Missional Church Learning Experience prompts neighborhood clean-up

Members of the community joined members of Emerson Avenue Baptist Church in cleaning an Indianapolis neighborhood.

Christmas lights aren’t the only sparkling part of one Indianapolis neighborhood this holiday season. Residents and visitors alike will relish looking upon streets, a public park and other outdoor spaces that are newly clean, thanks to that neighborhood’s Emerson Avenue Baptist Church and its participation in the Missional Church Learning Experience (MCLE) of American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS).

Through the MCLE, the church developed the “Sharing in Community: Neighborhood Clean-Up,” which was accomplished by approximately 75 individuals, ranging in age from early teens to 80-something, on a rainy Saturday morning in October 2010. Volunteers disposed of such trash as tires, furniture, beer bottles and soda cans; pulled 2- to 3-foot-high weeds; and cleared tree limbs and other natural debris from streets, alleys, gutters, sidewalks, a yard and Kin Hubbard Memorial Park, all within a 3-mile radius of Ralph Waldo Emerson [Indianapolis Public elementary] School No. 58. Others served as greeters and prepared lunch, donated by the church and local merchants for the clean-up crew.

Via meetings, fliers, telephone, e-mail and a free ad in the newspaper, the church invited the community to join the clean-up. Partners included Howe High School football and soccer players, coaches, and cheerleaders; Bosart/Brown Neighborhood Association members; Marion County community service workers; and the Keep Indianapolis Beautiful organization.

To participate in the MCLE, a church must establish a team of at least five members that meets with six to 12 other churches from the same region. This learning community assembles four times to share missional ideas and participate in a process that fosters the creation and implementation of each church’s community project.

“A missional church looks outside its walls to see how it can make the community a better place,” says the Rev. Glynis LaBarre, ABHMS’ transformation strategist, who leads the regional sessions.

Emerson Avenue Baptist Church’s team crafted a community-needs questionnaire and solicited opinions by canvassing the neighborhood, approaching customers at a local McDonald’s restaurant, and asking clients of the church’s food pantry.

“We’ve tried over the last couple of years to be community-focused and community-minded, and this [the MCLE] was just a great opportunity for us to gain more knowledge on how to do that,” says Lori Chapman, administrator of Emerson Avenue Baptist Church, where she is also a member of the congregation and the MCLE team. “We were surprised that we got more response on wanting to do neighborhood clean-up. We thought it would be more helping the homeless because there are a lot of lower-income families in this neighborhood.”

As if the gift of clean surroundings weren’t enough, church members and other neighbors have also been blessed with strengthened community connections and new friendships. “We had folks who went knocking on doors, and people just opened their homes to us and asked us to come in,” Chapman says. “They were just grateful that we wanted to talk with them.”

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