Vicki Brown
The Rev. John Edgar and Donita Harris discuss the work that has grown from the Free Store in Columbus, Ohio. Photo by Vicki Brown. |
More than 100,000 have visited a free store in Columbus, Ohio, and the ministry has grown to include housing redevelopment, a free clinic, a new church, and performing arts, new district superintendents and directors of connectional ministries were told Wednesday.
“What I hope you heard is that it started small,” Donita Harris said of the Community Development for All People and the United Methodist Church for All People. “It started with a free store. What I hope you hear is that we can engage in ministry with the poor, and God will meet you and multiply it.”
Harris and the Rev. John Edgar, executive director of CD4AP, both said it is important to be in ministry with the poor, not for or to the poor. They made a presentation about fighting poverty, one of the Four Focus Areas affirmed by the 2008 General Conference during the Wednesday morning plenary session at the New District Superintendents / Directors of Connectional Ministries Training Event, August 23 - 28 at Lake Junaluska, N.C..
“There are a few ways to check if you are in ministry with the poor. Do you have poor folks in your home as guests? Do you know their names? What price do you pay personally?” Harris asked.
She said 10 years ago, when she started working with the free store, her answer to all those questions would have been no.
Edgar said virtually everyone in Harrell Auditorium at Lake Junaluska Assembly is middle class, and that even if they gave away all their money, they would still be middle class in education. “We have to get pretty good at building bridges,” he said.
The Free Store was started when he was a district superintendent, Edgar said. He said many of the congregations in his district were made up of older people, and he wanted to find something that would let people have contact with the poor. A storefront was rented on a street in Columbus that had poor whites on one side and poor blacks on the other. “But everyone used the street,” he said. The understanding was if the door was unlocked, the coffee pot was on.
The Rev. Mike Feeley, executive director of St. Andrews Center in Chattanooga, responds to Edgar's presentation on ministry with the poor.
Photo by Vicki Brown. |
People came, and then came back. People came back to shop, and volunteers came back because it was an opportunity to hang out with the poor. “It turned out to be an amazingly simple way to create connections between the poor and middle class,” Edgar said.
Since it opened, the Free Store has distributed more than $10 million in clothing and household goods to more than 100,000 different shoppers through the efforts of more than 1,000 volunteers. Volunteers and donations come from a host of individuals and organizations including area churches, synagogues, and mosques.
Edgar said one of the things he did early on was spend about three months of a study leave sitting in the store talking with people, asking them what they hoped for. He said the bottom line is: people want to know the life they are living has value, and they want someone to listen to them. Many people told them they dreamed of not being poor.
Edgar said CD4AP was “horrible” at housing rehab when they started the first project with a house someone donated and funded rehabbing. “People we hired would leave at lunch and come back drunk, steal and sell the tools,” he said. But they got better and formed partnerships with Habitat for Humanity, the city of Columbus, Nationwide Children’s Hospital (a neighborhood hospital) and are now involved in a multi-year project to purchase and renovate every vacant, blighted house in a 28-block area.
Edgar and Harris got a standing ovation from about 68 district superintendents and 10 directors of connectional ministries attending the training event conducted by the Council of Bishops, the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, and the General Board of Discipleship. Several participants indicated they would be meeting with pastors in their districts to discuss what kind of projects they might launch to be in ministry with the poor.
Superintendents oversee the total ministry of the clergy and churches for ministry and mission within their district. Directors of connectional ministries oversee program development for the annual conference.
James Swanson, episcopal leader of the Holston Annual Conference, praised the work in Columbus and said such projects need to be held up for others in the connection.
“I guarantee you in every district there are people doing work that needs to be celebrated,” Bishop Swanson said.
*Brown is associate editor and writer, Office of Interpretation, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Date: 8/27/2009 12:00:00 AM
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