wfn.org | UMNS# 04494-Apartment ministry reaches people where they live

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Apartment ministry reaches people where they live 

Oct. 25, 2004	 News media contact:   Fran  Walsh * (615) 742-5458* 
Nashville {04494}

By Steve Smith*

DALLAS (UMNS) - For Mario Martinez, 13, the only church he has ever known for
the past five years is the two-bedroom apartment transformed each Sunday into
a sanctuary, nursery and Sunday school classroom at the complex where he
lives with his family.

Lake Highlands United Methodist Church brings worship services to Mario and
dozens of other residents of the complex each Sunday because most of the
older residents work during traditional worship hours. 

"It's time for us to get outside of our little group here and try to reach
people outside the walls of our church," says the Rev. Pamela Clark,
associate pastor at Lake Highlands United Methodist Church, who heads the
church's off-campus ministries.  

"The concept is based on the fact that there are a lot of folks that cannot
or will not go to the traditional church setting because it's intimidating,"
she says. "Those who come to our churches in the apartments for the first
time wouldn't be able to walk into a church and go through the Lord's Prayer.

"We set up a community of faith right here where people live."

For Mario, being part of that community includes helping the younger
children. "Their parents might work on Sunday, or they're probably not at
home, and (the children) can come to the apartment community and have a good
time for at least one hour," he says.

Clark's apartment ministry, which Lake Highlands United Methodist Church
started nine years ago, is one of many imaginative evangelism efforts that
United Methodist churches across the country use to reach the unchurched -
people who cannot attend church on Sunday mornings for various reasons - and
the many ethnic groups now populating most American cities and looking for
places to worship.

Lake Highlands' ministry now includes complexes in seven communities, where
many "parishioners" continue to worship long after moving out. The owner, who
is a Christian, donated apartments for the outreach ministry.

Clark says the apartment ministries have changed the way she views being a
pastor.

"I'm able to live out my call to ministry, which isn't in a normal church
setting," she says. "It's outside in the community. It's reaching people who
may not be thinking what difference they would make or what difference Jesus
would make in their life.

"What I have seen is a lot of broken, hurting people who are looking for
something to satisfy an empty hole that they have."

Residents such as Edgar Moyo and Norman Madawo say the congregation at their
apartment church is like a family where each member feels at home. Moyo, a
transplant from Zimbabwe, lives next door to the church and sings its
praises.

 "We fellowship with each other, we share our problems, whether financially,
morally, spiritually. It helps us grow as Christians," Moyo says. "We don't
come here and share plastic, cosmetic smiles, but it's more about our
day-to-day living, so it helps us a lot."

Moyo and Madawo help lead the worship services, where hymns are often sung in
English, Spanish and native African languages common to the complex dwellers.

"To come to church is just one of the happiest things that has happened to
me, and we are just so glad to have a church around the corner," Madawo says.
"Here, I am part of the family. They know me by my first name, they come to
my house."

For more information, go to the church's Web site, www.lhumc.com, send an
e-mail to pclark@lhumc.com or call (214) 348-6600

*Smith is a freelance writer in Dallas. This story is based on a script by
producer Lisa Hampshire for UMTV. 

News media contact: Fran Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
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