Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - July/92

Contributor - Walter Opmeer

Title - Hosting The Community

Topic - Ministries

"Hosting the Community" is the name given to the project in which we are trying to reach out to needy people in our area. The basic idea is that once per month, on the Sunday just before social assistance cheques come out, we invite these people to a well prepared hot meal at the church prior to our evening service. It is a ministry which has started for us with a gift, a dream, some natural opportunities, a team of workers and some hard work.

The Lord has orchestrated several different elements in the startup of this project. One member of our church group had built a relationship with a friend who wanted very much to donate some money towards a soup kitchen-like project to feed the hungry. When this matter was brought to our leadership, one deacon added that he had been envisioning just such a ministry for some months, but along the lines of a full hot meal served at the church. Since this idea was more appropriate for a large unreached segment of our community, and did not duplicate the soup kitchen ministries that already existed in other areas of Vancouver, this was agreeable to the donor.

We know from statistics that our neighbourhood does have a higher number of unemployed than in other areas, but as a more "middle class" type of church we seldom had many connections with these people. But we did have two natural Opportunities which could help launch our efforts. We do have a long standing Alcoholics Anonymous group meeting in our building, which would at least reflect the make-up of our community. We also have contact with a local unsponsored Christian housing ministry which has quite an evangelistic thrust into this segment of Vancouver's population.

With these possibilities before us, the consistory delegated the project to a small start-up committee which divided the workload into planning food preparation and volunteers on the one hand, and advertising and community connections on the other. We do not seem to lack volunteers for set-up and serving, which leaves us a number of extras who can sit down and develop relationships with our guests. While the start up committee stays constant, we hope to encourage many in our congregation with the appropriate gifts to take part in this effort. By rotating our volunteers, even getting a different couple to "host" each month's event, right from menu planning to volunteer clean-up and announcements, we feel this project can become part of the outreach of the whole church.

There is still a lot of hard, set-up work involved. Each month, the food preparation and clean-up takes planning and time. Making community contacts in some ways is even harder. We have served about 30 - 45 meals each time so far, even if up to one-third are volunteers. But while we have had reasonable contact with the Christian housing ministry, no one has yet come from our Alcoholics Anonymous contacts (direct advertising is not permitted in their meetings). Many hours spent in putting up flyers in local laundromats and grocery stores has yielded an exciting trickle of new faces. Besides the very hard work of building and developing new relationships and contacts we obedience, still want to sell the idea to local area businesses for further financial sponsorship. This way we can possibly leave our donated start-up untouched and operate out of further gifts and a small amount of interest.

It is very exciting to make new in-roads into our community. To have contact with the new Christians who have not had a continuing church relationship before, and the new people who are just happy to have some company and a good hot meal. It is also rewarding when a few of those without a regular church home decide to stay for the evening service held upstairs right after the meal. Hosting our Community to a simple monthly hot meal is a blessing resulting from obedience, ultimately, to the Great Commission itself.

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