EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2021 I began a new venture writing a newspaper column titled "Finding Faith" for the Forum Communications Co. network of newspapers and websites. I was asked to contribute to the company's ongoing conversation about faith, lending a Lutheran and fairly ecumenical approach to the discussion. The column was published in several of the company's papers and websites, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. This column originally appeared as a "Finding Faith" column on Aug. 16, 2024.
By The Rev. Devlyn Brooks
Don’t tell me that kindness and mercy don’t win the day.
This past Monday I started a new journey as the interim CEO of Churches United, a non-profit that operates emergency shelters, a food pantry and permanent supportive housing complexes that serve the Fargo-Moorhead metro area.
It is a large agency that employs more than 50 people and serves hundreds of guests at its housing facilities as well as more than 7,000 individuals at its food pantry each month.
And the first official act I took as the leader was to send an email to our entire team, telling them that I didn’t know if we were going to make payroll two days later. It was a sobering and disquieting experience.
That afternoon our leadership team took our plight to the community, laying out the case that our organization could collapse if we didn’t get immediate support. We were honest. The ask was big: Could the community please help us raise $200,000 to keep our doors open this month?
And 48 hours later, we not only met our initial goal, which meant that we could assure our staff they were taken care of for August, but we had surpassed it by at least a third. It’s now likely we’ll have the funds we need to operate through September, giving us a fighting chance to figure out a long-term plan to keep our operation sustainable.
Did you catch that? … The community, and surrounding region, raised more than $300,000 to support Churches United, both its employees and the people we serve, in less than three days’ time!
Don’t tell me that we are a divided America. Don’t tell me that our ideological differences are too great to overcome.
Because when it comes right down to it, people care. They care that their neighbors have proper shelter; they care that their neighbors have food to eat; they care that there is a solid plan to move families from emergency shelters to supportive, transitional housing.
People care, and we need to stop telling ourselves they don’t.
Do we still have a lot of work ahead of us to figure out how to sustainably fund our operation? Most certainly. A challenge we will continue to face into the future. Just as all nonprofits do.
But for this one week, our team can take to heart that we have a kind and compassionate community that is supportive of our work. And for today, that is enough to fill this pastor’s heart with joy.
As for tomorrow, well, Matthew 6:34 comes to mind: “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” … Amen.
Devlyn Brooks is the interim CEO of Churches United in Moorhead, Minn., and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.
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