August 1 edition of Best Practices

I've always thought that a church like ours could have a real outreach to the community. We have Glendale Adventist Medical Center across the street, of course; but what is our congregation doing? While our people are generous, the problem is that we haven't had a focus for community outreach.

Then the Share Ourselves Thrift Store came into our lives.

The hospital had had a thrift store; it wasn't succeeding though, so after it closed, I asked if we could take it over. They not only let us run the store, but gave us space, along with utilities, security, phone and internet, for $1 a year!

Our idea was that the thrift store could raise money for more targeted community services--and it has. We're just getting started, but we are expecting to make about $120,000 this year, after expenses. (We realize our free space gives us an advantage; our expenses are limited to two paid staff members and the expenses of our truck. Most of our work is volunteer.)

Some things that the thrift shop has encouraged:

Job club: We help people looking for work. As they search, we let them earn up to $600 at the thrift store.
Share Ourselves Community Service: We help people get food, rent, transportation, furniture and clothing.
Addictions recovery program: We're in the process of organizing a program to address addiction, and eventually establish a sober living center.
Community volunteer organizing: When judges sentence an offender to so many hours of community service, our thrift store is one of the places they can work. We've already racked up about 10,000 hours of community service.
Grants: We have a volunteer grant writer working for us. Already we've won grants to employ senior citizens, and at-risk youth.

As we've reported these successes to the congregation, they've become excited about the possibilities. The store has created a growing awareness of community needs, and a desire to touch people--not just with doctrinal teachings, but with practical service. We want to extend hearts and hands into this city, and the thrift store has become a focus for our efforts. Eventually we'd like to see even more aggressive, ongoing community programs, for which we could merit larger grants, and do bigger things.

Even though the program is still young, I'm delighted to say that we have three people attending church because of it, and another volunteer who I hope will soon be baptized. Just as important, it has opened the eyes of our church members to the opportunities to do the work of Jesus right here at home.

To learn more about the Share Ourselves Thrift Store, write Mike at mike@graceunconditional.com

Are you or a colleague doing something especially interesting and innovative in ministry? Tell us about it at BestPractices@ameritech.net.