Dear editor:
I will no doubt be reprimanded for writing this. It might even cost me a dear friendship. But, I am tired of seeing Dad’s Place and Pastor Chris continuously beat on, even almost demonized.
I’ve known Chris very well for almost a decade. We’ve met weekly for over 8 years. He is a humble man who just wants to do ministry to the lost and hurting. He doesn’t believe in speaking in his defense.
While the city cranks out press release after press release, Chris just tucks his head down and keeps right on doing what God has called him to do. I admire that humility immensely. And to date, I’ve honored his request to not speakout. As well as his attorneys demands to not post anything.
It is, however, not how I am wired. I am a Mennonite pastor and as such should be the “quiet in the Land” but I failed that class in seminary. I am wired to defend the weak or the ganged up on. I am wired to speak for those without a voice.
I have been doing that for more than 40 years and I am apparently unable to quit now. People, and I mostly mean friends, frequently ask me why the church doesn’t just fix the issues or quit allowing people to sleep there.
Why is the church breaking the law? Aren’t we supposed to obey the governing authorities? I don’t have the space to fully answer that theological question except to say that we are to obey civil authority unless it conflicts with God’s moral law.
Housing the homeless is certainly shown in scripture time and time again as the responsibility of Believers. Christ even used it as sort of a litmus test of who is a true believer and who is a “goat”. Let me state this publicly and in bold letters: The real issue is not their safety, it’s their presence.
The powers-that-be don’t want the homeless in our newly rejuvenated downtown nor do they want churches taking up retail spaces downtown either.
And I understand and even agree. As a former retail executive, I want every storefront filled with another store that will help attract customers to our location. And I certainly don’t want a bunch of derelicts hanging around, making things look bad and frightening off my customers.
(Please forgive the word “derelicts” but that is what too many people think of the homeless. They would be better served to think of them as the broken, as the ones with few good life choices, as the ones without a voice, the ones who have been disenfranchised by society. And, truthfully, they do not look different from most of us on our day off.)
In full disclosure, I am the founder and Executive Director of the Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and have more experience with the homeless in Williams County than anyone else.
Also, I helped Pastor Chris Avell and his wife, Lisa, start Dad’s Place and served on staff for several years before retiring 3 years ago. I still volunteer there on a regular basis. So, it would be fair to say I am somewhat prejudiced on their behalf.
That said, I have enough sense to appreciate both sides of this issue. The city has a right and obligation to have safety measures in place to protect people. However, conversely, the church has a right and obligation to act on Scriptural mandates. This is truly a matter of church-vs-state.
The city claims and courts have agreed that this particular church is overstepping its boundaries by creating an unsafe place for those to whom it is ministering. I can say with all honesty, if that were true, I would be the first to attempt to rescue those people in such grave and immediate danger.
I have spent over 30+ years caring for the homeless in our area and caring for their needs is a central core to how I live and express my faith. What I do know is that their safety isn’t the issue. I’ll say it again “The real issue is not their safety, it’s their presence.”
Two years ago, I dealt with the Mayor about police help for the Sanctuary Homeless Shelter which she now speaks so highly of but for which then she was withholding police help hoping it would force us to close.
She didn’t want “her police force” being used to evict guests at the shelter who violated the rules and caused physical safety concerns to the directors.
Fortunately, Sheriff Kochert stepped up and guaranteed his deputies would be there to maintain safety for our staff. I also sat in on the zoning meeting a couple of years ago where The Hub Church and Dad’s Place were told to leave downtown.
As it turns out, I believe the city acted illegally by using zoning regulations to move out the Hub and Dad’s Place but no one seemed to know that then. A federal law had been passed in 1999 that prohibits city zoning regulations being used to close or prevent a church.
When the city first came against Dad’s Place, you may recall they had 18 zoning violations that, once charged, were suddenly withdrawn. It wasn’t the city’s goodwill, it was the attorneys pointing out the 1999 law called RELUPA which made it illegal to zone churches out.
Did you know that the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) attorneys prepared to defend Dad’s Place? Yes, that’s the United States HUD attorneys prepared to fight the City of Bryan on behalf of Dad’s Place Church for its illegal use of zoning codes.
So, Bryan, taking a lesson from other cities, decided to use fire codes to close down Dad’s Place. In just one year, the fire chief visited Dad’s Place something near 18 times.
And the church fixed every violation…get that, every one! In spite of how it appears in the press, the church fixed every “violation” within days except for installing a sprinkler system. You know the expression “somebody keeps moving my goalposts”?
Well, that is what has occurred here between the fire chief and the church. Often the issues were fixed while the chief was still in the building like a propane tank sitting inside.
I moved it inside because the last one was stolen sitting outside. I never thought about a safety issue with it. My bad. The tank was removed immediately but it seems to have a life of its own in the court proceedings.
Same goes when the chief cited the church for not having a stove hood above the stove. The chief told the church what model to purchase and it did.
Then he came back and said they’d gotten the wrong one which he admitted was because of his error. Then said we didn’t have a building permit to install the hood.
A building permit is needed to install a hood above a stove? The hood required nothing but hanging it on two screws and plugging it in just like one would do with a clock or a lighted wreath. A building permit, get real!
Nothing in what the church was doing changed from visit one until the last visit but each time, the chief found new items to write up but didn’t include the need for a sprinkler system.
For instance, the gas dryer in the basement that had a gas leak wasn’t properly installed. A major plumbing company in town might seriously disagree with that since they installed it at my personal expense.
And it did have a small leak. It no doubt occurred when the dryer was moved away from the wall for the chief to check it. That, or the plumber missed it. But it was so small, the chief had to put his detector practically on top of the valve to find the leak.
That’s the leak that made everyone panic about the safety of the people and the building blowing up. I don’t want to make light of it but your dryer at home might have such a leak as well. You might want to check it. Maybe the fire department would come look for you?
No mention of a sprinkler system was ever noted in any of these dozen and a half or so reports. As a matter of record, the report just before the sprinkler system was added reported no violations!
Like magic, no sprinklers to “must have sprinklers” in the blink of an eye. Talk about moving goal posts…or harassment to call it by its true name!
Did I remember to say that the church was given seven days to fix the sprinkler system issue before fines would be levied?
Yep, seven whole days to find an architect, have him draw plans for the state to approve, get the city to run a dedicated water line under the alley from the main and to get a contractor to install all this. No sweat. And just a modest investment of about $100,000.00 in a building the church doesn’t own.
Also, apparently the city admitted to a Bryan Times editor, as I understand it, that if the sprinkler system is installed, it won’t make things OK.
The city will continue to find things wrong in its effort to get rid of the church–oops, I meant in its effort to insure the safety of the people who will, no doubt, no longer be sleeping there.
Then, there is the obvious question: why is the building safer when 75-90 worshippers come on Sunday morning for breakfast and lunch? Or when 10-25 people come to the dozen or so Bible studies and discipleship classes held throughout the week?
I want to be fair here. It is easy to demonize our Mayor but that is going too far. As of this writing, she has not asked the police to remove every one at night. She sees the same issue.
There is nowhere to put these folks that won’t have them on the streets or on the city benches freezing to death. Being inside a warm “unsafe” building is better than being out in the “safe” outside in the cold below freezing temperatures.
If there was an easy or even an obvious answer, I’m sure we would have resolved all this months ago. Let me conclude with my most personal pique. Why are the other churches in the county not stepping up to help?
No pastor has made a serious offer to help house some of the homeless. They all seem to have excuses. “I’d do it but my board won’t go along with it.” I’d do it but I don’t have anyone who would help with them.” “I’d help but our women are afraid of the homeless.”
None of that surprises me but I just wonder what we as pastors are teaching. Are we teaching our people to ignore the needy? To send a check but not get involved in the issues that surround us? To not get our hands dirty?
To just think theoretically about the “least of these” rather than practically? Maybe they left out the Epistle of James. Let’s face it, most churches have a lot of unused space.
Couldn’t some of it be used for ministry to those who could freeze to death tonight if the city decides to remove everybody at Dad’s?
Currently, in Williams County, there is only one answer to the true safety of these people at this time and that is Dad’s Place, the only church that opened its doors to them and opened itself up to a year of attacks for doing the work of ministry the Bible calls all Believers to do.
Rev. Mike Kelly
