28 March, 2024

Urban Ministry in Lansing

Features

by | 18 November, 2012 | 0 comments

By Kendi Howells Douglas

Lansing, Michigan, is a city of about 115,000 with a median income of $35,000. The population is 61.2 percent white, 23.7 percent black, 12.5 percent Hispanic, and 3.7 percent Asian1. The car industry town has seen economic hardships the past few years, with increasing unemployment, crime, domestic violence, single-parent homes, school closings, and many health care and education issues, among others.

A child in the Potter Walsh neighborhood enjoys a waterslide created from an old billboard.

As in most towns, there are areas that seemingly are ignored, forgotten, or plain invisible. Delta Community Christian Church decided to go to one of those forgotten neighborhoods.

Delta is a house church of about 60 people that meets in three different homes in Lansing. When two members moved into the Potter Walsh neighborhood under a freeway in town, our new ministry began. Potter Walsh is an area of high drug use, crime, and neglect, and the church decided one of its three branches needed to meet there and learn how to minister to the people there. Slowly but surely over the past few years, this little congregation has been involved in some important relationship-building ministry that requires minimal resources, other than our very lives.

 

Limited Resources, Many Opportunities

With 15 regular attendees, there isn”t much money to build programs or anything like that; and with no paid ministers or staff, it is up to each member to do his or her part to reach the neighborhood. Church resources include our time, love, and attention. We clean up the park regularly, host monthly gatherings, such as pumpkin carving, bike repair cookouts, an annual waterslide (made of old billboards purchased on eBay!), cookie decorating, after-school tutoring, Easter egg hunts, and helping with a community garden.

Getting to know the neighbors has been the most challenging and rewarding part of this experience. In a neighborhood such as Potter Walsh, many people who are transient must move on quickly when there is no more money for rent, etc. It seems just when we are getting to know people, especially the children who wander into our Sunday night service, they must leave and find another place to live.

We do what we can to meet needs that are brought to us, but mostly we simply represent the kingdom, sharing in life, hopes, and dreams””and praying. We are learning to help people help themselves, along with seeking their wisdom for solutions to neighborhood problems. This has been a huge learning experience for us. At the beginning, some of us were tempted just to raise money to “fix” the problems all around us. We took a lot of time to go through books, such as When Helping Hurts, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, and Toxic Charity, by Robert D. Lupton, and to study what the early church did to help its communities. We realized we could do more damage than good if we were not careful, but we also realized we could do a lot of good with what little we had.

We aren”t special. We aren”t blessed with amazing personalities or extra giftedness. It occurred to me sometime in the last year that this is something every church could do, whether it is located in a neighborhood such as this or not.

Every neighborhood has a central place””in ours, it”s the park and community center. In those areas a consistent presence can make a world of difference. A group of retirees from any church can serve as after-school tutors. Delta works alongside another church in the neighborhood that offers after-school tutoring and homework services; most of the “work” we do just involves showing up.

If your church is not ready to move into a poor neighborhood, I would encourage you to partner with a neighborhood and start figuring out a way to work together. Attending neighborhood association meetings is eye-opening to the needs present there. While there, one might meet children who do not have the right clothes for the climate, the right food for nutrition, or enough attention to thrive.

 

Surprise . . . and Joy

Several situations are eye-opening in the neighborhood we”re serving. For example, we”ve been surprised by the mistreatment or abandonment by city services. The park is neglected by city workers; the police will not come to this neighborhood after dark, even when illegal activity is reported; and when the power is out, this is the last place in the city to be serviced. The streets are hardly ever plowed in the winter, and are in such a state of disrepair they are hard to drive on in the summer. Meanwhile, seven miles away, my street is promptly plowed of snow, and a street cleaner goes through every week. I asked Crystal, a little girl in the Potter Walsh neighborhood, about street cleaners. She thought they were pretend.

Many of these neighborhoods are just miles from where several of our churches are located, and yet we have not had an effective presence in them and know little about their everyday reality.

The joys of our Potter Walsh area church are many””we celebrate little victories all the time and are earning the trust of many. The house where members live has become a sanctuary for dozens of kids each week. They now have a safe place where people treat them with respect and they are not abused or neglected. The members pitch in for groceries to keep the healthy after-school snacks plentiful, but the kids aren”t there for the food alone, they are starved for love and attention. The kids jump at the opportunity to help with any project because they want to do positive things and they love being with a responsible adult.

Does your church have people who can give love? Plant pumpkins? Who don”t like to travel and yet want to be real and authentic Christians right where they live? This ministry is for anyone! And we must get better at loving our urban neighborhoods. Our future is urban.

________

1Information is from the U.S. Census Bureau website, http://quickfacts.census.gov. The percentages add up to more than 100 percent because, according to the website, “Hispanics may be of any race, so also are included in applicable race categories.”

Kendi Howells Douglas is professor of cross-cultural ministry at Great Lakes Christian College in Lansing, Michigan.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Features

Follow Us