Workshop stressed looking at more than needs
PERRYSBURG – How can churches change their outlook to better work with – and get to know – the wide
variety of individuals that populate their congregations’ neighborhoods?
This was the crux of a workshop presented earlier this month at Grace United Methodist Church,
Perrysburg.
The workshop was designed for church staff in the United Methodist Church’s Maumee Watershed District and
was entitled, "Making the Connection: Who Are These People Anyway?"
"What we’re trying to do is to help local congregations connect with their neighborhoods and with
people that they may not normally know how to connect with," explained Rev. Karen Shepler, pastor
of Monroe Street United Methodist Church, Toledo, and one of the workshop’s presenters.
"And basically part of the presentation was around asset-based ministry as opposed to needs-based
ministry," she said, noting that often when looking at their surrounding neighborhoods, churches
tend to see them as a series of people in need, including transients, the poor, and those out of work.

They can instead, she said, look at the neighborhoods as places full of assets – people that have a great
deal to offer in the way of skills and abilities that might not be readily apparent. Someone might be
able to offer babysitting, or have mechanical aptitude with automobiles, or perhaps own a small
business.
When she turned this perspective on the neighborhood of her own parish, Shepler said she discovered
people with construction skills, and even creative writing skills, bringing a whole new light into her
understanding of the community.
"So it’s all about relationships," she said.
It is not enough for churches, she said, to offer a community dinner and hand out informational fliers.
They need to understand what different groups can offer.
"That was a major part of it, looking at the assets of the various communities, the white community,
the black community, the Hispanic-Latino community," trying to make attendees think in a different
way about how to connect with their communities.
Workshop attendee Rev. May Kay, part-time pastor of Malinta Memorial United Methodist Church, which she
said draws between 30 and 35 congregants each week, said "one of the things that I think we all
struggle with is how do we get out into neighborhoods and get to know what the needs are in our
communities."
Kay noted one of the major topics was serving Latino populations in the churches’ communities.
"Certainly there are ways that we can do that," Kay said of incorporating what she learned at
the workshop.
"One of the things I do want to do is get in contact with all of the officials in Malinta, the city
officials and see what they see in their day-to-day job are needs, because they’re in contact with the
people in the community."
"I think that’s our starting point and I think it’s just really a matter of getting outside the
church" and working.
She said a luncheon, and possibly a church service, is currently planned that will be open to all in her
town.
"And hopefully make some connections that way with people."
"I would hope that they left there with a whole new set of, maybe, tools and resources to go back to
their communities" and see them in a new light as assets, Shepler said of the workshop.
"And to be freed up to think creatively of ways to make those connections."