Buckner partners with ministries in Northwest_82304
Posted: 8/20/04
| Susan Kim, a short-term mission volunteer, shares Christ with "Freedom," a homeless man who frequents the Broadway Street area in Seattle, Wash. Kim is one of several missionaries and members of Sanctuary, a Seattle church, who witness to street people. (Scott Collins Photo) |
Buckner partners with ministries in Northwest
By Russ Dilday
Buckner News Service
SEATTLE, Wash.–Susan Kim crouches on a corner of busy Broadway Street in Seattle, talking about Christ to two street people known in the area by their aliases, Spacebag and Freedom.
They are young men, but their faces are weathered and their bodies marked by tattoos and piercings. They wear mostly black clothing, and their language is rough.
Kim is one of several missionaries and members of Sanctuary, a Seattle church, who are witnessing to street people. Since it's warm, they dispense lemonade and cookies in Capitol Hill, a haven for the homeless and addicted.
“I've known one of them for about four months now,” Kim said. “We believe that the gospel here is a process of daily meeting the people and praying for them and hopefully allowing what we call the coin to drop. It takes root in people's lives and expands to all parts of their lives. This is just another step in his journey. That's what we try to do; we just walk with people in their journey here.”
Sanctuary is one of several ministries where missions groups work in partnership with Buckner Children and Family Services.
While Buckner has covered Texas and continues growing its international work, only now has it begun focusing on the “in-between”–the rest of the United States. With its first U.S. partnership outside Texas, Buckner Children and Family Services is poised to deliver community ministry support to churches in the Pacific Northwest.
“It's about providing support for churches who have asked for help,” said Felipe Garza, vice president for Buckner Children and Family Services. “We believe we can help local congregations in the Northwest do meaningful, organized community ministries in support of their missions. We have a 125-year tradition of organizing and implementing community ministry.”
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| Members of First Baptist Church support a large community ministry program that includes food and clothing distribution components at the church's current location. In the construction phase of new worship and education spaces less than a mile away, the church needs volunteer builders to help build a new community ministries center. (Photo by Scott Collins) |
The Buckner ministry plan is to support churches' community ministries through volunteer, prayer and resource support, said Melinda Reed, worship and community ministries director for Puget Sound Baptist Association. Reed, a native of Midland, is the front door for the association, which works with Buckner to meet community ministry needs in the Northwest.
“Our area is unique in that we live on a mission field,” she said. “The Greater Seattle area is 4 million strong and growing daily. Although it houses more millionaires per capita than any other area, there is another side to that wealth: Homelessness (especially with teens), drug problems and social distress, but mostly a need for Jesus.”
The challenge for Seattle is that fewer than 4 percent of its residents are evangelical Christians, she said. “On a given Sunday, more than 90 percent are staying at home, hiking, biking, boating or just dealing with life.
There are by far more coffee houses than there are churches in this metropolitan area. Starbucks alone surpasses the number of Southern Baptist churches by almost 100.
To reach Seattle and the surrounding area, the plan will include recruiting churches through Buckner to meet diverse needs identified by churches in the Northwest. Reed said Buckner's success in penetrating Texas and foreign countries “relies on the local church; they are an extension of the local church.”
Among the strategies are:
Using volunteers to fill missions needs in construction, ministry to the homeless and hurting, helping start community centers, counseling and caring for recovering addicts and those in transition, and evangelism to targeted groups.
Prayer. “Nothing can be achieved without this,” Reed said. “Prayer support is the vital link to reach this area. Begin praying now for your part in this ministry.”
To be a volunteer prayer partner for the area, sign up to pray for 300 households in the greater Seattle area by logging on to www.embracingseattle.org and clicking on the "prayer" link.
Financial support. Ministries in the Northwest share many physical needs. They include supplies, operating funds, building material, salary funding and ministry materials.
“I am expectant about the incredible work God has in store through this partnership,” Reed said. “It is a privilege to work with this credible ministry with history and experience that will benefit us greatly. We need only to raise the awareness that Seattle is here, that we have needs and that people and partners can make a difference.”
Community ministry is the starting point for most missions work in the Pacific Northwest. Many churches begin with a community service component before they find a rental or purchase property.
Anchor Church of Seattle is an example of a congregation that has put ministry at the forefront of its mission to reach its community for Christ. Pastor David Foster said his congregation of 140 is seeking to sell its current facility, a traditional sanctuary and education space, to provide funds for a community ministries center.
“We have a vision. We had a month of fasting and prayer and seeing where God would want our congregation,” Foster explained. “We are reaching people in different areas, so we are selling our property and reinvesting in ministries,” he said. “We have been ministry-shy and property-rich. Well, that's not what God called us to do.
“Social ministry is not a means to an end. It is one tool in the bag. Our mission is to make mature, fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. In order to do so, we love them at all levels.”
Buckner volunteers could find themselves working with a variety of ministries representing a diverse set of needs, Reed noted.
Sanctuary is a young congregation. It doesn't own its worship facility, preferring instead to rent space from an Ethiopian congregation. It plans to move its services to a local pizzeria soon. The only physical address the church has is its coffee shop and cafe, Perkatory, which not only serves coffee and baked items, but also serves as church office and headquarters for its members.
But as different as the church facilities might be, it's Sanctuary's ministry target that separates it from many other churches, said Co-pastor Ed Park.
“Our target group is probably the most diverse and most dense community in the Northwest,” he said. “Within a one-mile radius, there are about 100,000 people. You have the wealthiest people here, and you have the poorest people here, all living in the same place.”
A team of church members and short-term missionaries witnesses daily to the homeless in the Capitol Hill area, dispensing the gospel and hot coffee from shopping carts to anyone who wants to talk. Typically, the street youth reach out for support.
“The street kids have been described as 'throwaways' by most people,” Park said. “A lot of them actually came from the suburbs. There's a lot of neglect that happens at home. You also have the people who grew up in abusive situations, some foster homes, runaways who become homeless. … Our thing is to try to show them, 'Look at what Christ has done,' and let that be a source for change.”
Located strategically in the Pacific Rim, the ports of Seattle, Everett and Tacoma make Washington a major maritime influence throughout the world. Commercial and cruise ships from all over the world dock in the Puget Sound and bring opportunity for touching the world without leaving U.S. soil.
“Through the (interdenominational) seafarer ministry, the world is literally brought to the waterfront,” Reed said. “This ministry reaches out to seamen on incoming ships to meet their physical, spiritual and emotional needs during a vulnerable time.”
Paul Peterson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Tacoma, was a chaplain with the Port Ministry from 1978 to 1990 and still is actively involved in reaching seamen as a volunteer.
Peterson said the ministry relies on churches to bring the gospel aboard the ships, which often are docked for a few days to take on cargo.
“The initial visit is usually just one person, a volunteer going down and making contact and telling them what's available for the seafarers like free transportation, things like that. Then we will contact a group from a church to come and bring two, three, four, five, six people.”
The port ministry also relies on the area's blend of ethnic churches to provide a witness shipboard.
“If there's a Ukrainian or Russian ship in, then we call the Ukrainian church, and someone who speaks their language will come down and witness to the seafarers. Today, we have a Filipino church that has come down to visit with the Filipino seafarers,” he said.
There also are possibilities for service in Elma, Wash., a small town set in the mountains southeast of Seattle. It is the home of Lighthouse Ministries, a para-church group founded and operated by Kenny and Judy Rice. Lighthouse provides a haven for recovering addicts, the homeless and people in abusive situations.
“Lighthouse saved my life,” one participant in the program said between sips of coffee in Lighthouse's storefront coffee shop. “I was basically brought here half dead. I call this Bible Boot Camp. It's hard. It's strict. But it works. I had been in other treatment centers, and nothing else worked.”
Lighthouse operates on a two-part theme–13 Bible studies a week to help participants find God's will for their lives and personal deprivation.
Participating is not easy. The ministry subsists on donated food. Often, the ministry and its 25 to 50 participants have enough only for the next two days. Each participant is expected to be involved in “work blessings,” odd jobs and errands that net the ministry operating cash. The living conditions are spartan. Each participant is given a bunk bed in the ministry's commercial-style brick storefront on Elma's main street.
Lighthouse always struggles but, during the five years it has existed, “has always relied on the Lord, and God has always been faithful,” Judy Rice noted.
The partnership between Puget Sound Association and Buckner “is uncharted territory, but God has an incredible plan,” Reed concluded. “I believe we are on the brink of a spiritual awakening in the Northwest and community ministry will bring a tangible touch of God to those who have never thought about Christ in a personal way.”
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| With its first U.S. partnership outside Texas, Buckner Children and Family Services is poised to deliver community ministry support to churches in the Seattle/Tacoma region. |
How to plan a mission trip to the Northwest
Contact Melinda Reed, worship and community ministries director for Puget Sound Baptist Association, by phone at (253) 632-2336 or by e-mail at worshiplady@comcast.net. Reed will assess each church's desires for service and help match it with the appropriate ministry opportunities in the Northwest. Participating churches will not be charged a fee by Buckner. All travel and ministry expenses will be paid by churches or groups, based on their planning.
The Seattle/Tacoma area at a glance
Land area: 4,000 square miles
Population: 4 million
Number of languages: 150
Largest number of millionaires per capita in the country.
More than 90 percent of the population is unchurched.
70 percent claim no religious affiliation.
Fewer than 5 percent are evangelical Christians.
One-half of 1 percent are Southern Baptists.
More statistical info at: www.seattlechurchplanting.com/aboutseattle.htm