Poverty, Small Towns, and Church Cooperation
The landscape of many small towns in America is changing and poverty is hitting closer and closer to home. I serve a church in a small town in central Illinois which once, while small, was very prosperous. The town had several grocery stores, gas stations, clothing boutiques and more. There were many affluent people who lived in beautiful Victorian style homes. But if you drive through Delavan today you will come to the one main intersection of downtown and think you are driving through a ghost town. The store fronts are mostly empty or falling apart, the Victorian homes are in need of renovation, and there is only one grocery store and that just recently reopened.
Communities of faith in Delavan have to reexamine how they do ministry because the community itself has changed. Many less fortunate people have moved into Delavan because of the cheap housing available here. The community is no longer an affluent bedroom community or a homogenous community of mid western middle class white families. There are now children who attend school with things on their feet that can barely be called shoes and who often arrive hungry because they were not able to eat breakfast. The small food pantry has a large crowd come every Thursday morning and churches have more people stop in asking for help.
When I first arrived at the church I was informed that it was the church’s policy to just send transients or people seeking help to the township office. I said that was going to have to change, but I also knew it would be difficult to help everyone who stopped in and most ministers know what happens when word gets out that a church is offering handouts. Yet, as I’ve said from the pulpit, “the day people stop thinking they can come to a church for help, is the day I’m done with church.”
So what can small town churches do when faced with growing poverty in their small town and diminishing resources and assets themselves? I don’t have any definitive answers but I can tell you what we have done so far that I think has been positive. In March, we instituted a program called “Free Fourth Monday Meals.” On the fourth Monday of every month the church provides a meal to anyone who wants it. We use real china and flatware and create nice table settings. The first month we served meatloaf, fresh roasted broccoli, mashed potatoes, and dessert and just this past Monday we had Brinner (breakfast for dinner). The first Monday we had about 30 people come and this past Monday we had about 50. Some people come because they are lonely and are tired of eating alone, some come just for the fellowship, and some come because they need a free meal. The great thing is people come for different reasons but are able to break bread together and no one knows why anyone else is there. Some people come just because it is a meal at a church and they go to every church function they can. It is a way to bring people together.
The truly exciting thing is that other churches in town like the idea and are looking into offering a free meal on a different Monday of every month. It would truly be wonderful a free meal was offered every Monday in town all year long. I think that is truly the key- churches working together. I think people often see churches as very competitive and self-serving, but if churches can work together to help alleviate suffering, poverty, etc. then we are truly beginning to exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven.
The local ministerial alliance here also works together. We had a series of Lenten services this past Lent where we collected an offering which was split between a local mission and the ministerial alliance itself each week. The 5 services collected quite a bit of money that went to the local food pantry and local rescue missions, but we also were able to put some in our Ministerial Alliance account. When someone comes into one of our churches seeking help, we call the other ministers to talk about giving out aid. This way no one church carries the whole burden, and there is a group discernment process about how to help, how much to give, etc. It also protects each church because there are less situations of one person hitting up each church and attempting to play churches off of each other or con them which has happened before.
The cooperation of these 5 churches: Methodist, Presbyterian, Missouri Synod Lutheran, Mennonite, and a non-denominational has brought together a diverse community of faith in this small town to reach out and help their neighbors. Many people have commented how nice it is to all be able to worship together, eat together, and serve together. If we, as Christians, can pool our resources together (time, talent, money, etc.) we can do so much. We don’t have to have doctrinal agreement on everything but I think we all can agree that preaching good news to the poor and then acting to bring hope is part of our calling as followers of Christ. The meals, donations, benefit concerts, and food drives will not alleviate poverty, but I think they can at least bring hope to those in our community, and it is hope in the name of Jesus Christ. It is my hope that as we work on these issues together as a community of faith in Delavan, new conversations about global poverty will be started and they will not only be social and economic discussions, but also theological.
