 Room for Everyone—from
Chattanooga to Centralia!
I spent two years in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Those months changed my life
forever. Never would I see my world through the same eyes. Never would I view
ministry the same way. Never would I think of the gospel in the same light.
I learned more than I will ever be capable of explaining, the most important
being that ministry is not confined to Sunday mornings. It is all-inclusive; a
minister lives, breathes, thinks, dreams, and walks his or her ministry every
moment of every day. Ministry happens at a third grader’s basketball game or a
fifth grader’s recorder recital. It can even happen in a pancake house at two
o’clock in the morning.
Being a minister in Chattanooga helped me see that ministry does not fit into a
neat package tied with a pretty bow. Each day I realized more and more that the
ministry of and for Jesus Christ was never meant to be neat and tidy. The heart
of the ministry of Jesus is the people. In order to be with the people, you have
to be willing to get your hands dirty. You have to be willing to become deeply
involved in the lives of the people you serve.
My time in Chattanooga taught me that walking the path of the disciple requires
more than Sunday. Adding Wednesdays is not enough. My mentors taught me that to
carry out the true calling of being a disciple means providing ministry in any
form necessary, at any time it is needed. Sometimes it requires you to be a
tutor, a mentor, a leader of family devotions, a taxi driver, or a cook for the
hungry. I learned that preaching is not the most important aspect of a
minister’s job description. My eyes were opened to the vast possibilities
inherent in true Christ-centered ministry. Working in Chattanooga showed me the
kind of ministry that meets and accepts people where they are, and gives people
what they need rather than what we want them to have.
Pastoring the church in Chattanooga was different from any other experience in
my life. The congregation there taught me more than I will ever believe I taught
them. They taught me about acceptance, love, kindness, perseverance, dedication,
and hope. Together we laughed and cried—times of pain and joy. There were even
moments when we grew tired of one another. Yet the message of the Chattanooga
Urban Ministries Center always shone through: All are welcome and there is a
place for everyone.
In January 2006 I moved back to my hometown in southern Illinois. I was
convinced that moving back would be the death of me spiritually. The place I
remembered from my adolescence did not have a place for the type of ministry to
which I had grown accustomed. I was afraid there would not be a place for me in
the congregation in which I’d grown up. Never doubting God’s plan for my life
was my final lesson from Chattanooga.
When I arrived in Centralia, Illinois, my former congregation was in need of a
pastor. I was a pastor in need of a congregation, so it seemed a perfect fit. I
quickly discovered the town was desperately in need of the kind of ministry I
had learned in Chattanooga. Centralia had changed dramatically in the six years
I was gone. Homelessness, severe drug addiction, child abuse, children parenting
their parents, and young people full of nothing but hopelessness greeted me. The
town was crying out in desperation for something to change.
The teenagers and adults were in need of a place that would help them understand
their own worth. I found myself using every lesson and remembering every
experience in Chattanooga to begin a ministry in Centralia. Only two teenagers
attended the Centralia congregation a year ago. We now average twenty young
people at Friday-night teen church. Regardless of their other possible choices
on Friday nights, the teens come to a place where they know they are loved. That
is what it really boils down to—love.
What I learned in Chattanooga was how to
love without limits. And now in Centralia, love is how we reach out to our
community. The teenagers who come on Fridays, Wednesdays, and Sundays are not
just warm bodies in seats; they are the reason we minister. They are our first
thought in the morning and our last thought before falling asleep. They are the
breaths we take and the reason we continue to take steps forward.
Everything I learned in Chattanooga is applicable to my ministry in Centralia.
The location is different. The people are different. But somehow, it is all the
same. People are desperate to know the story of Jesus. They are dying to hear
the story of a God who loves them so much it doesn’t matter where they are or
what they have done—God is always waiting for them. In Chattanooga I learned the
value of sharing the good news with the brokenhearted and downtrodden. In
Centralia I continue to live out the calling to be a disciple of Jesus by
sharing the hope and love that is the story of Jesus Christ.
Three years ago I did not know what I was getting myself into when I moved to
Chattanooga. I wasn’t aware that the heart of ministry was so simple. Every
thought and every action has to be about your ministry. It is all clear to me
now. Ministry is not about the most beautiful devotional setting. It is not
about saying the right prayers at the right time or getting a church full of
people on Sunday morning. Ministry is about love.
Whether I am in Chattanooga or Centralia, love, acceptance, and meeting the
basic needs of people are the heart of my ministry. Sharing the story of a
Christ who died for each person and a God who loves everyone regardless of where
they are in life is essential whether you are in the inner city, a suburb, or a
rural town. Being a pastor in Chattanooga taught me how to be an effective
minister, and Centralia gave me a place to live out my calling.
—Faith Johnson, pastor
Centralia, Illinois
| 
