Ministries fill Westminster Presbyterian Church on Thursdays
Paid
as half-time pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in West Central
Spokane, Sandy Brockway runs a full-time ministry.
People in the neighborhood, community and region volunteer to make
possible a full-time outreach ministry in one of the city’s lowest
income neighborhoods.
It’s no small church sitting on a corner waiting for people to discover
it. Instead, Westminster Presbyterian reaches out to discover and
embrace the diversity—in economics, race, culture and ability—of people
living nearby.
Known for deteriorating homes and discouraged lives, West Central also
has some homes worth $300,000, plus there are plans for an upscale
development on the Summit Property along the Spokane River.
Sandy,
born in Idaho and adopted by her Spokane parents, was baptized in her
grandparents’ church in Wilbur. She grew up in Mission Community
Presbyterian Church and was its secretary for 13 years. While
there she helped resettle a Vietnamese refugee family, starting her
interest in outreach.
Later, she became Christian education director for the Larger Urban
Parish—Bethany, Mission, Emmanuel and Westminster Presbyterian
churches, and began training to become a commissioned lay pastor (CLP).
She has been pastor of Westminster Presbyterian for 15 of its 100 years.
The 50-member congregation was ready to close when she started.
Now an average of 60 attend worship, and the average age of worshipers
has dropped from 70 to 60.
The mission-funded church has become a center of outreach for the
Presbytery of the Inland Northwest and Whitworth College through such
neighborhood ministries as its Westminster Food Bank, Christ Clinic,
Christ Kitchen, Westminster House, Homework Helpers, Boy Scout Troop 1,
Cub Scout Pack 1, Washington State University cooking classes and
Native American worship services.
Sandy said she stays in ministry because she sees people in need
ignored and she likes to listen to people with physical, mental,
emotional and other disabilities.
“I
seek to be a presence in their lives, providing love for unloved people
in the neighborhood,” she said. “This congregation reaches out to
and draws people who need care and who give care to each other.
“We use our building in stewardship for both people who have needs and
people interested in mission,” she said. “We can’t do all the
outreach by ourselves, so we open it to other people who want to join
us in mission.”
Since 1992, Whitworth College has sent graduates as “missioners” to live in Westminster House at 2612 W. Gardner.
It is a beacon of safety for neighborhood children, a place offering
Bible study and a place where young adults live while engaging in
neighborhood mission, Sandy said.
Several of the more than 40 students who have been there have gone on
into various types of ministry—as pastors, overseas missionaries and
seminary students.
Jake McCoy, Jason Duba and Trace Rippee, the current missioners, help
with the Logos children’s program, Homework Helpers, Boy Scouts,
worship and Bible studies. They provide a safe house for
children, a drop-in center for people needing help, and a retreat
center for churches and for urban plunge experiences for Whitworth
students.
First Presbyterian churches in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, and Whitworth Presbyterian help fund Westminster House.
Ardyce
LaBrie, a church member for more than 40 years, described the
neighborhood, where she has lived for more than 50 years since moving
from South Dakota, when farming hit hard times there.
The area near her home on W. Mission was the suburbs then. When
suburbs moved farther out, the neighborhood began to decline.
Now there is an upturn, as college professors move to the area some call “felony flats.”
Volunteering with PTA, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts during her children’s
growing years, Ardyce saw the good and the bad—families breaking up and
people struggling. Her family often ate hamburger and macaroni,
because her husband’s wages with General Mills and then Western Farmers
were low.
Across the street from the church is a drug house. Many houses
need repairs. Many are rentals. Families who cannot escape
poverty move from eviction to eviction in a circle from West Central to
East Central to Hillyard and back, Ardyce said, creating a 75 percent
turnover rate from September to June at Holmes Elementary School.
Some are third or fourth generations on welfare, with 15 years between generations, she said.
One boy in the Logos program had been in three schools during September and October 2004.
“The high school dropout rate is high. Many children have learning disabilities and special education needs,” she said.
Ardyce sees the positive, too.
Some new residents are moving in and fixing up homes.
To help the children improve their learning skills, the Westminster
House missioners tutor first to fourth graders Tuesday and Thursday
afternoons in the Homework Helpers program coordinated by Doris
Liebert, a retired professor at Whitworth.
Her husband, Don, a sociologist, drives the Whitworth Presbyterian bus
to pick up children for the Logos program after school on
Wednesdays.
More than 40 youth come at 5 p.m., for a program that includes dinner,
music, recreation, a scripture lesson, small groups and prayer.
They go home at 6:30 p.m.
Ardyce and Sandy described other ministries:
• Members started Westminster Food Bank in 1972. It was the first food bank in Spokane.
• They helped start COPS West, the neighborhood police station to fight crime.
• The congregation joined other churches in the neighborhood to
establish and run Our Place, a cooperative outreach at 1509 W. College,
to meet emergency needs of neighborhood people.
•
Christ Clinic reaches people with medical and spiritual needs. Patients
have no health insurance or use medical coupons. They pay based
on ability to pay. Individuals, churches and grants support the
clinic, where volunteer doctors pray with patients who are willing, as
part of their care.
• Christ Kitchen grew out of seeing a need for women to work and
gain skills, so they could escape addictions, poverty and abuse. About
40 women come two days a week to package dry foods and study the
Bible. They earn minimum wage to package products. Many have
found Christ and changed their lives, said founder Jan Martinez.
•
Westminster was one of six Presbyterian churches that built a Habitat
for Humanity house nearby in 2002. The owner participates in
Christ Kitchen and other church activities.
• An urban ministry with Nez Perce and other Native Americans provides
Sunday evening services and a Bible study at Westminster House.
On Bloomsday Saturday and Sunday, there is an encampment and powwow on
the church grounds, when it is inaccessible because of the Bloomsday
Race.
•
One church member, Karen Baker, keeps the congregation informed about
public policy issues related to poverty, disabled people and other
issues of concern to the lives of people in the congregation.
Often she goes to Olympia to speak to legislators. Recently, she
went to Washington, D.C., to advocate for rights of handicapped
people—so money for their care will follow them from a nursing home to
assisted living.
“Everyone helps,” Sandy said. “No one does the work alone. This is a mission church in a mission field.”
Presbytery mission funds help keep the doors open, so the church can
serve people from halfway houses and group homes, people on medical
disability, average people, working people and retired
people—neighborhood people who walk to church.
Sandy and her husband, Doug, have a son who is disabled, which she said
helps her be accepting and understanding of people many churches reject
or ignore.
She said the “beat-up, worn-out building is not a shrine. There’s
not a piece of wood without nicks or need of varnish. The
building is used.”
To assist with building maintenance members are unable to do, Whitworth
Presbyterian has a Multitude for Mission program, bringing volunteers
to do yard work, paint restrooms, clean the kitchen or wash the windows.
About six members of Westminster have attended more than 50 years, said
Ardyce. Some families are third, fourth or fifth generation in
the church.
“People who come here stay,” she said. “Many who attend are not members.”
In worship, Sandy seeks to give hope and share Christ’s example for
living. She uses simple parables that are easily
understood.
People wear what clothes they have. Sandy set aside wearing a
robe. She also stands on the level with the people and uses
everyday language.
Sandy, who earned a degree in education from Eastern Washington
University, also volunteers on Our Place Board, COPS West Board and the
Presbytery Commissioned Lay Pastors Board. She also transports
people.
“The church has a heart for people. Our congregation looks
outward, not inward,” Ardyce said. “We have people with many
needs, and we meet those needs with our love.”
For information, call 328-5002.
Congregation marks 100 years
In a celebration at 7 p.m., Wednesday, May 4, Westminster Presbyterian
Church plans to draw former pastors and members for a time to remember
the church’s 100 years of life and presence in West Central Spokane.
Laura Waite, a Whitworth research intern, compiled the church’s history in the summer of 2004.
The church started on Feb. 5, 1905 when some people gathered for
worship in a rented room on Dean near Chestnut, a room that was once a
butcher shop.
On May 4, 1905, the Presbytery of Spokane established the church as
Fifth Presbyterian Church. It had 37 charter members.
In July, they held services in a tent on land they purchased at Cannon
and Gardner. By December, their 50 members moved into the
basement that was completed for their new building.
In 1920, the name was changed to Westminster Presbyterian.
By 1940, the 100 members were active in the Women’s Guild, Christian
Endeavor and the Missionary Society. The Sunday school had 113
children.
The congregation moved into its new sanctuary at 2705 W. Boone in
December 1959, earlier than planned because of a small fire in the old
building.
It moved because it was becoming an inner-city church and the new
location would be closer to more potential new members. The
education wing was finished within a few years.
By the 1980s, its outreach to the neighborhood was in place with the food bank and a clothing bank.
Laura wrote that from the 1980s to 2004, the church “experienced more
than its share of disappointments, obstacles and hardships,” including
a proposal to close and distribute members into other congregations,
but “the congregation determined to stick it out,” despite a $50,000
unpaid loan, which is has now been paid.
“Sickness of church members and robbery could not shut down this
stalwart, tenacious congregation,” Laura wrote. Many people “have
seen God’s hand at work and testify about answers to prayer” helping
with “seeming insurmountable needs and struggles.
“Reflecting on history provides an opportunity to see how God moves in the lives of people and events of their lives,” she said.
For information, call 328-5002.
By Mary Stamp, Fig Tree editor
- © April 2005