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And I said, 'Whoa. . . what are
we doing here?!' I went home so
upset that I couldn't sleep all night. |
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Wayne Campbell, Church Member |
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MINISTRY
SUMMARY |
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Vision for ministry "owned"
by congregation |
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Interim Pastor committed
to change |
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Lay leader transformed from blocking behavior |
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Demographics inform planning and confront with community needs |
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Outreach ministries target primary concerns of community |
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Two Scots on a Rock
Click here to read the Full
Story |
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An urban neighborhood's biggest fear is for its' safety, while a church in
that same neighborhood is concerned that they've become invisible. Now they're discovering
each other—and how they both can work together to reclaim the neighborhood. |
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When Anna's* parents enrolled their daughter in
Hope Lutheran's new reading program they weren't thinking of it as a drug or
crime-prevention program. They just wanted her to be the best reader she could be. Yet
statistics show that Tacoma—including Anna's neighborhood—has one of the highest
crime rates in the nation. It was so bad that years ago, many members of Hope Lutheran
moved out of the neighborhood to escape both falling real estate values and from becoming
victims of rising drug-related crime. Whatever problems beset this community, in many of
the member's minds it was now someone else's problem. |
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But it's hard to ignore a statistic that comes home to roost. Especially when
your church home is in a neighborhood where the grade school reading level is below
average—as a result the odds are raised that some of those children will one day end
up in prison. It's not a spurious connection. Consider this: When the state of Washington
begins to project the need for prison space over X amount of years they do so by looking
at one statistic—the present reading level of 3rd graders. In other words, the
greater the problems that third graders have in reading, the more apt they are to end up
in prison. |
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Hope Lutheran and their interim pastor, Stewart McDonald, would have never
known about that statistic were it not for two factors. First, a good percentage of the
church went through Percept's ReVision process. That, in turn, helped to open their eyes to
what was really going on within the area surrounding their church. Second, the president
of the congregation had what McDonald termed a "providential" meeting with a key
player in the community. |
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"Right after we had completed ReVision, the president of our congregation,
Bill Rose, went to a dinner where, seated next to him was a woman who worked for the
Tacoma Urban League," says Stewart McDonald. "Her name was Harriet Williams. And
because ReVision was fresh in the president's mind, he started talking to Harriet about
what it had done for the church in terms of opening their eyes to the real needs of the
community. Harriet, who also happened to be a devoted Christian, responded to his story
with an enthusiastic, 'Boy! I think I can help!' Within a few months, the church
leadership had a meeting with Harriet and, as a result, we have started two new
ministries!" . . .THERE'S MORE! |
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* Name was changed to protect identity |
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Read the full story!
— Besides the reading ministry, there are several other exciting outreach ministries
that Hope Lutheran has developed.
A big surprise was that one of the church's most resistant members has become one
of its most engaged! Find out more about what two Scots hath wrought. . .-Jenni
Keast |
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© COPYRIGHT 2008 PERCEPT GROUP, INC. |
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GO TO THE STORY ARCHIVE |
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