by Betty Tesh

Created on: May 17, 2008

How can churches and businesses in a community work together to meet the specific needs of that community? This question appears to imply that these are two separate entities, but they are not. A church member may attend church to worship, to study his religious heritage, to be motivated to serve others. That same person may go to work on Monday morning to sell shoes, to build widgets, or to wait tables. He or she is the same person in a different environment. The difference being perspective.

The church member may desire to be of service to the community in order to show his/her appreciation for the gift of love he/she has received. The business person may desire to be of service to his community knowing that a better community means a more prosperous business.
One is the engine, the other is the drive shaft and the wheels. They are inseparable.

It is the duty of the church to see the most pressing needs of the community and design the solution to those needs. It is also the duty of the church to make plain to business why meeting this need will prove to be a benefit to the business. It is the duty of businesses to assist in meeting those needs.

I work for a crisis center that was begun when church members saw that there were members of our community that were one paycheck away from disaster. Both husband and wife may have been working, and they were doing all right, paying their bills, feeding their family-then the husband was laid off for weeks, or the car needed new tires, or the furnace died. Suddenly, they were falling into a hole from which they might never rise. The churches agreed on the purpose and the policies of the crisis center. We provided volunteers to interview clients and clerks to take care of the paperwork. We began food drives and set up a food bank. But the job was too big for the churches alone.

That's when our local businesses stepped in. We needed office space; it was donated. We needed equipment-it didn't have to be the latest or the best; businesses shared their old equipment with us. One local business sent workers over at night to build shelves. Grocery stores donated "almost out of date" food. Our crisis center is entering its 29th year and is going strong thanks to the cooperation of churches and businesses.

The director of the crisis center recognized that we were seeing more and more women and children without safe housing. She saw the need for a shelter. Once she had plans for her vision, she went to businesses. "We can provide you a more stable workforce," she said, "if you can help us provide a program that helps these mothers find a safe, secure place to live."
It was a win-win situation: she got women and children off the street and helped train them, the businesses found a new supply of workers by allowing their employees to volunteer time to build a homeless shelter.

The churches are the eyes and ears of the community, sensitive to the needs of the persons who live there. Businesses can provide the muscle that builds the programs to meet those needs. When Jesus said, "Feed my sheep," his directive was not to churches or to businesses, but to people.

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