VUSA: It seems there is a lot going on with compassion ministry in the North Phoenix Vineyard today. How did you get started?
MF: In 1996 my pastor, Brian Anderson, asked me to come on staff at the church. I had already been a part of the church for about five years. One of the areas that he wanted me to work with was developing a compassion ministry here at our church. The first thing we looked at was starting a food bank. It was a start up, we really didn’t have anything in place.
We looked around at where we could do that. At the time, the church was renting a storefront in a strip mall. There was a little back room, maybe 10 by 20, that was unused in this complex, which had been vacant for a number of years. We talked to the owner about the possibility of using it. God gave us grace, and he said yes. We cleaned it up, and put up a couple of shelves in there. We started to get some food donated to us from people in our congregation, and then got the word out that we were open for business.
Initially, we would have one or two families come in. We started out just doing it on a Saturday morning. I had a few volunteers working with me. I was so thankful for the volunteers who were there. They were willing to help out and wanted to be a blessing to people. I can remember in the early days when we might have four, five or six households come into receive food. It was like we were busting out the seams, and we’re really making a difference.
It was a small start, but it was a good start. We grew from there, just slowly. Being faithful, I think… Every Saturday we showed up. Sometimes, there would be maybe 10 people who needed food and maybe the next week only two. It started and continued to develop. I remember one thing that happened. It might have been within the first year of us doing this. Someone in our congregation came up to me and said that at her work she was in charge of designating some funds to an agency that’s helping the community. She said that she’d talked with her supervisors, and they had identified our food bank as a potential recipient. They wanted to give us some money; it turned out to be $20,000.
It was incredible. I took it as God was saying, “You know what? I’m going to bless this. I’m going to be in this with you guys and what you’re doing. This is the beginning of the ride.” That really did help us out. It wasn’t so much the money and what we were able to do with the money. It was more just the confidence builder, knowing that this is going to work. This is going to make a difference. We continued with our food bank for a number of years in the facility that we were in. Then, we ended up moving to our campus where we are at now.
VUSA: What stage was the church during this time?
MF: I think we might have been about 1000, somewhere right around there. We had a number of services going on. I think at that time, we were doing either two Sunday morning services or maybe three, at the time. We had a good number of people involved in our church. We had small groups going on. We had a lot of good infrastructure for what was taking place. So, for us as a church, it was now our time to develop our compassion ministry.
People were eager to get involved. As we moved into our new facility on our campus, and as we were designing our buildings, one of the rooms that we dedicated was to a food bank. It was about 1000 square feet. When we moved from where we had started to this building, it was quite a jump for us. It was probably four times the size of what we were in before. We said to ourselves, “Wow. What are we going to do with all of this space?”
It really didn’t take us long. We just filled it up, and we were able to be a little more structured in how we were doing things. We began to have two outreaches. We are doing a Saturday and a Sunday outreach. We expanded beyond our walls, literally. We took it outside, where we began to bring out our clothing on racks and rolling racks out into our parking lot area. We also created a reception area for our guests.
VUSA: Did the new facility open up new avenues of ministry?
MF: At first it was just food. We were limited in space, so we thought the food was the primary thing. Then as we got a little more space in the new building, we added clothing. It was one of those things where the clothing just started coming. Since day one we just have had an abundance of clothing. As our church has grown, and as people have been generous in the giving of their clothing, it’s been something that we have been able to bless our community with. Guests come in and they are able to, in a sense, shop through the clothing that we have. So, that is a big draw. When guests come, they want to receive the food, but, they also want the clothing, there is a need out there. We try and give good stuff to our community. We want to bless them and not feel like we’re giving them some old seconds and stuff. God has given us a lot of favor.
We’ve also been able to just get an abundance of clothing away. We end up sending a good amount of clothing to Mexico. We have some individuals who are involved in an outreach there in Mexico, and so we funnel some of that clothing as well down South.
VUSA: So you have recently moved into a brand new building on the same campus, is that right?
MF: Yes. When we moved onto our campus about seven years ago, we had three main buildings. We had our main auditorium, our children’s/administrative building and then our youth building. It was in the youth building where we had our Food Bank room.
But, we still had a lot of undeveloped land that we still had plans for. Over the last few years, we have been in the process of building a new, larger auditorium, expanding our children’s rooms and also building a Compassion building, a standalone compassion building. In fact, that’s the first building that has come on line. We opened it up in December ’08. The 6000 square feet that we have now is this beautiful warehouse of probably 2500 square feet, and then we have some office space interior that we use as our reception area, our interview room, our clothing room, which is really nice. We used to have to bring our clothing outside and have to set it up each time, the weather was a factor. But now, it’s all inside. It’s a nice comfortable place for guests to come.
VUSA: People have a love-hate relationship with buildings. Has this new building changed what you are able to do?
MF: Definitely. I think it has really allowed us to open up some doors for some of the food that we are giving out. I think we’ve always done well with what we’ve given to our community and tried to supply quality food. But now, we’ve been able to connect with a couple other ministry agencies. We are getting pallets of produce and stuff that before one couldn’t house. That would have been too much. Now, in fact, we have a walk in refrigerator and freezer. Both of those units, they are 11 by 11 each, so we’re able to now take in some items that are perishable, that we have the room to take care of them and refrigerate them properly. We’re able to give out better food.
We are also in the early stages of developing a medical ministry. Right now, we’re just at the early screening outreach stages of checking blood pressure, blood sugar, vision, stuff like that. Our desire is to be able to grow with this and develop it into more of a full blown clinic where we can have doctors involved, and nurse practitioners to provide medical services to our community. We want to care for those those who just can’t afford it.
VUSA: You have grown a lot. As a leader, how has your role changed with each stage? How have got people involved?
I think for myself, the overseeing pastor, it’s been important to develop the leadership, to identify individuals who have a heart for compassion, and a heart to. At each stage of our growth it’s been about trying to get the right people in the right place. We’ve been pretty successful at doing it. It’s been a challenge, but it’s been rewarding to see individuals who have got connected with our compassion ministry blossom as individuals and as leaders.
I think part of that comes down from the top. Our pastor, Brian Anderson, has been very supportive of us. He often encourages people to get involved, to give of themselves. So, that’s something that’s been sown into our DNA as a church and as individuals .
We have our formal structured outreaches, but it goes beyond that. People are getting outside the walls of the church and serving on a one on one basis touch people’s lives.
VUSA: What kind of neighborhood are you in? What kind of people are you serving? Is it a diverse church?
MF: You know, we are a diverse church. I don’t think we initially started that way. It was more a middle class, white church. Our community has, as it’s grown, become a larger population of Hispanics. We are growing in our ethnicity, from African Americans to Hispanics and Asians. It’s growing; it’s changing. That’s part of what we want to see happen as a church. We want to reflect our community. We’re becoming more and more a melting pot.
We’re in a suburban area. But, within our general locality, we don’t have to go too far to find individuals who are in need. Particularly with our economy the way it is right now, there are a lot people who are working, but are finding it difficult to make ends meet. So, individuals who maybe in the last year or two would not be in need, are needing to stretch their resources a little bit. We’re able to assist them by doing our food and clothing bank.
VUSA: Are you seeing people who are affected by the economy, who were not necessarily in need before?
MF: I think we’re seeing some of that. I wouldn’t put it at huge numbers, but I think there are more individuals who are in that category. We are able to help and address that need. In fact next month we’re starting an employment assistance ministry. We have developed some classes and some resources on how to look for work, how to present themselves, resume writing, etc. I think it’s going to be something that will be well received.
VUSA: If you look back on the last ten or twelve years, what would be some of your best moments, or best God stories?
MF: Well, one I remember is of a gal who was going through some difficult times. She came to our food bank and one of the items that she received from us was a Macintosh apple. But prior to visiting us at the food bank, she had been questioning if God was still concerned with her. One of the things that she voiced to God was: “God? Does anyone really care about me? Do you really care about me? Does anyone really care that Macintosh is my favorite Apple?”
When she got that apple from our food bank, she was reminded of her conversation with God. God used that to communicate that He still cares and He has people that care for her. So, it was very meaningful for her. I believe if I recall right, she became involved with our church.
But, the story doesn’t end there. It may have been a year or so after that, I was going to be preaching a message on compassion ministry. I had put a request in our bulletin that if anyone had been involved in our food bank ministry and had been blessed, that they send me their story.
I got an email from a guy who shared about how he had heard the story of the lady with the Macintosh apple and that had inspired him to become involved with our food bank.
One day as he was involved with volunteering at our food bank, he was interviewing one of the guests and it ended up being the lady who wanted the Macintosh apple. So, he got to tell her about how her story had inspired him to get involved in compassion ministry. Now, God had made the full circle on this. These people met and were able to rejoice together over God’s goodness and what he had done through a simple apple.
VUSA: What lies ahead for compassion, in the next season of development?
MF: I think it’s about releasing individuals who have a heart for compassion ministry. So, it means releasing others to take the dreams that they have and allowing them to develop and expand it.
[bctt tweet=”My job as a pastor is to release other leaders and allow them to run with the vision that God has put in their heart.” quote=”My job is to release other leaders and allow them to run with the vision that God has put in their heart.”]
VUSA: How do you identify leaders? What indicators do you look for?
MF: I watch for self-motivated people that have the interest in compassion ministry. There is something already buried inside them that is yearning to come out and find its expression. So, I’m not trying to talk them into being involved in compassion ministry, it’s there. They just need the opportunity or maybe the rails to be able to run on. So that’s certainly part of what I look for. I look for faithfulness; they’re showing up, they’re doing their stuff, and they’re not necessarily looking for a certain position or title. They just want to get in there with their hands and do the stuff. Those two things are certainly important as far as the leadership.
Then I look for how are they working with other people? Do other people relate well to them? Do other people follow them? Are they a prickly person? Do they rub people the wrong way at times?
Then I thing about vision. Do they have a vision for something? How deeply embedded is that vision within them? Do they really want to pay the cost to make it happen? So, I think looking for those things in individuals has helped to develop future leaders for us.
VUSA: Guests get clothing and food. Do people let you pray for them?
MF: Yeah. Well, I think, from the beginning, one of the things that we’ve sought to do is be open handed about the resources we have. As we reach out to our community, we make what we have available to people, to give it away without strings. We always give the opportunity if they would like to receive prayer. It’s optional. They can or they can’t, depending on what they want. But, I’ve found that probably 90 or 95 percent of the people do want prayer.
I think that part of it is, as we minister to them on a physical level, it connects with them. It says to them, “You’re important to us. We care about you. We want to help you.” It makes a bridge of trust. That allows them to also bring up the spiritual side of things, to pray for individuals and to talk to them about what Jesus can mean in their life. I think they go hand in hand. I think, as we minister to people on a physical level, it really does open up opportunities to then also bring in the spiritual element.
We love to meet people on the physical level, but we recognize that deep down the deepest needs that people have are at the spiritual level. If we can address that as well, then we are really doing the Kingdom work. We’re touching them on both levels. I think doing that is a very effective way. It really does open up the heart of people, more.
VUSA: Some last thoughts. What are the things that you are most proud of or been blown away by in the journey?
MF: I think, one really great thing is that our compassion ministry within our church isn’t limited to just what I oversee. We have individuals who have been a part of our compassion ministry and who have then developed an outreach on their own. For example, we have a ministry called “Covering the Homeless” that was started by a husband and wife who were small group leaders in our church. I think one of them may have either worked in downtown Phoenix and saw some homeless people down there. It was wintertime, and they rallied their small group to collect some blankets. I can remember at the very beginning, it was just collecting a handful of blankets, taking them down to the inner city of Phoenix and giving them away. I think they gave them lunch too. It started very small, just within the small group.
The next year, they planned a little more. I think they invited another small group to participate with them, and it grew a little bit bigger. Each year, it grew. About four years ago, they turned that ministry over to another couple who had been involved with them. Now that ministry touches about 300 or 350 homeless individuals during the wintertime here in Phoenix.
That’s just one of those things where it wasn’t me. I had nothing to do with it. I wasn’t the instigator of it. I wasn’t the one who kind of had an idea and then sowed it into someone. This was a couple who had it in themselves. It was a grassroots thing. Those are the kinds of things that really stand out to me over the years. They mean a lot.
[bctt tweet=”You just need to have a little bit more than someone in need. – Mario Fernandez ” quote=”It doesn’t take a lot of resources. You just need to have a little bit more than someone in need.”]
The wonderful thing about compassion ministry is that it really doesn’t take buildings. It doesn’t take a lot of resources. You just need to have a little bit more than someone in need. It can start with a church plant that maybe has 20 or 30 people in their church, who are able to bless someone in their community. You can start small and see where God takes it. You don’t have to wait until your church gets to a certain size to jump in the waters, you can start from day one.
