Wagga Wagga Corps ‘abandons’ the building and hits the streets
BY LAUREN MARTIN
A Facebook post has been doing the rounds – you may have seen it – challenging Christians to ‘leave their church building’ for four Sundays and use the time to bless people in the community.
One Salvation Army corps in south-west NSW has taken up the call.
The post, from @honestlyashleyalford on 18 July, was titled ‘What if for 4 Sundays straight …’ and was shared on Facebook by many Aussie Salvos, including Territorial Commander Commissioner Miriam Gluyas.
When Wagga Wagga Corps Officer Auxiliary-Lieutenant Val Hopewell posted it on the corps’ Facebook page, she was pleasantly surprised at the response. Rather than just being a motivational quote about how the church should be Jesus’ hands and feet in the world, many corps members expressed interest in doing just what it suggested.
So, the corps planned that for every Sunday in the month of August, they would “gather and go” – meeting for just half an hour in the corps building at the regular worship service time to worship, read the word and pray, and then disperse, with different mission groups heading to different areas of the city to bless the community and spread the love of Jesus.
“We have been working on building discipleship skills into our congregation,” she said. “We are being very intentional about saying, ‘we are the church [not a building], so, off we go – let’s walk out the door!”
The corps recently purchased a new food truck branded ‘Salvo eats bringing comfort to the streets’. It forms a big part of the ‘Gather and Go’ Sunday activations. A team of corps members is taking the food truck to different locations throughout the city, starting with a local caravan park where people experiencing homelessness are being given crisis accommodation.
“The need there has exponentially increased,” said Val, explaining the plan for the food truck team to offer a free meal, with opportunities for corps members to chat with people and offer unconditional friendship and love.
“We can’t always expect people to come to us [at church] on Sundays,” she said. “So, we’re going to them.”
For those who aren’t comfortable heading out or who have mobility issues, the corps has also implemented a ‘stay and pray’ option so that the mission teams are covered in prayer during their time in the community.
“Or, we have suggested to people, ‘Why don’t you visit someone who you keep meaning to visit but don’t?’” said Val. “Or, ‘Why don’t you walk the length of your street and pray? Or sit in the foyer of the hospital and pray for the people there? Sit in the shopping centre and pray for retailers or start conversations with lonely people?’”
The opportunities for being church outside the building are endless, and Wagga Wagga Corps is taking up the challenge of engaging with its community in meaningful ways on Sundays.
