Desert Cross Lutheran, Tempe, Ariz., met its challenge of mak- ing ministries more accessible in the church’s vast area by buy- ing instead of building. They had land on which to build, but instead purchased foreclosed commercial space in Gilbert (12 miles away) for a second church campus. What once was a shopping center is now a church for a diverse community, many of them families with young children and with non-Lutheran backgrounds.
21 “Bonfire is huge,” Lechelt said.
“It’s been a good time for us; a great way to provide many more resources to the community.” Bonfire built on an idea from
another church. “The people in our church wanted to do a similar thing, but the need in our community was bigger and we wanted to go bigger,” Lechelt said.
The churches solicited the assis-
tance of a food bank and sought out grant money to come up with a program to ensure that every student would receive breakfast foods and snacks over the weekend. Each packed bag, which costs approximately $2, consists of nutri- tious and quick foods, including a box of dry cereal, a package of oatmeal, a granola bar, crackers, applesauce and other nonperishable goodies. The program’s annual bud- get is $50,000, one-third of which comes from churches and the com- munity, and the balance from grants and fundraisers. Volunteers meet at the area’s
Emergency Food Shelter Network warehouse to assemble the packets (enough for a two weekend supply)
22 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
one Tuesday a month. The packs are stored at the warehouse until the shelter delivers them to the schools on Fridays. “It’s an amazing experience to get together on a packing day,” Lechelt said. “We don’t solicit volunteers, but we always have more than we need and more come all the time. You feel so buoyed by all these people work- ing together, it’s a spiritual high.” But the feel-good program is about more than just feeding hungry kids, he said. “It’s about God’s hos- pitality, coming together to work, and about letting kids and families know that people care about them,” he said.
The experience has enlivened the church and is often the source of material for Lechelt’s sermons. “There are stories coming from me all the time,” he said. “It makes the story of the feeding of the 5,000 come alive. It’s a true Pentecost experience.” By the grace of God, he said, the program ended its fiscal year in the black, and benevolence has increased.
“All of us leaders do need to learn to trust,” Lechelt said. “If it is
God’s will, and is gathering fire and energy, then it’ll work.”
Putting arms around veterans Epiphany Lutheran Church of Mount Vernon, Alexandria, Va., also joined forces with an unexpected community partner. The congrega- tion of about 55 Sunday worshipers looked at its community to see what needs weren’t being met. “Epiphany is a congregation that was trying to find ways to live out the gospel,” said Charles Oberkehr, pastor. “No real perfect way to do it, so we just rolled up our sleeves and got to work.” The church’s close proximity to Fort Belvoir, an Army base near Mount Vernon, made reaching out to the military community a real pos- sibility for new ministry. “The clear challenge for us was how to minister to the folks in the community, many of whom had issues related to returning from battle,” Oberkehr said. Members decided to launch its Life Bridge Services, which Oberkehr describes as bringing vet- erans into dialogue. Bolstered by a Wheat Ridge Ministries grant, Life Bridge has for the past year fostered conversations between civilians and vets on how war has impacted their lives.
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