wfn.org | DOOR leader will direct Quest

[BethAH@mbm.org]

March 14, 2001
Beth Hawn
Mennonite Board of Missions
(219) 294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

DOOR leader Balzer will direct Urban Leadership Quest

ELKHART, Ind. (GCMC/MBM) – When talking about his experiences
working in urban ministry, Glenn Balzer describes the DOOR
(Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection) program
with an unusual metaphor, “DOOR is to mission what
‘scratch-n-sniff’ is to perfume.”

Through his work first with DOOR in Denver, and now with Urban
Leadership Quest, Balzer seeks to keep ministry alive and growing
in diverse urban areas.  In 2000, Balzer became the director of
Urban Leadership Quest, a joint program of the Commission on Home
Ministries of the General Conference Mennonite Church and
Mennonite Board of Missions of the Mennonite Church.  The journey
that brought Glenn Balzer to DOOR eventually led him to become
the director, because Quest had its roots in a desire to make
Christian faith authentic.  Since becoming involved in urban
ministry, Balzer has discovered “that one can have a faith that
is much more than a Sunday-morning event, and it is possible to
move from having a job to having a life.”

Quest is a yearlong residency program for people exploring a
commitment to urban ministry.  Participants are involved in both
service experience and education/reflection under the mentorship
of an urban leader.  While Quest began as a pilot program in
September 1999 in Buffalo, N.Y., Balzer seeks to expand it to
other cities.  In addition to Buffalo, Quest may soon be
operating in Chicago, Miami and Denver.

Balzer grew up in a rural area; his first urban experience was
during his time at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in
Fresno, Calif.  He received his Master of Arts in theology in
1991.  He worked as a youth pastor in several settings during his
time in school.  After graduating, he accepted a job working as
an associate pastor of youth in Littleton, Colo., outside
Denver.  His first breakthrough experience with urban ministry
was a youth group service trip to south-central Los Angeles
following the 1992 riots.  Balzer remembers being energized by
the experience.  “Everyone said I should be afraid, but I had
this sense of, ‘Yes, I like this.’”  When he returned to his
suburban pastorate, he sought to get involved with urban missions
by serving on the board of Denver DOOR, at that time a program of
Mennonite Central Committee that facilitated short-term urban
service/education trips in Denver for interested groups.

During this time, Balzer began to grow disillusioned with his
current job and lifestyle.  “Things were going well on the
surface, but there was no passion for my ministry or faith.
Everything was on auto-pilot.”  Balzer grew frustrated.  “The
good news of the Scriptures was no longer the good news and it
had become a repressive cloud over my life and ministry.”

Balzer saw God as “the impersonal taskmaster whose standards I
could never meet.  All my dreams for what ministry was supposed
to be came crashing down.”  He was experiencing what he now
refers to as “total emptiness and burn-out . . . I woke up one
day with the realization that I was living in a very dark place.”

In utter despair after three years of ministry, Balzer describes
himself as spiritually dead.  One Saturday he went into the
church office and resigned from his job.  He had no idea what the
future would hold.  “The only thing I knew,” Balzer reflects,
“was that I wanted nothing to do with an impersonal, non-caring
God.”

Balzer’s search for a “real God” led him to the city.  Denver
DOOR was in transition. Participants said the program would be
stronger if a pastor ran it.  Balzer was already committed to
DOOR and needed a job; he became the director in November 1994.
Balzer and his family left their comfortable home in the suburbs
and moved to an inner city, culturally diverse neighborhood.
Balzer’s involvement with urban ministry led to a restoration of
his faith.  In 1999, he became the pastor at Garden Park Church
(Mennonite Brethren).  “Some people talk about bringing Jesus to
the city,” he says.  “I found Jesus in the city.  Some people
talk about ‘saving the city.’  The city saved me.”

After more than six years in Denver, Balzer still gains new
insight every day.  He has noticed that city communities face
many of the same problems as do suburban ones.  However, in a
city people live, work and play in such close proximity to each
other that they are forced to confront issues when they arise.
“It is harder to hide in a city,” says Balzer.  “When you fight,
everyone knows.”  Balzer sees many benefits to raising his
children in such a lively atmosphere.  “Reality is all around.  I
don’t need to talk to my kids about alcoholism – they can see
it.”  Despite being in a poorer school district, Balzer feels
that the cultural education his children are receiving far
outweighs anything negative.

Balzer says his ministry at Garden Park flows directly out of his
other involvements, adding that his ministry is his life.  Garden
Park is a church rich in diversity and blended in family make-up
and represented denominations.  Garden Park is also the practical
test of many of the ideals put forth by the Quest program.

“It’s hard to cross boundaries and not look down on people,”
Balzer says.  “Quest asks, ‘How do we do church in a
multicultural context?’  It’s an initiative that shows that
church can be done in a city.”

Quest is committed to developing church leaders for urban areas.
One of the strengths of this program is its emphasis on active
learning through internship and mentoring.  Balzer remembers that
he learned how to relate to sick parishioners by accompanying
another pastor on hospital rounds until he felt comfortable.

“I learned that ministry is a lot like playing the guitar – it’s
not when you play, it’s when you don’t,” he says.  “In ministry,
it’s not what you say as much as when you are quiet – when you
are simply present with people.”

Being present with people is perhaps one of Glenn Balzer’s
greatest contributions to the church.  By choosing to live with
the people he serves in the city, he has impacted both the lives
of the people in his community and those who come to serve with
DOOR or seek with Urban Leadership Quest.  By dwelling in the
city, Glenn Balzer brings integrity to his ministry and his life.

“People tend to notice what I’ve given up to be here,” he says.
“But I say, ‘I have given up nothing.  I have gained
everything.’”
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Joni Sancken         PHOTO AVAILABLE