Starting Small
We are one of the Cleveland churches on the east side of Cleveland. We’re not a very big church. We have maybe 150 members, counting cats and dogs. We’re in a very poor area operating on a near-zero budget. We have many outreaches, and God is good and fills them up!
We moved from the Minneapolis area, in a section that was probably upper middle class, to our very blue-collar, very poor community in Cleveland. We came to the point where people were coming in to get water; they hadn’t had running water in their homes for some time. Or they would come to get help with a heat bill. This was stuff we were not used to in any way. We realized right away that what we were going to be called to do was to serve the poor.
So we started going down into the projects, some really bad areas, to help serve the communities. Actually, that’s how we developed some of our first leaders: Anybody that was willing to come with us into those areas became our leaders.
Over time, we’ve continued that commitment to being outward-focused. God has been faithful. We’ve grown up many leaders that have gone out to plant from our church or get on staff at other churches. That’s really what we’ve felt we’ve been called to do: to make disciples.
Preparing To Go Big
Some years ago, before the market crashed and the recession hit, I encouraged our 22-year-old food pantry to begin preparing to up their game. I felt like it was going to be needed more than ever. We went from serving about ten families a week to this past year serving about 33,000 people. We told our church that we had no money, but we needed to continue and to trust God for the provisions.
We’ve really had to lean into God, but we’re building a witness in our church about the provision of God and the love God has for people. It’s quite a testimony for the people in our church and in the community that we’re serving.
Theresa and I have been there for 26 years, and it has been such an honor to serve this community. It’s been really hard; we’ve been through so many challenges. But through everything, we’ve seen so much of the goodness and kindness of God over and over again.
Out Of Gas, Still Doin’ The Stuff
Another quick story…our motorcycle story. We decided to ride our bike out to California from Cleveland for the Vineyard National Conference. It was an interesting journey. We’ve been able to see God’s providence.
We were coming across part of the desert, and our gas line broke and started spewing gas all over us. I turned back to Theresa and said, “My leg is covered in gasoline.” And she said, “I know. I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t want to upset you. There was no place to stop.”
So we started praying. We were 90 miles out of Flagstaff, Arizona, but we knew we needed to make it there. So we were driving, gas spewing, watching the gas gauge go down. We pulled off the exit ramp for Flagstaff and ran out of gas on the exit ramp. God provided. Someone helped push us into a gas station. We continued to pray. A man from an auto parts store drove over to us, picked me up, and drove me back to the store to pick up parts.
[bctt tweet=”We pulled off the exit ramp for Flagstaff and ran out of gas on the exit ramp. God provided.” quote=”We pulled off the exit ramp for Flagstaff and ran out of gas on the exit ramp. God provided.”]
While stopped and repairing the bike at the gas station, we also had a chance to pray for a woman on her way to Mexico who had terminal cancer. She was heading down there for a treatment. I was covered with oil and gas, but I asked if I could pray for her. And we did. We’re not sure what happened to her, but she seemed encouraged by being prayed for. She didn’t seem like the type that was prayed for or prayed with very often.
Brent Paulson – Pastor, Vineyard Community Church (Wickliffe, OH)
