Posted: 1/09/04

New models emerging for
ministry to homeless population

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

New approaches to helping the homeless population are giving hope to Christians who want to get people off the streets and into warm housing.

Jefferson Street Baptist Center in Louisville, Ky., which deals primarily with mentally ill and substance-abusing homeless people, is on the verge of offering a ministry organizers hope will meet needs and transform lives.

In the next month, the ministry will launch an 11-unit permanent-support housing complex. It will give homeless individuals diagnosed both with mental illness and substance abuse issues a place to stay. Staff members will serve as secondary caseworkers for each resident and teach practical skills such as budgeting, hygiene and apartment cleanliness.

They also will be first detectors in case a resident regresses by not taking medication or abusing substances and will report to the person's primary caseworker, provided by an outside agency.

“We will catch issues earlier. We will see them every day,” said Rick Brenny, executive director of the center.

The outreach goes beyond the scope of more traditional ministries that provide meals, clothes and temporary housing. While those are effective at meeting needs, a transformational element is needed, said Gerald Davis, consultant in the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions Equipping Center.

Davis is looking to create an outreach network in Texas cities that will help churches work together to rebuild the lives of the homeless. The network would include feeding, clothing, training, housing, transitioning, rehabilitating and job placement.

This comprehensive approach is the key to fighting homelessness, according to Donald Whitehead, executive director of the nation's oldest and largest advocacy group for the homeless, the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Permanent-support housing is a more cost-effective way of serving the homeless, no matter how long they stay, Brenny noted. The service is cheaper than providing food, hospital care, substance abuse treatment and mental health counseling to people who remain on the street.

Jefferson Street Baptist Center clients, who receive a government subsidy for the mental illnesses, will be required to pay a minimum contribution of $25 a month for rent and utilities. But they will have clean, safe housing to live in and improve their lives.

While residents can choose to stay in the apartment complex permanently, some will use the complex as a stepping-stone to self-sufficiency, Brenny said.

Homeless individuals are showing interest in this new approach to helping them. Without advertising, there is a 15-person waiting list to get a room, Brenny said.

“We could fill as many of these units as we could provide,” he added.

Posted: 1/09/04

HOMELESSNESS:
No easy answers

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Social acceptance and compassion fatigue are leading Americans to leave needy individuals out in the cold, according to advocates for the homeless.

Donald Whitehead, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said the public believes homelessness is an accepted byproduct of capitalism. People incorrectly view the homeless as being in their condition because they do not want to work.

When people see no decline in homelessness, their preconceptions about the homeless are reinforced, said Whitehead, leader of the nation's largest advocacy group for the homeless.

This notion of a never-improving homeless population hurts Christian outreaches, said Jimmy Dorrell, executive director of Mission Waco. The negative connotations make it difficult for homeless ministries to raise funds.

Dorrell encounters this firsthand as he raises funds to construct Waco's first shelter for the chronically homeless.

He acknowledges it is difficult to get someone on sound financial ground, a sad fact that demoralizes workers. Volunteers continually give of their time, energy, resources and hearts, but seldom see someone get off the streets, he said. Workers burn out and give up hope, believing the socio-economic factors are too great to overcome.

Directors of Christian ministries have to alter many Christians' perceptions of what it means to have a successful homeless outreach, Dorrell said. While ministry leaders would like each person to find a home, success comes in many small steps.

Whitehead agreed success is largely an individual measurement. Victory can be as simple as entering a rehabilitation program, eating a warm meal or finding a temporary job.

“Success depends on the individual,” Whitehead stated. “For some people accessing treatment is success.”

This redefinition of success is important for Christian businesspeople, as well, Dorrell argued. Christian efforts are largely dependent on believers who are willing to give a homeless person a job and a chance, he said. A job does not guarantee a person will get a home, but it gives him a better opportunity.

These steps, no matter how small, are movements in the right direction, Dorrell reminded. Christians must continue to minister to people in need, despite the length or difficulty of the work ahead.

“In the kingdom of God, you can't give up on these people,” Dorrell commented. “But it's hard to convince results-oriented church people of that. Change may be as small as getting a day-labor job today or finding a safe place to sleep for a few days.”

Texas Baptist Communications

New approaches to helping the homeless population are giving hope to Christians who want to get people off the streets and into warm housing.

Jefferson Street Baptist Center in Louisville, Ky., which deals primarily with mentally ill and substance-abusing homeless people, is on the verge of offering a ministry organizers hope will meet needs and transform lives.

In the next month, the ministry will launch an 11-unit permanent-support housing complex that will give dually diagnosed homeless individuals­those with mental illness and substance abuse issues­a place to stay. Staff members will serve as secondary caseworkers for each resident and teach practical skills such as budgeting, hygiene and apartment cleanliness.

They also will be first detectors in case a resident regresses by not taking medication or abusing substances and will report to the person's primary caseworker, provided by an outside agency.

“We will catch issues earlier. We will see them every day,” said Rick Brenny, executive director of the center.

The outreach goes beyond the scope of more traditional ministries that provide meals, clothes and temporary housing. While those are effective at meeting needs, a transformational element is needed, said Gerald Davis, consultant in the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions Equipping Center.

Davis is looking to create an outreach network in Texas cities that will help churches work together to rebuild the lives of the homeless. The network would include feeding, clothing, training, housing, transitioning, rehabilitating and job placement.

This comprehensive approach is the key to fighting homelessness, according to Donald Whitehead, executive director of the nation's oldest and largest advocacy group for the homeless, the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Permanent-support housing is a more cost-effective way of serving the homeless, no matter how long they stay, Brenny noted. The service is cheaper than providing food, hospital care, substance abuse treatment and mental health counseling to people who remain on the street.

Jefferson Street Baptist Center clients, who receive a government subsidy for the mental illnesses, will be required to pay a minimum contribution of $25 a month for rent and utilities. But they will have clean, safe housing to live in and improve their lives.

While residents can choose to stay in the apartment complex permanently, some will use the complex as a stepping-stone to self-sufficiency, Brenny said.

Homeless individuals are showing interest in this new approach to helping them. Without advertising, there is a 15-person waiting list to get a room, Brenny said.

“We could fill as many of these units as we could provide,” he added.

Posted: 1/09/04

Advocates for homeless see
little hope apart from spiritual renewal

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Spiritual renewal is the key to homeless people overcoming their personal issues and getting off the street, according to leaders of Christian ministries.

Ministries that provide food, clothing and job training effectively meet immediate needs, but they need to be combined with a spiritual effort to transform lives and move people toward attaining their own housing, said Charles Little, a deacon at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Dallas.

Christian revival leads to a change of lifestyle and morality, said Little, who teaches a Bible study twice a week prior to serving lunch to homeless people in his community. God can help people overcome vices that keep them homeless, he insisted.

“We truly believe once they give their lives to Christ, God will begin to work in their heart,” Little said. “He will provide the means.”

Rick Brenny, a Baptist leader in homeless ministry and executive director of Jefferson Street Baptist Center in Louisville, Ky., has seen spiritual efforts produce results in his outreach.

Less than 30 percent of people served at homeless ministries typically find permanent housing, but 38 percent of his clients are off the streets, Brenny said. And an additional 40 percent are making progress toward that goal.

There is a lot of work to do, ministry leaders said.

Laws nationwide are pushing the homeless off street corners and preventing them from sleeping in public but not providing enough shelters to care for them, said Jimmy Dorrell, director of Mission Waco.

And Americans are not inclined to try to help the homeless, because they never see the situation improve, Dorrell added.

Personal issues also hurt the homeless. According to statistics from the National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness, two-thirds of the homeless population reported either substance use, mental health problems or both. As much as half have both concerns.

Broken down further, 38 percent of the homeless population indicated alcohol issues, 26 percent said they have drug problems and 39 percent told of some form of mental health problems.

These challenges often prevent the homeless from holding steady jobs, Dorrell said. They either get high or drunk and miss work, or they do not take their medication and are unable to function.

Despite their problems, only one in 100 enter a rehabilitation program, said R.B. Cooper, minister of church and community outreach at First Baptist Church in San Antonio.

If they get in a program, only one in 30 get clean, Dorrell noted.

Facilities to treat the mentally ill homeless are few, Cooper said. Non-governmental outreaches typically do not have the funds or trained personnel to provide needed medication and treatment, Cooper explained. State institutions limit how long an individual can stay.

With the deck so stacked against the homeless, God is their hope to straighten out their lives and end their addictions, Little said.

Baptists largely use relationships to share the gospel with the homeless.

Dorrell started Church Under the Bridge to minister to the needy in Waco.

Volunteers dress casually and mingle with the homeless during the services, held beneath Interstate 35.

The friendships that develop help the homeless understand they still are important to others.

“In most cases, they have conviction of sin,” Dorrell reported.

“What they don't have is self-valuation. They don't see they are worth saving.”

Cornerstone Baptist Church and First Baptist Church in San Antonio link Bible studies with meals. A Bible lesson is given before a meal at both sites.

A consistent Christian presence speaks volumes to the homeless, said Gerald Davis, a consultant in the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions Equipping Center.

Homeless ministries show needy individuals that churches care about them and want to help, Davis added.

The efforts let the homeless know the message of hope and redemption is for them as well.

“The most effective thing is being there for them,” Davis said. “Let them know you are serious and sincere about wanting a relationship with them. Let them know you are serious and sincere about helping them.”

Posted: 1/09/04

Number of hungry in developing
countries increased in late 1990s

ROME (RNS)–The number of hungry people in developing countries rose during the second half of the 1990s, despite a concerted campaign against hunger in the world, the United Nations reports.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in its report on “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003” that the total number of the hungry in the developing world dropped by 37 million in the first half of the 1990s, then rose by 18 million in the second half of the decade.

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The latest estimates “signal a setback in the war against hunger,” the report said. Nations represented at the World Food Summit in 1996 pledged to reduce the number of undernourished people worldwide by half by 2015.

“The goal can only be reached if the recent trend of increasing numbers is reversed. The annual reductions must be accelerated to 26 million per year, more than 12 times the pace of …the 1990s,” said Hartwig de Haen, head of the Food and Agriculture Organization's economic and social department.

By U.N. estimates, 842 million people were undernourished from 1999 to 2001, the most recent years for which figures are available.

The hungry included 10 million in industrialized countries, 34 million in countries in transition and 798 million in developing countries.

Contributing factors to increased hunger include low economic, social and agricultural growth; high population growth; frequent food emergencies; conflict; and AIDS.

The U.N. report said Latin America was the only region in which the number of hungry has dropped since the mid-1990s, and only 19 countries, including China, succeeded in reducing the number of undernourished throughout the decade.

Conflict increased hunger in Central and West Africa, the report noted.

Posted: 1/19/04

CYBERCOLUMN:
Embrace imperfection

By Jeanie Miley

My favorite movies of this season have left me with unresolved and unanswerable questions. Each of them had characters who endured unfulfilled dreams, unrequited love and the challenge of imperfection and incompletion that is so like … well, life.

Being entertained by a movie is fun, but I really like being challenged to think thoughts I’ve never thought before. I love to be provoked to explore paradox and irony. I like wrestling with unimagined possibilities, even when I am pushed out of my comfort zone and asked to accept and embrace life as it really is, imperfections and all.

The imperfections of life in the movies remind me of a plaque I saw during the weeks when I was trying to create the perfect Christmas for my family.

“Embrace Imperfection,” the plaque says. And all this time, I thought imperfections were to be confessed, repaired, ignored or hidden!

It would never have occurred to me to embrace imperfection, for I was brought up on the serious admonition to “be perfect,” missing the point that the meaning of “perfection” had a whole lot more to do with being whole and healthy than following rules and regulations.

As a major Queen of Self-Improvement Projects, I lived a lot of years under the misperception that I could and should be perfect, if only I tried hard enough. I put myself through a lot of stress and unnecessary unhappiness, working myself over in first one way and then another, in an attempt to reach the goal of perfection, a goal that became more and more elusive with each stage of my life.

Often, the perfection so many of us pursue is more about external appearance than an internal state of grace. Ironically, the striving for perfection itself often creates imperfection, brokenness, hypocrisy and distortion. The obsession with perfection, which cannot be attained, often sabotages excellence, which is possible!

I am convinced God is right in the middle of my imperfections, attempting to work for good. God is present in the inadequacies and insufficiencies, the growing edges, the broken places, the addictions, the character defects and the wounds. He is at work in that part of myself that I want to hide, even from myself. He is in the places that cause me shame and guilt, attempting to bring what is dark out into the light, not to embarrass and expose me, but to make me whole.

And so it is that I am launching out into this new year with the plan to discover what on earth it means to embrace imperfection instead of hiding it and denying it. I’m going to launch out into the deep and accept those things I’ve been trying to fix and repair that I cannot, with all of my resources, do anything about.

I’m going to start this year with my mind and heart open to see what God might want to do with what I have disowned and discounted.

The truth is that I don’t have to get all fixed up to make God love me. There’s nothing I can do to keep God from loving me, but, thankfully, I don’t have to earn his love, either. All I have to do, one day at a time, is come to the Healer, just as I am. And just as I am really is the only way I can come, after all.

That, for me, is Good News for this new year.

Jeanie Miley is an author and columnist and a retreat and workshop leader. She is married to Martus Miley, pastor of River Oaks Baptist Church in Houston, and they have 3 adult daughters.

Posted: 1/19/04

COMMENTARY:
Use MLK Day to reflect

By Scott Sharman

Pastor of Alsbury Baptist Church, Burleson

I drove to the post office this morning only to find it closed in honor of Martin Luther King's birthday.  My first reaction was one of mild frustration.  My next was to consider why this day is set aside as a national holiday.

Several years ago I read "A Letter from a Birmingham Jail," the letter penned by King to white clergy critical of his efforts.  The letter powerfully defended the non-violent protests against institutionalized racism in Birmingham, Ala.  Furthermore, Dr. King questioned why the white clergy was criticizing rather than joining the protests.

Some believe America is past the need for the challenges presented by Martin Luther King Jr., forgetting that Sunday morning at 11:00 remains the most segregated hour in America.  Some believe that because public water fountains and restrooms no longer bear signs that read, "Colored," America no longer needs the message of justice and equality he championed.

Eighteen years ago I read an article that claimed growing churches do best when structured along demographic lines.  The author argued that churches are healthiest when the congregation looks the same.  While this may be argued sociologically it is indefensible theologically.

Fifteen years ago I shared with fellow ministers that our church had baptized three young men the Sunday before.  The simple truth that three individuals made public their personal commitment to walk with Christ was cause enough for praise but this was also the first time anyone could remember that our church had had an impact on a black family.  As I shared the testimony a fellow pastor muttered, "I hope you washed the baptistry when you were done."

Ten years ago I preached a message about the need to embrace the truths proclaimed by Dr. King, captured in the powerful statement from his March on Washington speech, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."  Following that message an influential member of the church said to me, "I hope you've gotten that out of your system."

Seven years ago I listened with anger as a man, a deacon in my church, told stories during a Sunday School party and peppered his language with the word, "nigger."

A year ago I was told that it was understandable that I was moving from Fort Worth to Burleson since the neighborhood was "getting darker every day."

A week ago I listened to a woman lament the fact that a church she had once been part of was struggling to keep its doors open, explaining the reason was not a lack of vision nor a reluctance to embrace missions and ministry, but because "blacks were moving into the neighborhood."

Some see no need for a national holiday that commemorates the birthday of arguably the single-most influential civil rights leader in American history.  I would have to agree if our reaction is frustration because banks and public buildings are closed.  If the reaction, however, is to prayerfully consider our own attitudes and actions then the holiday serves its purpose.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."  Galatians 2:28