Tenth Presbyterian Church: Sharing the Transforming Word of God

Tenth Presbyterian Church: Sharing the Transforming Word of God

The prayer meeting had ended, and the small group of Tenth Presbyterian church members were bundling up in their coats to go home. They were about to step around a lump of blanket huddled on the church steps, when something stopped them short. Here they had been in God's presence in prayer-while right outside the church was one of God's children, suffering in the cold. One member turned to another and said, "We need to do something about that."

Later, the prayer group approached the deacons and said, "What can you do?" The deacons wisely answered, "What do you want to do?" And so the church members began praying and reflecting about how the church could be a good neighbor, not only to this one particular person, but to the growing population of homeless men and women in the downtown area around the church. At first, the response was to start a feeding program. The church soon realized, however, that the most important thing they could do was to establish relationships and to share the Word of God with the people they fed.

From that small seed, ACTS (Active Compassion through Service) has grown into a ministry that now involves about twenty percent of the congregation. ACTS aims "to educate, motivate, and equip the members of Tenth to imitate Christ in attitude, humility and service, and to be good stewards of their God-given resources and talents." An array of ministries provide abundant opportunities to serve: dinners and Bible studies for homeless guests, after-school tutoring, nursing home visitation, a worship service for people with HIV, single parent/divorce support groups, and a racial reconciliation fellowship. The mission of ACTS is nothing less than the "total transformation of individuals in the name of Jesus. It seeks to be a prophetic witness of Christ's love to those who suffer from spiritual and physical poverty." In part because of this overt evangelistic thrust, ACTS ministries are entirely funded through the church.

One of the principles underlying the diverse ACTS ministries is the goal of nurturing relationships between Christian volunteers and needy members of the community. In the monthly Community Dinners, for example, the homeless guests (not "clients!") do not line up to have meals served on trays cafeteria-style. Instead, they are seated at tables with attractive, full place settings and served family style, sitting beside church members who share the meal and dinner conversation. A worship service before the meal provides spiritual nourishment for many guests who would never dream of entering the church on Sunday morning. The dignified setting and relationships forged over the meal make guests more open to accepting the message of the Word. For more substantive spiritual guidance, guests are invited to the weekly Fellowship Bible Study, which also includes a less formal meal. The Community Dinner draws about 120 homeless persons; about 25 attend the Fellowship Bible Study.

The relational approach to evangelism is rooted in Christ's model of incarnational love and sacrificial servanthood. Dr. David Apple, director of ACTS, explains,

Just as Jesus became a servant of others, washing others' feet, not being afraid to be vulnerable, not being afraid to come alongside people who are hurting, not being afraid of coming alongside someone who may smell- we're called to be advocates, to come alongside and be available. Servanthood means to be available to people, and to know that God is in charge of our time and our resources and our valuables-to give all those things to God, for his service.

ACTS is as much about discipling Christians to a deeper commitment as it is about serving those outside the church. Engaging the church in mercy ministry, says Dr. Apple, requires "converting those who call themselves believers." To become a servant and friend to someone very different from you is to embark on a pilgrimage of discipleship. The impact of the Gospel is seen equally in how it transforms street people's social circumstances, and how it transforms church members' innate self-centeredness into Christ-like love for the marginalized.

Dr. Apple's own pilgrimage to holistic ministry began with his salvation experience. "I was saved in a small, black church, through the witness of former drug addicts, recovering alcoholics, former prostitutes, and people who had nothing physically, but showed me that they had everything, because of Jesus Christ." Because of their witness, and because of struggles he faced in his own life, he says, "My calling, my passion, is to be available to God to help the poor."

Dr. Apple explains why evangelism and discipleship are central to this mission.

If someone has no friends, has no support, then he or she is going to find themselves feeling abandoned and hopeless. Why try? The systemic solution is escape-whether it's escape through chemicals, your drug of choice, or sexual promiscuity; all of them are some form of self condemnation, because we're punishing ourselves for the situation that we are in. ... But all of that I believe has a spiritual solution, because if we're in a proper relationship with God then there's no condemnation. ... So even if we have absolutely nothing, the starting point for renewal is spiritual. ... There's a solution based on the confidence that we have in Christ: we can begin obtaining skills and putting all that garbage behind us. ... It's only in Christ that people finally possess the freedom to finally look beyond themselves for a source of healing.

People with habitual needs should be offered services, skills, and economic opportunities - but in David Apple's experience, unless the spiritual bondage is broken, they may never be able to benefit from the assistance. Tenth Church does not duplicate the social services that other Christian and secular institutions are already doing well. Rather, by building ongoing, supportive, Christ-centered relationships with people, ACTS ministries help empower people to take advantage of other resources effectively. Progress with homeless guests is slow, but the fruits become evident over time. Dr. Apple can point to "several homeless guests who because of becoming a new creature, are able to assume new characteristics and able to take off old labels and assume responsible citizenship."

One of these men used to sleep on the steps of a synagogue a block from Tenth Church. For years, he was consumed by multiple addictions. He was, in Dr. Apple's words, "a walking dead man." A couple of ACTS volunteers befriended him, and from time to time would bring him sandwiches and blankets. Each time they saw him, they invited him to come to the church, to come to the Community Dinner, to come to Fellowship Bible Study, where he could come out of the cold, get a hot meal, and form new friendships. At first the man wanted nothing to do with the church, but eventually he accepted their invitation. For several years, he came occasionally to church activities for the meals and the warmth, but refused other help.

Finally, as David Apple puts it, "he got sick and tired of being sick and tired. And he had seen people he had shared needles with die of AIDS, and started asking the question, 'Why am I still alive?' In developing relationships with the people of the church ... he started coming regularly and saw who Jesus really was, and how He could help." ACTS volunteers led the man to a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. They also helped him get into a Christian drug recovery program. After several episodes of relapse and re-treatment, he became drug-free. He reunited with the mother of his children, and they were married and bought a home. His wife and two teenage daughters became believers. He stood before a judge and paid old outstanding fines, saying, "The person who did all these things, I'm not that person anymore." The former crack addict who slept on the synagogue steps now volunteers with ACTS, sharing the gospel with people with whom he used to share drugs.

Another worship service and Bible study for persons with HIV was started at the request of a secular respite home, after Tenth Church members attended the funeral service for a woman who died of AIDS. The woman had attended the Fellowship Bible Study and accepted Christ before she died. Because of the relationship that they had nurtured with her, the church gained credibility and access to a population that desperately needs and is open to the gospel, but rarely trusts the church. Says the Tenth volunteer who leads these worship services, "We have a responsibility to everyone, but especially those whose life span is going to be shorter than everyone else's."

Center city areas are often considered places of alienation, corridors of style and power lacking in true community, where commuters pass by homeless persons in alleys and doorways on their way in for a day's work or an evening's entertainment. When Tenth Church faced the decision of whether to sell its property and move to the suburbs, following the trail of so many other white urban churches, Tenth decided to remain. They have stayed, not just to keep a piece of real estate but to be a witness and servant in the city. Church bulletins proclaim, This church opens wide her doors and offers her welcome in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Homeless men, suburbanites, HIV sufferers, international students, young urban families-all have made good on the invitation.

[Adapted from Churches That Make a Difference, chapter 1].