Vince McFarland understood what the mayor envisioned.
Several years before, McFarland and a group of local clergy tried to organize an alliance of the more than 200 churches and places of religious worship in Terre Haute. That effort failed.
Now, they were being asked to try again. Then-mayor Kevin Burke invited an assortment of ministers to meet at the Vigo County Public Library. Burke thought by joining together, the churches could enhance their community outreach — a strength-in-numbers concept. Collectively, they could better respond to the needy, disasters and emergencies, in addition to their spiritual mission.
“He challenged the pastors in Terre Haute to basically rally and unify, and start working together, and not each on their own course,” McFarland recalled of that meeting a few years ago.
Burke also saw an opportunity to build camaraderie in the ministers’ ranks, rather than competition. “I felt like they needed to feel more confident, and like they’ve got more comrades in arms,” the former mayor remembered last week.
Walking out of the library after the meeting, McFarland — senior pastor at Maryland Community Church for the past 23 years — polled his colleagues. “I looked at those guys and said, ‘I know we tried to do that several years ago, and it didn’t work. But would you be willing to sit down and rehash this?”
They agreed. Today, Terre Haute Ministries is more than a year old, with more than 40 member churches from numerous denominations. Last Monday, Ike Randolph — director of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives — met with some participating ministers. Their association’s growth and activities impressed Randolph.
“I think they’ve figured out the whole dynamic of the faith-based community working together,” Randolph said.
That enlightenment came at a disastrous moment. Just as Terre Haute Ministries was organizing, the flood of June 2008 hit. The newly bound churches wound up assisting civic emergency-response agencies as rising waters destroyed homes and businesses, and left hundreds of people without a place to live, food and transportation.
A team of churches, with all of their helping hands and resources, clearly was needed.
“The heart of it was there” for years, said the Rev. Honnalora Hubbard, director of Terre Haute Ministries. “The pastors wanted it. But what really launched Terre Haute Ministries was the disaster recovery.”
Randolph sensed that, too. “From that flood, they’ve learned how to trust each other, to share resources with each other,” he said.
The flood is a painful memory for many in the Wabash Valley. Hubbard understands. She lost her home, too. But there’s a spark in Hubbard’s voice when she speaks about the community’s reaction to that destructive event.
“People say that disasters are an ‘act of God,’” she said, “but what I’ve learned is, the way we respond to disasters is an act of God.”
As a result, the coalition of churches now helps the Vigo County Emergency Management Agency train disaster-response volunteers. Among other efforts, about half of the member churches participate in Charity Tracker. Using an online software package, Terre Haute Ministries can refer the needy to churches offering resources matching their specific need. Lifeline — a 24-hour crisis hotline — refers callers to its 211 number to a church. The Charity Tracker helps the Ministries document those requests, and connect people with needs such as groceries, gas cards, home assistance and family counseling. (It also prevents abuse of the individual churches’ generosity, such as someone calling six different churches to ask for the same commodity.)
The Ministries churches have less unnecessary duplication of their efforts. “Each church wouldn’t have to have a food pantry and six other things that they do,” McFarland said. “They could just contribute one thing to the pot.” Rather than maintaining a food pantry, Maryland instead provides as many $25 gas cards and emergency bus tickets as it can afford each month.
The idea of churches assisting their community’s hungry, homeless and despondent is not revolutionary. Before the Depression of the 1930s spawned government relief programs, “the faith community was doing the work,” Randolph said.
“Churches have always been there to help,” McFarland said. “So this isn’t anything new. But it’s expanded.”
And timely. The recession and the unemployment problem lingering in its aftermath have increased the number of people seeking help from churches. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported last month that 49 million Americans — more than 16 percent of the population — lacked reliable access to adequate food in 2008, an increase of 13 million people over 2007. Undoubtedly, with unemployment nearly doubled since ’07, that percentage is even higher this year.
An association of churches eases the pressure to respond, somewhat.
“Pastors and ministers sometimes feel isolated, because they have a lot of responsibilities and a lot of people turning to them,” Hubbard said. “It’s been a huge benefit.”
She’s been on the other side of those requests for help. Hubbard grew up humbly in West Terre Haute and said, “I know what it is like to live in the situations [needy people] live in.”
After graduating from West Vigo High School, she earned a bachelor’s degree in sales and marketing from Indiana State University, and a master’s in theology from Trinity College and spent several years traveling the country in a sports ministry. Now 39, Hubbard is focused on helping Terre Haute Ministries grow.
The one-fifth of local churches involved already bolsters the association’s abilities, she said, “but if we had 200, oh my goodness. And that’s what we want to do.” Current Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett, as well as the governor’s office, have discussed local projects involving the Ministries, Hubbard said, adding, “They really want to make some investments in our community.”
Terre Haute Ministries’ assistance following the flood has raised awareness that the city does, indeed, have a faith-based community. In cities such as Indianapolis and Louisville, that presence is apparent, in McFarland’s view. As for Terre Haute, “I think the visibility was kind of poor” in the past, he said. “We haven’t solved it, but I think it’s beginning to turn around.”
Their ability to improve and influence lives inspires Hubbard.
“I know there’s hope, that just because that’s where you started, that’s not where you’re going to end up,” she said.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
Mark Bennett Opinion
Mark Bennett: Rising waters of 2008 produced a flood of enlightenment for Terre Haute Ministries
- Mark Bennett Opinion
-
-
MARK BENNETT: Toxic victories
When the Super Bowl ends tonight in Indianapolis, most of the Giants and Patriots will shake hands, despite their competitive fire, win or lose.
-
MARK BENNETT: Indianapolis will be on display for the nation with the Super Bowl coming to town
Someone immersed in a crash diet to make a smashing impression at a class reunion may get the desired effect.
-
MARK BENNETT: Patiently waiting for Indiana's primary
While standing in a check-in line at Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome a few years ago, I watched an Italian woman walk past dozens of more patient travelers to grab a spot up front.
-
MARK BENNETT: Processing postal change
You probably know one of those 10,026.
-
MARK BENNETT: Multiple choice question: Voters must choose which direction they want the future of education to go
There was a time when few Hoosiers outside of education circles could name the state superintendent of public instruction.
-
MARK BENNETT: With an historic election behind Terre Haute, it’s time to look at the future’s possibilities
Everybody knows their “woulda, coulda, shoulda” moments.
-
MARK BENNETT: Economic forecast: Things looking up but don’t expect ‘much of a dent in unemployment’
Outside the Columbia Club, the atmosphere matched the picture of 2012 painted by a panel of economists for an audience of business people gathered inside that ritzy building on Monument Circle in Indianapolis.
-
MARK BENNETT: Students who reach for a college education too often are buried under a pile of debt
Right now, millions of college graduates are wondering whether their education was worth the effort.
That doubt hurts the country. -
MARK BENNETT: Tangier’s festival volunteers keep past alive for future
Traditions stay alive only as long as the people who hold them dear.
Small towns have that same life expectancy. -
MARK BENNETT: Made in the USA? A political T-shirt faux pas
The most rational statement about a small furor in the U.S. Senate campaign was uttered by a tea party organizer.
-
MARK BENNETT: Daniels goes where a candidate probably won’t in new book
Some things simply won’t get said on the political campaign trail.
-
MARK BENNETT: Time waits for no Manning
Sad, disappointed and uncertain. Colts fans feel all of those.
-
MARK BENNETT: Value of every minute deeply realized on 9/11 (related VIDEO)
Editor’s Note
This summer, the Tribune-Star’s Mark Bennett visited New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., sites where the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now memorialized. He observed the cityscapes and landscapes forever changed by the events of that day and talked with people he encountered there, many of whom witnessed the attacks and their aftermath from close range and had personal ties to its victims. -
MARK BENNETT: As school begins, carve out daily time
By now, most back-to-school checklists are tattered and creased.
-
MARK BENNETT: Movie scene shows Terre Haute accepting Debs' role in its history
You stay classy, Terre Haute.
-
MARK BENNETT: Community outpouring represents collective sympathy for fallen officer
Every Terre Haute resident has probably been asked the same question.
“Why do you live there?” -
MARK BENNETT: Declaration of cursive’s death reminiscent of ’70s metric-conversion mania
When the state of Indiana announced it would no longer require schools to teach cursive handwriting, I was LOL.
-
MARK BENNETT: On Fourth of July, remember, too, those we depend on
A spatula in one hand, a cool beverage in the other, and a stash of bottle rockets in a plastic sack in the garage.
-
MARK BENNETT: Get out and see what the Valley has to offer
Maybe you drive the same route to work every day. Shortest route. Saves time and a few dimes worth of gas.
-
MARK BENNETT: Walking the fine bipartisan line
Lugar’s occasional departures from hard-line conservatism have put his six-term Senate position in jeopardy.
-
MARK BENNETT: Terre Haute man receives kidney from younger brother
The act of giving often triggers an instant calculation of loss.
-
MARK BENNETT: Tornadoes stand as catastrophic mileposts in history
Aforce stronger than mankind rivets the attention of humans. Fear. Awe. Curiosity.
-
MARK BENNETT: A degree can open doors but in this day and age, is it enough?
This month, hundreds of brand-new graduates of the local colleges are staring at that piece of paper and wondering, “Was it all worth it?”
-
MARK BENNETT: Appeasing hard-liners in presidential race could erode Daniels’ budget-minded appeal
Some Hoosiers who voted Mitch Daniels into the Indiana governor’s seat in 2004 may not recognize Mitch Daniels, candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, if he chooses to run.
-
MARK BENNETT: From Mother to Child
My mom remains a sweet, generous, energetic, faithful lady at 87 years old. Raising five children somehow didn’t break her bright spirit or my late father’s endless patience.
-
MARK BENNETT: Hoosier college grads may want to consider teaching jobs elsewhere
Commencement ceremonies at Indiana State University and St. Mary-of-the-Woods College are just six days away.
-
Mark Bennett: Consumers stuck when it comes to dealing with increasing gas prices
Most motorists pulling up to the gas pumps lately can relate to Frank Costanza.
As George Costanza’s volatile father on “Seinfeld,” Frank was told to say, “Serenity now,” whenever he felt his blood pressure rise. Instead, Frank screamed the phrase, defeating the purpose and illustrating his perpetual state of agitation. -
MARK BENNETT: Vigo County struggles with persistent child poverty
The statistics are hard to accept, especially for a community proud of its progress.
The situation those numbers expose is difficult to change. -
MARK BENNETT: Long live ... us
In never-say-die America, life expectancy is longer than ever, according to a report issued this month by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
-
MARK BENNETT: Commission calls for academic success to be tied to NCAA Tournament participation
Follow the money.
That advice from Watergate informant “Deep Throat” led Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward to the truth that uncovered corruption in the nation’s public office. The concept applies to situations beyond the Oval Office, though. - More Mark Bennett Opinion Headlines
-
MARK BENNETT: Toxic victories
Raw Video: Biden Greets Chinese VP for Visit
Authorities: Houston Found Underwater in Tub
Whitney Houston Funeral to Be Invitation Only
Raw Video: Heavy Shelling in Homs, Syria
New Details in Search for Missing Utah Mom
Bacteria Keep Swimmers Off Some Fla. Beaches
Raw Video: 5 People Injured in Bangkok Blasts
Trial Opens for Ala. Man in Bride's Diving Death
Raw Video: Kim Jong Il Statue Unveiled
Baltimore's 'Crime Stopper' Is a Basketball Star
Raw Video: Hearse Arrives at N.J. Funeral Home
Raw Video: Houston Body Flown From L.A. to N.J.
Arm Wrestler Not Guilty Plea in Wife's Death
Raw Video: Protesters, Security Clash in Bahrain
Obama: Good US-China Ties Help the Whole World
First Person: Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
School Pays Students to Attend Class
And the Winner for Best Super Bowl Ad Is...
Obama's New Budget: The Winners and Losers
Raw Video: Whitney Houston's Last Performance
Kim K. Wet, Wild and Natural
Ultimate Tazer Ball is a Shocking New Sport
Shakira Attacked By Sea Lion
Modern day treasure hunter searching for $3 billion prize
What Happened Inside Whitney's Hotel Room?
Saying 'I Love You' With a Sewage Plant Tour
VS Models Wow for V-Day
Olympic Swimmer Proposes on Podium After Big Win
Kate Upton MLB 2K12 Commercial
Watch: Whitney Houston's Golden Hearse
Scarlett Johansson's Bikini P-D-A
Man Allegedly Drowns Wife While Scuba Diving
Glee Pays Tribute to Whitney
Wash. becomes 7th state to okay same-sex marriage
Romijn's 60 Pound Weight Loss
The 'Celebrity Apprentice' Cast Meets Donald Trump
Kissing contest heats up
Hugh Hefner's Son Arrested
Jacqueline Kennedy's personal papers released
Did Tyler Perry Have a Secret Wedding?
