By Jennifer Johnson
“Williamsburg, Virginia, is a wonderful place to live, a place full of history and beauty,” says Fred Liggin. “It”s also a city that”s in denial about its homeless population and its deep poverty.”
Several years ago a family showed up at Williamsburg Christian Church asking for a place to stay overnight. Liggin, who serves as WCC”s lead minister, felt compelled to do more.
Williamsburg Christian Church”s 3E Restoration Ministry helps those who are dealing with poverty, homelessness, or who are “vulnerably housed.” The church also offers its building to those who are homeless during the winter months through a temporary winter shelter program.
“I decided we”d have to do better than a room for the night, because Jesus would not want this family and their little baby to go back on the streets,” he says. “I had been involved in helping the homeless since my earliest days of ministry, but this experience began a journey of discovering how to walk with people from homelessness to self-sufficiency.”
As Liggin led the church to begin ministering more intentionally to the poor and homeless of Williamsburg, he discovered the conventional wisdom””and stereotypes””about these groups were not always true.
“The majority of homeless people we work with did not drink or drug themselves to the street,” he says. “Frank was an engineer at a Fortune 500 company who moved in with his aging mother to take care of her. When she died without her estate in order, he lost everything. Doug has his bachelor”s degree and 27 hours toward his master”s, but he fell asleep cooking dinner and burned his house down. These are people making desperate decisions in desperate situations, but they are also intelligent people who were productive members of the community.”
Liggin”s mission is to help them reclaim that independence and dignity. WCC”s 3E Restoration Ministry, based on a curriculum he developed to encourage, empower, and equip, is a highly relational process that connects church and community members with “Friends In Need.” Church members serve as “All-In Friends” who are on call to answer questions, teach life skills, provide encouragement, and offer other help.
“When a person is homeless, they have to be reoriented toward life again,” Liggin says. “It”s a physical, emotional, spiritual, and educational dislocation, so our volunteers work with the whole person or whole family to bring restoration.”
The process also involves community members and business leaders who provide a network of coaching for everything from interview skills and financial management to physical therapy and nutrition.
Servant leader coordinators, usually church members, quarterback the process, connect the various participants, and teach the curriculum.
The process has proved so successful that Liggin now works with the Greater Williamsburg Outreach Mission, a coalition of faith groups and social agencies, to recreate this ministry with other churches across the city.
Unsurprisingly, WCC has also grown, doubling in size since 3E began.
“A few of these new members are our formerly homeless Friends In Need,” Liggin says. “But we don”t require the people we”re helping to visit our church. Jesus gave up his life for us before we believed. If the incarnation teaches us anything, it”s that no one should be abandoned because of bad decisions.
In 10 years of doing this, I can name only one person we helped who didn”t come to faith; I can name only one who didn”t join the faith community. God grows the church so I”m leaving that up to him.”
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