's leadership had built up over the years when it came to launching new ministries. Two, it was obvious to the congregation that much thought and planning had gone into the ministry design. Three, prior to the congregation's vote of confidence, many people (staff, board, lay leaders and key congregants) had already said "yes" to the idea, including putting their money where their mouths and hearts were. Four, the mall concept was included as a component of the church's developing long-range plan. Fifth, First Presbyterian was ready for a challenge. The congregation was recovering from an internal crisis. No new major ministries had been launched in several years. Members were eager for a forward-looking project that would revitalize the church.

In October 1997, Session approved moving ahead with the mall ministry concept. The ministry had one year's rent, a director ... and lots of logistical obstacles to overcome. Each crisis stretched the congregation's faith and deepened their commitment to prayer. They realized that their desire to extend God's kingdom on earth had initiated a spiritual battle. The ministry committee knew that its strength would never be sufficient, and that they needed to rely on the Lord and draw on His resources. The committee recruited people willing to pray for every aspect of the ministry. Elsie began sending out weekly prayer concerns via fax and email. At last the doors opened, with a joyous two-day Grand Opening celebration/consecration in mid-July, 1998.

Elsie and the Director of Servant Development at First Presbyterian began to create job descriptions and to enlist and train volunteers. Volunteers attend a one-hour orientation to learn about the ministry and volunteer requirements. All who interact with the public also take four hours of evangelism training. Further training is provided for specific positions. With the mall open 75 hours per week, BCMM presents many volunteer opportunities - from "hosts" who sit out front greeting passers by to nurses who provide blood pressure screening, from prayer intercession to grant writing and publicity. New programs, like a children's craft program, are created when volunteers suggest, "I could do ..." BCMM presently involves about 200 volunteers from 39 churches, with First Presbyterian supplying about two-thirds of the volunteers. Volunteers cross denominational, gender, racial, ethnic and age categories, demonstrating that God is bigger than any human barriers.

The powerful lesson that the church has learned through BCMM, says Elsie, is that "God is able to do exceeding abundantly, far beyond all that we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20). First Presbyterian's faith, imagination, prayers, donations, and volunteer commitments are the ingredients God has used to accomplish this remarkable ministry.

[Adapted from Churches That Make a Difference, chapter 13].