In the words of senior pastor Ed Doerner, “Every day of the week looks different from the typical church structure at Messiah. Sunday has now become a celebration of everything God has done throughout the week. We gather to celebrate as a faith family, celebrating individual ministry, times to be Jesus, what God’s doing through the community ministries.
“Then starting Monday morning, everyone is invested in ministry again. We get to be Jesus to others every day of the week, in a very significant, meaningful way.”
It may sound like a lot to manage, but Pastor Doerner and the members of Messiah wouldn’t have it any other way. “God is showing us how to redefine outreach right now,” says Doerner. “And the community of Midland can’t get enough!”
A Heart for Service
Messiah has developed nine external ministries over the past decade, including a coffee house, appliance and auto repair, a discounted food center, early childhood education, healthcare services, and recovery treatment. Pastor Doerner would say this is all thanks to the glory of God, but the congregation at Messiah has had a bend toward community outreach for many decades now.
Before Ed Doerner, the head pastor at Messiah was Greg Finke. Thanks to Greg, the church got involved in ministry beyond its four walls with a few programs at local public schools. Finke started Wonderful Wednesday, which is an after-school program held at Messiah for kids in the community. It involves the public schools bussing kids over to the church on Wednesdays for a free after-school program. Pastor Finke was also instrumental in developing Marvelous Mondays, an after-school program run at another nearby public school.
But it has been under Pastor Doerner’s leadership that the church has developed a crucial formula for its current scope of outreach. As Doerner put it, “You have to start by helping those who serve to find purpose. And then you have to honor the dignity of those you are serving.”
Finding Purpose
To better understand the power of purpose, Pastor Doerner said it starts with remembering who really needs your help: “Just beyond the four walls of the church building you will find those who truly need care but are widely neglected. International or short-term missions are rewarding, but it is often easier than serving our neighbor. The people across the street from your church back home are drowning without Jesus. They are struggling to put food on the table, drowning in medical bills, and you just keep repeating, ‘Swim to shore.’”
Messiah learned this lesson by focusing their ministry on the ALICE population of Midland. ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) individuals are employed, but their household income is just above the poverty line, which can make everyday expenses like food and medical care hard to manage.
“In Michigan, these families make between $30-72,000 a year, depending on where they live.” Pastor Doerner shared. “These people are the forgotten group. These are all your grocery store workers, all your restaurant workers, all your gas station attendants. They’re the people who care for you every single day, but no one does anything for them. 13% of people in Michigan live in poverty, but 26% are ALICE.”
All of Messiah’s outreach ministries are housed under Elevate Community Ministries. And now members throughout the community of Midland, both within and outside of Messiah Lutheran, can tangibly connect with the time and service they offer to those in need.
“Through Elevate Community Ministries, people can donate cars. People can donate food. People can donate money so someone can see a doctor. People can donate appliances. People can donate Christmas gifts that we resell at pennies to the dollar, so parents can feel like they bought Christmas presents for their kids. And all of our ministries are run by a backbone of daily volunteers.
“To give you some perspective on how people are responding to Elevate, we just recently celebrated 10 years of our auto repair shop, His Hands Auto. It’s a 10-bay, 5,000-square-foot garage. We have worked on over 15,000 cars and taken in over 525 cars as donations during that time. That’s 50 cars a year, a car a week, that we can resell to a family in need.”
Honoring Dignity
The second most crucial ingredient Pastor Doerner and his team have discovered is the importance of honoring dignity. As Doerner put it, “The ALICE population doesn’t want free handouts. They want items they can actually afford.”
Messiah members have learned this lesson best through The Bridge Food Center, a ministry run completely by volunteers where food is sold at only five cents above wholesale price. Pastor Doerner shared the biggest part of this lesson has been about power: “There’s a difference between entitlement and helping people help themselves. If I come to you with my hand out needing food, I am already in a posture of submission. What you don’t realize as the donor is that you’ll feel amazing about giving me something - but what you’ve actually done is rob me of my dignity.
“This is the game changer that the church gets to do. If you take my hand and tell me to stand up, now we’re looking eye to eye. Then you offer to sell me food at a discounted rate. I’m going to shake your hand because now we have a business deal. What did you rob from me? Nothing.
“The church for way too long has been robbing the very people they serve of their dignity, and then they wonder why those people don’t come to church. The feeling they experience after walking out of the church and being given something is shame.
“The Bridge Food Center, now celebrating six years, has taught us more about how to serve people. Now we get to share the life-changing opportunity of servanthood and purpose with those who can give back too.”
The Impact of Hope
But why has Messiah committed to such a wide variety of outreach ministries? Pastor Doerner says it’s about meeting people where they’re at: “We meet someone who needs car repair. The car becomes the avenue by which we get the privilege to talk to someone new. We’re in the people business. All of our external ministries are the avenues we use in order to share Jesus with someone.”
Doerner shared a recent story about a man who showed up at Gateway Healthcare with a dollar to his name. He was homeless, had expired plates on his car from Kansas, and no auto insurance. He needed a job, and he needed medical care.
“We got him insurance for his car for six months. We got him plates, so his vehicle is now legal. Then we took care of his physical needs, and then we hired him the next day to work at the church to cut grass. I shared with my congregation that Sunday as they left worship, they should look at the grass. It was cut by this person. And our ministries made this possible,” said Doerner.
In short, Messiah is in the daily business of hope: “One of the most precious parts of our outreach has become when I get to hand the keys over to a single mom who needs a working vehicle for her family. The hope in that moment is like nothing else.”
Where to Go from Here
And none of this would be possible without the financial support of Church Extension Fund. In fact, one of the greatest Elevate expansions to date is currently being funded by a loan from CEF.
The Bridge Food Center will soon be moving from a 1525-square-foot building to a location that is ten times bigger (16,000 square feet). “CEF has always been supportive of the work we’re doing at Messiah. When the opportunity to expand The Bridge happened, we literally had days to make a decision,” said Pastor Doerner.
“The building cost $1 million, and after some due diligence work, CEF said they were in. The building went up for auction at 9:30, and the CEO, Jim Saalfeld, had given us a pre-approval amount we were able to spend. If it wasn’t for Church Extension Fund, none of this ever could have happened. No bank would have worked with us to enter into a contract that big!”
The community at Messiah has already raised $500,000 to cover the costs of the expansion of The Bridge. There are also two renters in the other two units who are paying the mortgage and all the utilities. Soon with the new expansion, The Bridge will operate free of cost.
On top of this, Gateway Healthcare, which has been open since July 2022, has recently moved from a 1600-square-foot building to a 4800-square-foot building. They will soon offer urgent care services, including a new X-ray machine, bariatric healthcare, and mental health services.
“I get to tell my congregation constantly, ‘Don’t ever underestimate the work of your offering, because it changed a life,’” Doerner noted. “Our church daily gets to share good news with others. And when someone wants to hear more about how we can help them, there’s the presentation of Jesus.”
To watch a video on The Bridge, click here!