The ministry of car repair

Churches tackle unemployment, childcare access and family poverty

An offering of the Forum for Congregational Life

The Garage at Living Faith Church in Fombell, Pennsylvania

The Garage was initially started by Living Faith Church as a way to connect to their rural community in practical ways. They identified an unmet need for help with transportation and when one or two congregants mentioned they had car repair skills, the ministry offering affordable car repair was born. What started as just servicing a few cars a year has grown to 300 to 400 this year.

“I’ve noticed that a lot of the people that come in, they’re not believers,” says Scott McKay, a volunteer. “And by us being there and just talking to them and fixing their cars, they can look at us and go, ‘Well, maybe there's something else going on there.’”

In the past six months, they have baptized five people who connected to the church through The Garage, but that was not the primary goal. “All we're trying to do is help people love God genuinely and love others practically,” says Mark Sentell, the executive director of The Garage at Living Faith. “God has shown us grace, he’s given us gifts that we didn’t necessarily even deserve or even ask for, but he gave them to us anyway and we’re just trying to model that out of gratitude.”

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Northwest Indiana Business Magazine: By turning their church building into a central resource center, Flourish Church in Gary, Indiana, has successfully brought together multiple organizations to tackle systemic issues such as local unemployment and social isolation.

After 1,700 Sundays preaching outside and under bridges, a Central Texas pastor retires

The Texas Tribune: Urban minister Jimmy Dorrell bade farewell to his outdoor Waco congregation after baptizing a dozen people in the chilly waters of the Middle Bosque River.

With study, care and patience, a church makes a long-term commitment to help one family at a time

Faith & Leadership: Partnered with other faith communities in their city, a small Virginia congregation has spent decades investing in families for the long haul.

PC(USA) church in Georgia offers free housing to two of its preschool teachers

Presbyterian News Service: Groundspring, an initiative of First Presbyterian Church of LaGrange, is the second program nationwide to provide a free housing benefit for its teachers. The program aims to be a first step in addressing critical childcare issues.

‘Merging ministry and medicine’ in a rural Black church

The Daily Yonder: Through the efforts of church leaders committed to strengthening the health of their communities, New Hope Fellowship is a beacon of healthcare information in rural Virginia.

Headlines are written by the source publication.

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“In rural ministry, things don’t necessarily grow as fast. This feels very different than holding a big event and hoping people will come. ... Every six months we’ll see them for an oil change and can have the next conversation and to follow up. I like the speed of investing in something over time.”

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- Mark Sentell

Executive Director, The Garage at Living Faith