Helping the Homeless Through Faith and Good Works
By: Andy DeKeuster
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.
Like the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10: 33-34, the Uptown Baptist Church practices what it preaches. The church not only provides a place for spiritual guidance every Sunday morning, it also is deeply involved with the homeless community of Uptown.
"Every church must minister to its community," said Michael Allen, 39, the senior pastor of the Uptown Baptist Church since the summer of 2005. "It has to begin there. This church has always been a church that ministers to the needy. [The homeless] have always been in the DNA of the church."
The gray skies add to the medieval atmosphere of the Uptown Baptist Church.
Located on 1011 West Wilson, the old stone, two-story building seems intimidating from the outside. But walk through the old wooden doors and down a flight of stairs, and you'll find that the menacing building has a heart of gold.
"The best part of the Uptown church is that the homeless of the area feel welcome," said Mindy Cobb, 53, a volunteer at the church since it opened. "The people of Uptown are open to help the homeless and unemployed."
Every Monday night for the past 20 years the church has opened its doors in a program called Monday Night Meals. The basement of the church, which doubles as a bedroom and a kitchen, opens at 4 p.m. Twenty-one tables are furnished with bananas, paper plates and cups of juice. Food donations come from numerous places. Some come from members within the congregation, but most come from outside resources.
"My day starts at 8 in the morning," Garry Akema, 40, the food ministries director for the past 16 years. "I go to five or six stores buying things wholesale or picking up donations. The Blue Man Group donates the bananas every night."
Monday Night Meals provides dinner to between 300 to 500 homeless people. According to Allen the church receives plenty of assistance. Members of the church's congregation volunteer weekly. Students from Wilmette and Winnetka high schools as well as students from Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College volunteer on a regular basis.
The basement only allows 168 people to eat at one time. The line for dinner starts as early as 3 p.m. Once the doors are opened at 4 p.m., people gather in the sanctuary and wait to be seated. Volunteers act as waiters and waitresses; they seat people, take orders and serve dinners.
"I love the atmosphere," said James Parker, 56, who has been coming to Monday Night Meals for the past three years. "They usually play the piano or preach while we eat. It's great, I love it."
After the meal is provided, the Uptown Baptist Church conducts an optional worship service. Participants climb the stairs to the cozy sanctuary where they sing familiar hymns and listen to Bible passages.
A lesson drawn by pastor Michael Allen representing the Holy Trinity and ordained institutions: family, government, jobs, school and church. The person under the umbrella follows the institutions and is protected from the storms of life.
"We not only care about their physical well-being," Allen said. "We care about their spiritual well-being. We read them teachings from the word of God that will help them along in their life's journey."
The church's own journey has had many twists. After spending three years in a warehouse and two more years in a rented church building, the church finally found a home in the fall of 1981. When it first began, the church agreed to shelter the homeless from November to April. In 1984 the church expanded its support to offer shelter 365 days a year.
The Uptown Baptist Church partners with R.E.S.T., a social service organization located in Chicago as well as in many other cities, to combat homelessness. R.E.S.T. operates its overnight shelter in the church's basement. Every night starting at 8 p.m. the basement of the church houses up to 50 women. The church provides them with dinner, breakfast and a cot. The floors of the basement are solid concrete; the yellow walls create a sense of warmth and security. The basement also includes a recently renovated bathroom that has three new toilet stalls, two showers and two sinks.
The church assigns each woman a case worker. Women and their case managers talk about numerous issues such as drugs and alcohol, housing, job training and resume writing. The church also hosts a free health fair twice a year that offers screenings and lessons on nutritious eating.
The future of the Uptown Baptist Church is not a question about expanding services or renovating the basement to shelter more women, Allen said. The church wants to make more of an impact among the homeless community by not just helping them get off the streets, but by starting them on the right path toward self-reliance.
"We need to be more effective in doing what we're doing," Allen said. "We need to be able to create better opportunities for people to be 'poor no more.' The goal isn't necessarily to serve more people; it's to serve the people we are already serving better by developing better programs or systems for them to be self-sustaining."