MCLE-inspired warming center melts frozen Farmington winters

Clients and volunteers engage in activities at Henderson Memorial Baptist Church’s Warming Center in Farmington, Maine.

With winter temperatures that can dip below zero, it’s difficult to imagine Maine’s senior citizens looking forward to the season. However, throughout the year in Farmington, many seniors and folks with disabilities eagerly await January’s arrival because of the camaraderie, prayer and hot meals provided at a warming center that resulted from Henderson Memorial Baptist Church’s participation in the Missional Church Learning Experience (MCLE) of American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS).

“The Warming Center was wildly successful from the start. A genuine community of guests developed over the first winter,” says the Rev. Dr. Susan Crane, pastor of Henderson Memorial. “Come the Fourth of July, many of the regulars showed up on our church lawn to watch the parade. One after another told me they couldn’t wait for winter to come again.”

When it was invited to participate in MCLE, Henderson Memorial was suffering from poor morale, resulting from an earlier church split. In addition, the aging church was hurting financially. Approximately half of the church’s 96 members were over age 70, and the 1940-built structure was difficult to heat. With heating oil at $4.50 per gallon in 2008, the church could hold services on Sundays only, keeping the thermostat at a meager 56 degrees at all other times.

Yet Henderson Memorial met the challenge of becoming active outside its own walls and, on the day before Pentecost 2008, its team attended the first of four required MCLE meetings with other regional churches. MCLE engages churches in a learning-community process that leads each church to develop and implement a project in its respective community.

When Henderson Memorial asked community service leaders for input on its project, the Franklin County Emergency Management director expressed fear that citizens might freeze in their own homes because they couldn’t afford the high cost of oil heat. While residents could crawl into their own beds at night, a warming center would provide a place for them to stay warm during the day. Henderson Memorial couldn’t finance it alone and enlisted the help of two other churches.

The Warming Center debuted in 2009. It’s open January through March, with the three churches rotating as host. Approximately 40 lunches are served daily and are provided by Seniors Plus, part of the Area Agency on Aging that serves western Maine. Individuals of all ages are welcome.

“People enjoy gathering for conversation before lunch and like to stay to work on puzzles or crafts after lunch,” says Crane. “But, the thing they’re all abuzz about as our third season approaches is that, at the Warming Center, we can pray! And we do pray before the meal; we also read inspirational stories, which often spark pastoral concerns and encourage people to minister to each other.”

In April 2010, Crane presented a warming center workshop at the Maine State Emergency Management Agency’s convention at the Civic Center in Augusta.

A guide to founding and running a warming center is downloadable from the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area’s Web site at www.uwtva.org.

If your church would like to become involved in MCLE, contact the Rev. Glynis LaBarre, ABHMS’ transformation strategist, at glynis.labarre@abhms.org or 800-222-3872, x2412.

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