Faith Assembly of God: Compassion Evangelism
Faith Assembly of God: Compassion Evangelism
As the men and women enter the church basement on a chill February day, they are greeted warmly by name. The program director, Linda, seems to be everywhere, giving out hugs and jokes to the people who have come in for food, as well as the other staff. Myrna enters and signs in on the state-mandated attendance form, next to a stack of Christian tracts and flyers with the church's monthly activity calendar. Sherrie, a motherly volunteer, listens to Myrna share her anxieties about an upcoming court date. Sherrie calls over to the director "Come over here and pray with us!" She reassures Myrna that God listens to prayer and will take care of her situation. The three women pray that the best would happen for Myrna's children, "Father, your will be done. Amen." As they finish, both volunteers hug Myrna and speak more encouraging words.
As more people gather in the room, [Linda] announces that anyone who wants can join in the prayer circle. A man asks for prayer for his pregnant girlfriend. They all hold hands, and a volunteer prays for all the prayer requests that are shared. Then the volunteers give out the food bags, while some people browse through the clothes hanging on a portable rack. Around noon, those who are still in the room are invited upstairs to the sanctuary for a worship service, led by the pastor. The sound of singing accompanied by tambourines wafts downstairs. Meanwhile, the volunteers are preparing a hot meal, mopping the floor, putting the pantry in order, and setting up tables and chairs and plastic tablecloths. After the service concludes, the group files back downstairs to share a hot lunch.
With many senior citizens, people on public assistance, and recovering substance abusers in the neighborhood, food ministries are an important way that Faith Assembly of God shares Christ's love to the community. Faith serves a hot lunch three days a week to an average of 35 people each meal, and provides up to two bags of dry groceries each month to people who meet income requirements. The church does not have a large budget-about half of the funds for the food ministry come from a state grant-but the congregation supplies ample volunteers for the ministry.
"We're trying to reach their souls and the spirits as well as just feed their belly," says [Linda]. Some of the volunteers first came to the church through the food ministry, and so they know from personal experience how groceries can become a vehicle for imparting both spiritual life and nutrition. One volunteer's prayer for the program is that "a little part of God's Spirit will go in every bag of food, so that we might know Jesus and tell someone about Jesus today."
The prayer circle and worship circle are important avenues for telling people about Jesus, but equally important are the ways volunteers nurture relationships with regular food recipients and look for opportunities to share the Good News with them in informal ways. When women come in looking like they have been abused or stressed, [Linda] says, "It gives me an opportunity to approach them in love. I don't push the 'You're going to hell' message. I try to show them how much God loves them and that they're precious in His sight." The friendly, caring atmosphere brings people back as much as their need for food. It is not uncommon for neighborhood residents to come by even when it's not their day to pick up food, to ask for a coat or for a prayer, to drink a cup of coffee, or just to pass a few hours in a safe and friendly place. People know they will always be treated with dignity, unlike other bureaucratic programs, where the attitude, according to [Linda], is "Get in line, show us your stuff, OK, next."
[Linda] once was impressed by a quote from T.D. Jakes: "They want to see your scars." A former drug addict, who shot out all the veins in her arm before Christ redeemed her spirit and reclaimed her body, [Linda]'s scars help give the women she meets reason to trust her. "I can't say, 'Well, I've read about this or I've heard about that.' No. I've been there, done that." Women naturally confide in her and are encouraged by her overcomer's testimony. But without the food ministry, [Linda] might not have the opportunity to get to know them.
Processing food bags is the easy part. Loving people in Jesus' name is the hard part. [Linda] describes the struggles, and the rewards, of loving needy people who present themselves as unlovable:
- We have to love. No matter what, you have to love them. And when people come here, this is our home. So they're coming as our guests, that's how we're to treat them. ... Whether they're drunk, whether they're high it doesn't matter. I have one gentleman that will come in and stand in the corner, he wants to see me, he's drunk. And he'll say, "I'm drunk." And I'll say, "Well, I know you are, you stink." "I know I stink." "You don't have to stink," I'll tell him.... And inside of me sometimes I'd like to smack him, thinking, "What's the matter with you!" I would never show it on the outside. And the main thing I can do is to just talk to him and say, "You know that you don't have to be like this. God has a better plan." Then he goes back and forth with, "I want what you have but I don't want to give nothing up"-so then I have an opportunity to share, "What you're giving up is to make room for the better thing." I know that when he's out there, this man knows he can come here. He knows that if he stumbles into the church drunk, he's not gonna be talked to rudely, he's not gonna be pushed aside, he's not gonna be told, "Look, you have to get out of here, you can't come." Because who did Jesus associate with? We're not gonna tell people, "You can't come here like that." No, we say, "Come here like that." Then we can get through to them. God can make them sober.
The food ministry serves as a focal point for the church's multifaceted outreach, as a way of getting to know people in the community, sharing information about other church programs, and inviting people to church. The pastor, Rev. Richard Smith, estimates that directly or indirectly, the church's food ministry helped 25 people come to a new or renewed Christian faith in one year. The ministry increases people's receptiveness to the gospel in several ways. Through the weekly daytime worship services, people who do not attend services regularly get used to the idea and feel of being in church. Knowing some songs and familiar faces makes it easier for them to show up for church on Sunday. The food ministry also allows the church to identify community resident's other significant social needs, and to refer them as appropriate into other church ministries.
For example, several of the residents in the church's Men's Home for recovering substance abusers first entered the church's doors to receive food aid. One man found out about Faith Assembly through one of his drug buddies who went there for food. The ministry took care of his hunger, but he realized he needed something deeper. He attended an evening church service where he became convinced of God's saving power. Looking back, he attributes his conversion to the prayers and spiritual warfare of people in the church. Now he is the leader of the Men's Home.
In the summertime, a week-long tent crusade also combines food and worship, serving up to 400 meals and food bags each day! The tent crusade and regular outdoor Sunday services "knock the church walls down," and allow people in the community who may feel too timid to enter a church building to watch services from their doorstep or from windows. These services often feature testimonies from people who came to the church via the food ministry, so community residents can realize they have something in common with church members. The need for food is a common denominator in the community.
Nancy (not her real name), a resident in the nearby low income housing complex, at first said no when people from Faith knocked on her door to invite her to the tent revival. But when they kept coming back each day, she finally agreed to go, just to get rid of them. She did not come forward for salvation at the revival. But that fall she started attending church, and one Sunday felt a need to come clean and change her life. After a few months, her boyfriend started coming to church. He too accepted Christ, and they got married. The thing about Faith Assembly that has made the biggest impact on her, Nancy says, is the pastor's compassionate love. "He lives it. You can see him do it. He never does not feed if someone is hungry."
Nancy's back problems keep her from full-time work, but she volunteers for Peacemakers, a foundation-funded program started by the church in response to the fights and drive-by shootings endangering neighborhood youth. Wearing a bright orange vest, Nancy and other volunteers stand on street corners watching over the children making their way to and from school. Every weekday afternoon, teens in the program gather at the church to hang out with staff and rehearse skits, rap songs, and puppet plays that teach about peacemaking and safety, performed at local schools and neighborhood events. In the summer, Peacemakers hosted a special "Peace Celebration," open to the community, with Christian music groups, mime, testimonies, and of course food.
God's love, made tangible through the food and the hugs and the prayers, is what invites and sustains many broken people along the slow path of personal transformation.
[chap. 1, pp. 23-26]
