MondayMorningInsight - Leadership & Encouragement for Church Leaders

Granger Opens Community Center for Low Income Residents

Posted by: Todd
Posted on: Tue, July 10, 2007
Viewed 246
(14) comments so far

Granger’s senior pastor, the Rev. Mark Beeson, says the Monroe Center won’t require clients to pray to receive services, according to South Bend Tribune. The center will be more about doing than saying the gospel, he said.

Granger Community Church has received more attention in the local community for its innovative outreaches and charitable work. The church drew about 1,000 additional members to its 6,000 average weekly attendance last year when it posted mylamesexlife.com billboards around the city.

And just last December, GCC turned its 20th anniversary celebration into a community outreach campaign. Instead of throwing a churchwide celebration, the megachurch decided to celebrate by giving back to the community. Using its Christmas offerings, church volunteers launched 20 Days of Giving, pumping free gas, giving an extreme makeover to storage space at the Center for the Homeless in South Bend, giving food to 8,000 families, providing funds for families struggling to pay their rent and other community works that added up to a total of 20 gifts.

Comments

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Daniel on Tue, July 10, 2007

Fantastic!!

My favorite: “won’t require clients to pray to receive services”… hmm…

Now if only the rest of us weren’t forced to put on a religious show to get attention… http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/wink.gif
Leonard on Tue, July 10, 2007

AWESOME!!! Go Granger Go and God bless you.
Camey on Tue, July 10, 2007

WOOO HOOO! That’s just down right excitin’....
Todd Rhoades on Tue, July 10, 2007

I wish everyone shared our excitement.

http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/?p=417

One commenter writes: “Kingdom Theology never really made sense to me. Doing social work is nice and certainly the right thing to do, but what good does it do the person if they still end up in Hell because they weren’t preached to? Why can’t we just do both?”

I think that’s what Granger is attempting to do… both.

And I commend them for it.

(and, by the way, labeling Granger as ‘emergent’ is a label that I don’t think they would even pin on themselves).

It’s so much easier to criticize than to do. I, for one, am glad for the ‘doers’. They will have immeasureably more impact (or opportunity for impact) than many think; and at the same time helping those who need help and are less fortunate (also something that, dare I say, is also Biblical).

Todd
Peter Hamm on Tue, July 10, 2007

Thanks for posting that response, Todd. here’s my personal answer to it. “NOT DOING Kingdom Theology never really made sense to me. Preaching repentance and sound doctrine is certainly the right thing to do, but what good does it do the person if they still end up in Hell because they didn’t want to listen to Christians because all the Christians were doing was preaching hellfire at them? Why can’t we just do both?”
Wendi on Tue, July 10, 2007

Ummm – kingdom theology doesn’t make sense??? Shall we do a word count to see how many times Jesus referred to the kingdom?

When Jesus explained the kingdom of God to the rich young ruler, He didn’t say “now repent you evil sinner, and pray this prayer at the back of my booklet,” He said, “go and sell everything you have, give it to the poor.” Sounds like Granger has the same idea Jesus had. And vs 30 (Lk 18) seems to me to be a pretty good indicator that Jesus understood the kingdom was now (as we give to the poor perhaps?) and yet to come.

Way to go Granger!!

Wendi
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There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration. That’s a great point to bring up. I offer the thoughts above as general inspiration but clearly there are questions like the one you bring up where the most important thing will be working in honest good faith. I don’t know if best practices have emerged around things like that, but I am sure that your job is clearly identified as a fair game. stem cell technology
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Granger, IN is classified as a cdp by the U.S. Census Bureau and is located in St. Joseph county. The average number of disabilities per resident is far lower than most other cities in this state. The majority of disabilities in Granger fall under the categories of employment (28%), physical (20%), and go-outside-home (16%).

In St. Joseph County, roughly 87% of all residents and 90% of children under 18 had some sort of health insurance coverage. On average, people in this county are covered with health insurance as often as in most other cities in Indiana. Children in this state, on average, have about the same amount of health insurance coverage as most others in this state.
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this is so good for the poor. We definitely need more homes like this. Keep up the good work.

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117-102 on Sat, October 03, 2009

For the fourth year in a row, the administration has sought to justify their recommendation to slash funding for the Community Development Block Grant [CDBG] program by proposing legislative `reforms’ for the program. For fiscal year 2009, the administration’s budget proposes a funding cut of approximately 18 percent from the fiscal year 2008 level. The Committee notes that the administrations `reform’ legislation, which has yet to be introduced in either the House or the Senate, purports to `reform’ the program by cutting assistance to affluent communities. HP0-J24 The Committee notes, however that CDBG grantees are required by law to use at least 70 percent of their funding to benefit low and moderate-income persons. And, in reality, according to the HUD’s own budget documents, between 94.8 and 96.4 percent of CDBG funds benefited low- and moderate-income persons in fiscal year 2007. The Committee applauds the State and local governments for their targeted use of funds to assist persons in greatest need. The Committee believes that such aggressive targeting efforts makes it clear that the administration’s proposed `reforms’ and reduced funding level would do nothing other than de-fund needed assistance in poor communities. The Committee is disappointed with the administration’s proposed reduction of the CDBG formula grant program by $659,025,000 or approximately 18 percent. The Committee has heard from communities all around the Nation that are struggling to address the housing crisis and the destructive impact on housing, employment, the tax base and crime. JN0-350 The Committee is dismayed that the administration would propose to reduce one of the Federal Government’s most effective tools to stabilize these communities. The Committee rejects the administration’s proposed funding cut.
bankruptcyrecords on Tue, December 01, 2009

This is a good news, hopefully they will know God’s grace.
70-271 on Mon, March 01, 2010

February’s been a big month for our girls. Belle had her first big dance recital. Maddie and Whit each landed a role in the musical at school, Snow White. This was Maddie’s last performance at Horizon. We almost have a middle schooler. Crazy!