A Personal Care Pantry Ministry

Typically, effective ministries are born out of a particular need. Such is the case for the personal care pantry ministry of New Life in Christ, the GCI congregation we pastor in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

With this issue, we introduce “It Looks Like This”—a new column in Together, and a new website at http://gci-usa.blogspot.com/. Both celebrate the journey of our U.S. churches from union to communion, making disciples with Jesus. This journey involves our churches in what Jesus is doing within our communities to seek the lost; nurture believers; equip workers; and multiply leaders, ministries and churches. “It Looks Like This” tells and shows what that looks like in print (in Together) and in videos and pictures (in the online blog). We invite you and your church to celebrate with us as we give thanks to the Father for including us in what he is doing, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit. And we invite you to tell your church’s story in “It Looks Like This.” For questions, assistance in writing, and to submit articles, contact Ted Johnston at Ted.Johnston@gci.org.

With unemployment at about 15 percent, and the rapid influx of immigrants into the city, many of Grand Rapids’ families lack food, household goods and personal care items. Our personal care pantry ministry helps to meet these needs, and in doing so, shares with people the love and life of God.

We partner in this ministry with United Church Outreach Ministry. They distribute food, and send needy families our way for personal care items. When they come, we feed them a meal of chili. We’re open once a month, staffed with about 20 volunteers from our church (which has about 40 members). A few non-member relatives and some teens from the community help us.

The beginning of this ministry goes back about six years. As a congregation, we were actively seeking a way to minister to the community where we were meeting. We wanted something that would work with our small size, and thus be sustainable over a long time. We were meeting in a beautiful hall in an affluent suburb. But we were not finding ways to connect with that community. So we began to shift our view. And after much prayer and discussion, we decided to relocate into the city.

I (Sam) took a first step by connecting with other city pastors. As a result, we were offered a meeting hall in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. I started developing relationships with community leaders and began helping at a local food bank. One day, over coffee with the food bank director, our conversation turned to ministry needs in the community. Out of this conversation came the idea for a personal care pantry ministry.

We began by serving 25 families each month. An early concern was bridging cultural and language differences. But it turned out not to be hard. The area children (mostly second-generation Americans) were eager to serve as Spanish-English translators. As friendships developed, cultural barriers were transcended.

Our pantry ministry now serves about 125 families each month, representing over 500 people. We not only provide personal care items, we also receive prayer requests. In addition, we’ve helped several area children attend a GCI Generations Ministries camp.

Two years ago, we realized that our pantry ministry needed to move from cultivating to planting. We were cultivating friendships, but we wanted to be more active in sharing the gospel with these friends. And so we started a Vacation Bible School (VBS) with the children of the pantry families. Twenty children attended the first year, and 40 the second. The second year some of the older children helped run the VBS. And now two of the children regularly attend our church.

Last year we began involving pantry families in pantry operations. This has worked well because people often feel bad about receiving help—now they can both give and receive. Also, sharing pantry operations provides greater opportunity for our members to build relationships with pantry families.

Clearly, our pantry is filling a significant community need. But it’s also greatly benefitting our congregation.

The first benefit is ministry multiplication. I started the ministry, and then our outreach ministry leader stepped up to develop it. Then another member stepped up to become pantry director. This has allowed me to focus on other aspects of our outreach. One is my participation in Roosevelt Park Ministries, a faith-based organization that serves our focus community. I am now board president, and an elder, Harvey Wierenga, is a board member. This ministry recently conducted an extensive community assessment, helping us connect to the heartbeat of the community as we learn what they truly need.

A second benefit is partnerships with other community organizations. This has helped us become community-based. A side benefit is that our pantry is now nearly self-funded through the financial support of outside ministry partners and friends.

A third benefit is the transformation of our congregation. The pantry has given our members a clearer understanding of what Jesus is doing, in the Spirit, to advance the Father’s mission within our community. Our growing understanding of Trinitarian Incarnational theology and ministry is transforming both our thinking and acting. Our members are growing in their love for one another and for those outside our fellowship. Their commitment is high, and their financial support is up. And, we are having fun! We are learning that Jesus truly loves our community, and we love the fact that we are joining him in what he is already doing in our community.

Sam & Denise Butler

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