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Granger Opens Community Center for Low Income Residents
Orginally published on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 8:02 AM
by Todd Rhoades
Once housing a liquor store, Dee-Kens lounge and Ko-op 65 food pantry, storefronts near downtown South Bend in Indiana are being renovated into Monroe Circle Community Center, which will offer an alternative high school, after-school tutoring and mentoring, GED classes, life-skills training, a food pantry and a coffee house. The project is a collaborative effort by the 7,000-member Granger Community Church, Ko-op 65, Feed the Children, Erskine, Inc. and Sweet Home Baptist Church, which once ran a five-and-dime store among the early-1900s stores. The building on Western Avenue and Taylor Street is across the street from the largest mass of public housing in the city...
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.
Read more here at The Christian Post...
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There are 6 Comments:
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Posted by Daniel
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 8:20 AM
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Posted by Leonard
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 8:43 AM
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Posted by Camey
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 9:21 AM
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Posted by
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 9:38 AM
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Posted by
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 10:56 AM
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Posted by
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 8:12 PM
Post Your Comments: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…
AWESOME!!! Go Granger Go and God bless you.
WOOO HOOO! That’s just down right excitin’....
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
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?”
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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