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Ministry
to Refugees: A Way of Life for Heart and Soul Church
Heart and Soul Free Methodist Church in Rochester, NY, is poised to expand —an acre and a quarter of empty land is available next to their present building. For the church, anticipation turned to disappointment and then to delight when the land, part of a 2.7-acre parcel, was offered for sale. Although the church lost the bid, the new owner was happy to sell Heart and Soul the 1 1/4 acres they needed — and best of all, a Christian businessman and his brother have offered to pay the cost of the land. "Now," says Pastor Peter Shafer, "we are enjoying the delightful experience of thinking about the expanded ministry that could take place on this site."
From their present building, with only about 1,700 square feet of useable space and parking for nine cars, Heart and Soul sponsors a wide array of ministries in addition to a full church program. The church provides a clothing closet, sends kids to summer camp and sponsors a Child Evangelism Club and a top-notch quiz team. (The team, with two members quizzing in their second language, placed fourth in their division at the national quizzing finals this summer.) The church also provides a great variety of survival ministries for inner-city residents, particularly to Sudanese immigrant families. Many of these immigrants come with little or no formal education and limited employment prospects. They need shelter, clothing and food, as well as job training, driver's training and language skills. The church now has seven families from the tiny Uduk tribe and expects more arrivals in the near future. Shafer says that although this group has many needs, it has brought him joy to see their "faithful resilience in the face of violent persecution for their faith."
Heart and Soul averages between 60 and 80 in attendance on Sunday mornings
and expects that number to rise to 100 by fall. Shafer estimates that
some 150 people call Heart and Soul their church home. On a given Sunday,
he adds, about 30 to 40 percent of the attendees are African immigrants;
another 30 percent or so are African Americans; the remainder are Latino
and Anglo. Growth in the last few years has come from Heart and Soul was planted seven years ago by Shafer and his wife, Shirley — along with several supporting families from Rochester New Hope Church. In June 2000, Heart and Soul moved into its present building in the inner-city. Shafer sees many challenges ahead for his church. The summer of 2003 has been one of the most violent in recent years and the city has one of the highest per-capita murder rates in the state. He tells of a 12-year-old youth from the church with a powerful testimony who has been so disgusted he has been approaching drug dealers saying, "This has got to stop!" "How we long to provide more light and more hope for this discouraged, embattled neighborhood," says Shafer, "especially more things for young people to do in order to escape violent streets and homes." Heart and Soul is increasingly able to provide light and hope. With an expanded staff and the anticipated property next door, the church has significant opportunities for ministry. The church's present goals include finding jobs for refugee families, identifying mentoring couples for newly-arrived families, purchasing a house near the church to house a Uduk mentor couple, providing leadership in the further development of the written Uduk language and developing an adult education program for African adults — particularly the women, who need instruction in reading and basic survival skills. Leaders at Heart and Soul recognize that they can't do all this alone. They are initiating a regional task group to include the six churches in the Rochester District and representatives from Roberts Wesleyan College and Northeastern Seminary. The purpose is to bring Free Methodist people together to assist the refugee population. A donor has pledged $12,000 toward the refugee support project to be matched by giving from other sources. The church is praying for a total of $36,000 during the next year.
Shafer reflects on the history of the denomination in Rochester, where a Free Methodist Church was organized in 1860 — the first year of the denomination's existence. He concedes that for a while the ball was dropped because for 27 years there was no Free Methodist congregation within the city limits, the city was in decline, and business and residential activity (along with many churches) moved to the suburbs. But the Free Methodist Church is back in the city now and making a difference. "I think that the Rochester story is pretty unusual," says Shafer. "We have seen some success in bringing new ministry back to inner-city neighborhoods in a city that continues to experience population decline and we have done this in a way that is not exclusively ethnic in its orientation. "The two Rochester congregations — New Hope, and Heart and Soul — are diverse in both membership and leadership — thus mirroring the diversity of the community," Shafer adds. "The overall message, it seems to me, is that inner-city ministry can be re-introduced in a region and it can be done by all kinds of leaders: black, white, Latino, English-speaking, non-English-speaking and so on. What is necessary is not a particular ethnicity but rather the collective will to invest time and energy — and occasionally money — in a long-term effort to reach and serve the people who live in the city." |
