We go to Community Family Night

Butler Church Community Family Night, Fresno, California

It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that the traditional congregation decided to provide bingo in the Family Center -- with one of the most appealing attractions in Fresno this time of year: air conditioning. A number of families were already in the room when the games started up, and many little kids had bingo cards.

Bingo was just one of the activities available at Community Family Night at Butler Church. The four congregations of Butler came together it put on the event for the neighborhood with free bounce rooms for children, along with face painting, free snow cones, and a free bike repair clinic. Mindy and I were quite pleased with the $1.00 tacos. (A server told us, “I haven’t tried them yet but they look and smell good.” No worries, they tasted as good as they smelled.)

As I mentioned, Butler, which belongs to the Mennonite Brethren conference of churches, has four congregations. While Mindy played a game of bingo, I talked with Pastor Jim Holm. He’s pastor Faith Community, an English language congregation that gathers for a traditional worship service. He told me about the three other congregations: the other English language congregation, Common Ground, that celebrates with a contemporary worship service (both of the English language congregations meet at the earlier service time, 9:30 am); Amor y Fe, the Spanish language congregation; and Asian Grace, the Laotian congregation (the Spanish language and Laotian worship services meet at 11:15 am). All four congregations came together to put on this community event.

Each congregation has their own pastor, with one pastor, Scott Holman, as lead (or administrative) pastor for all four congregations. Each congregation supports their own pastor, but a “common pot” from each congregation supports the facilities, office staff, and other shared needs.

Seven times a year (including Christmas Eve), the four congregations meet together. The morning after the Community Family Night was going to be one of those times, with the new president of Fresno Pacific University as the speaker. The church and the university are in the same neighborhood...it’s right across the street.

This month we’re focusing on community churches, and since 1957, this church has been committed to Southeast Fresno. The church has a monthly community meal for the neighborhood and a food distribution program for the poor. During the Family Night there was bicycle repair available for those who needed it. The church’s website says, “We cooperate with local organizations to help make Fresno a better place to live, and will continue to work against social injustices.”

I spoke with Calvin, who’d introduced himself to Mindy and who’s been a part of the church since 1980. He had work to do and really didn’t want to take time for an interview, but he did say it’s important that the church “makes people in the neighborhood know that God loves them as God loves us”.

Fresno is a multi language, multi racial, and multi ethnic city. I’m glad that there’s a multi language, multi racial, and multi ethnic church working to show that unity is possible and it is what God desires.

Bonus Post! We Go to a Surprisingly Multicultural Church (also in Iowa)

Alive Church, Des Moines

For those who are concerned about truth in labeling, I have good news: “Alive Church” is, in fact, alive. It’s only about 8 months old, but it is already going through the growing pains of getting too big for its space. That’s certainly that is a problem, but it is a very good problem to have.

Alive Church is a young congregation, but they already have big goals. Their five year plan has three parts: 1) Build a church building, 2) Plant a church in the United States, 3) Plant a church in Liberia (Pastor Stephen is from Liberia). The church does seem to like things in threes. Their bulletin and signs read, “Stay Alive. Save a Life. Serve a Life.”

We heard about this church from a doctor friend of ours, David, who had a Liberian patient in his clinic. The patient was quite excited to learn that David would be going on a mission trip to Liberia, and he told David about his church with a Liberian pastor. David visited the church  and told us about it shortly afterward.

Before we visited, we'd referred to it as a Liberian church, but it isn’t. Alive Church describes itself online and its literature as a “multi-denominational” and “multicultural.” The church reaches out not just to Liberians but to immigrants from a number of different countries, including Sudan and Somalia as well as Liberia and other African nations.

Like a lot of other Americans, Mindy and I tend to lump all of Africa into one category in my mind. Other people share this problem, which is why Americans will refer to a saying like “It takes a village” as an “African saying” when we would never talk about something being a “European saying.” The church serves a variety of African cultures, which I’m sure is a blessing and a challenge. For example, during the worship service, a woman in the congregation, Mary, sang a song in Sudanese. Pastor Stephen thanked her and said, “I didn’t understand the language, but I saw a lot of joy.”

Of course, being “multi-denominational” means there is another kind of cultural variation in the church. As Pastor Stephen said, “We have Baptists that don’t clap and we Pentecostals who know how to shake their bodies.” We found the worship in the service definitely tended toward liveliness. There was vibrant singing and people danced forward to drop their offering in a big basket.

The prayer time was certainly of a more Pentecostal flavor, with needs being presented by the pastor and the congregation bringing those needs before God with many voices at the same time. Pastor Stephen raised a request for prayer for the upcoming election. He expressed thanks for the United States (“Many of us prayed for a long time that we could come here.”) But he also expressed concern about the candidates for the Presidency. He expressed concern that one party seemed to have plans to curtail our religious freedom (“liberals that make things harder for the church”), while the other party had a candidate who, if elected, “would make me consider going back to Africa.”  But he prayed for both major candidates, “God, choose for us. Let us pray for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and perhaps for someone else you would put in that office… Bless this nation and return it to God.”’

The people of the church greeted us with graciousness and kindness before, after, and during the worship service. We trust that God will keep this body of believers alive and use them to bring many to new life in Jesus Christ.

Church Website: alivechurchdm.org

Concord Bible Church

Free. Initially, they weren't thinking free, they were thinking a nominal charge, but Pastor Jeremy Cook felt God was telling them it should be free.

Five years ago Concord Bible Church wanted to do an eight week summer program for neighborhood children. The inspiration for the program was a desire to imitate the ministry of Jesus -- He responded to felt needs: giving sight to the blind, strength to the lame, food for the hungry, etc. CBC believed the people of the neighborhood needed child care in the summer, but after looking at church finances, it didn't look like something the church could do without charging for it. But Pastor Cook (or "Pastor Jer") believed God would provide. God did, of course. This ministry has proved of benefit to people of the community. And it has led to families being introduced to the Church.

I served as a youth pastor at Concord Bible Church a couple of decades ago. At that time the church was also serving children in the community. Mindy used to load up carloads (amazing how many kids a nine-seat station wagon will hold) of kids and take them to the church's weekly children's programs (and Vacation Bible School as well). Weekly children's ministry continues at CBC in many ways, including AWANA.  

We noticed something else that's continuing: old friends who are still active in leading and serving the church Pastor Jeremy's was not one of those faces, though he's been at CBC for almost ten years. But Jean Peters was not there. Jean and her husband Rawley were pillars in the church for the four years we served there. Rawley passed away a few years ago, and Jean passed away unexpectedly a couple of days before we visited. Many folks were visibly shaken by the loss. Jeremy dedicated the morning's sermon to "Saint Jean". The sermon was about a worthy walk in Christ -- not a perfect walk, but a worthy walk.

There are a number of other "worthy walkers" still there from back in the day. The "Egyptian contingent" continues to grow. Years ago (before our time!) a number of families and individuals from Egypt gathered to study the Bible together. Someone in the group (Philip and Magda Bedros?) discovered Concord Bible Church and invited others to come. The group still has Bible Study together regularly at the church (in Arabic).

During the announcements Jeremy mentioned that he had been invited by the Evangelical Free Church (of which Concord Bible Church is a member) to be a speaker at a conference focused on multicultural ministry. I'm sure the Egyptian contingent were part of the reason he was invited, but not the whole reason. Looking around during the worship service, Mindy and I noticed a variety of ethnicities, reflecting the community.

To highlight that diversity, Jeremy asked all who would be classified by the U. S. government as "non-whites" to say, "Amen". (A good number responded.) "Would all those who would be classified as 'white' say, 'Amen'?" (Again, a good response.) "Would all who are part of the Kingdom of God, say 'Amen'?" (The best response of all.)

Along that theme, the time of prayer (focused on the loss of Jean Peters) was led by an Egyptian American, a European American, and a Mexican American, each in his own first language.

Something that was different from our time at CBC was the lack of children in the room. My memory is that kids were in the first part of the service and then dismissed to children's church. (Mindy was no help at all with this because she remembers always being in the nursery.) All the children this morning were in Sunday School for the entire time of worship.  This was only the second week of Sunday School after a summer break. There had been a longer break in Sunday School. Jeremy told us that for a time during his tenure he had to cut Sunday School classes because there weren't the kids there and the leadership was stretched. But they were back at a place where there were plenty of young families with young children and enough adult leadership to meet their needs.

Another project the church is working on, particularly for kids and youth, is building a sports center. In the bulletin,  a graphic showed a little hoop that almost, but not quite, had reached the backboard. I would assume the school that shares the property, Ygnacio Valley Christian School, would also benefit from the project. The church is already involved with sports in the community, hosting AYSO (the American Youth Soccer Organization).

A different aspect of the church's concern for children is in the promotion of a banquet for the local Crisis Pregnancy Centers. In his announcement regarding the banquet, Jeremy said that the church needs to step up and care for women with unwanted pregnancies.

Frankly, the most exciting thing about visiting Concord Bible Church was seeing some of my youth group students all growed up. Some of those former spitball shooters are still at CBC, now providing leadership in the church and bringing children of their own to the place. The words "blessed" and "cool" would both apply.

-- Dean

Statistics:

Service Length: 1 hour 19 minutes

Sermon Length:17 minutes

Visitor Treatment: A staffed welcome kiosk just outside the sanctuary entrance has information and bulletins (programs), and we were offered name tags. Guests were encouraged to fill out attendance cards and leave them in a designated box near the door.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none (we did have a long conversation with Jeremy and Jeanine Cook after church)

Our Rough Count: 90

Probable Ushers' Count: 110

Snacks: donuts and coffee cake, coffee, tea, water

Musicians: acoustic guitar (male), drums (male), keyboard (female)

Songs: Blessed be the Name

            My Hope is Built on Nothing Less/Cornerstone

            In Christ Alone

            Blessed Assurance

Miles to place: 75

Total California Miles: 12,712