Heroes Among Us: Lighthouse, Inc. --  www.urbanlighthouse.org Collaborative -- Incarnational -- Transformative July 23, 2010

Phil Batten’s story spans over 30 years and started when the church that he pastored began to bus kids from several communities to services on Sunday morning. After several years of growth, the church decided they could better serve the needs of the community by planting community churches. This worked for three of the bus routes, but left one without a church. The church decided to adapt to the situation by converting a bus to a mobile Church. The first Saturday the kids on the bus route came with over 440 of their friends. 30 years later Heaventrain has been sharing life with the kids and families of Cleveland’s Central projects. In that time the ministry has become part of the community fabric, and generations of Cleveland’s kids have called Heaventrain their church home. Barriers of race, economics, denomination, and geographic origin have been bridged by this simple outreach strategy. Seven years ago Phil was battling illness and needed to apply for disability. Phil needed to go one year without working to claim the disability he needed, but going without his income for a year was impossible. The challenge of finding a replacement was answered when his son Andy and his wife Kristen decided to move back to Ohio. Andy accepted the temporary assignment, often working two or three jobs to make ends meet. The temporary assignment turned into a permanent position, and now Andy leads Lighthouse, Inc., (which includes Heaventrain but spans a multitude of ministry areas) as executive director. In a phone conversation, Andy was exuberant over the growth that Lighthouse, Inc. is undergoing. “We’re moving from outcomes to impact,” Andy explained. “We’ve been approached by partners from all over the city of Cleveland because of the changing economic climate in the community. We’ve been in our community for 30 years, long enough to build relationships with 4 generations. We are connected with kids from all 5 of the neighborhood gangs that attend East Tech high school. We are in a position to reach kids that others have given up on, and the pay-off is visible. We’re not just handing out food, we’re working to raise a generation of leaders in the community.” Andy gave an example of how the organization empowers the residents in the community to take ownership of the ministry. Home Cooking is the Lighthouse, Inc. way of doing Thanksgiving dinner. “People were tired of going to a kitchen and having Thanksgiving dinner handed to them in styrofoam containers by ‘rich’ families. So we found a bunch of grandmas who said, ‘If you give me the ingredients, I can make food for all the people in my neighborhood.’ We gave them the raw materials, and they started organizing community dinners for hundreds of people. Now 6500 people are getting fed at 35 locations in central Cleveland, and we’re not running any of it. The coolest part was how students and teachers at East Tech decided to fix dinners for their fellow students as well as the local middle and elementary school. The students fed 1600 of their peers and little brothers and sisters, sharing the Thanksgiving spirit and learning how to cook in one project.” As far as transformation, Andy said that there are two or three key youth leaders in the city of Cleveland whose first contact with Jesus was with Heaventrain years ago. “We worked with them years ago, others continued the effort in High School and on to college, and now they’re returning to Cleveland to help reach the kids in the city. If things go according to plan, we will soon have 3 former Heaventrain kids on staff to help lead the organization into the future.” Work & Witness trips at Lighthouse, Inc. don’t exactly look ‘normal’. They run a program called Reality Check, where kids have the realities of urban poverty unpacked for them over a week’s time. “It’s part Work & Witness, part poverty simulation, part reality TV show,” Andy explained. “The kids get cranky when they aren’t able to shower or eat like they expected, and the cross-cultural encounters we build in to the program can be scary. The reward is when they are able to meet inner-city youth with understanding, and begin seeing them as friends and allies rather than charity cases. We have seen hundreds of kids accept calls into ministry and have their world view changed by these weekend or week long trips.” It’s a promising year ahead for the Lighthouse team. They’ve grown from a staff of 2 to 6 in the past year and will be growing again this fall. Andy says each one is effective because each one has something unique to contribute, “I didn’t grow up in the church, I grew up with a father who rode buses into the projects of Cleveland to fellowship, preach, and feed the people there. I don’t think about things normally; there is always a creative way to get something done,” Andy said. “There were many saints that poured into my life that were homeless, addicts, mental health patients, gang bangers, and prostitutes that came to know Jesus. They loved me for who I was and allowed me to see a world where everyone has something to contribute to God’s Kingdom. As a dyslexic ADHD student I needed to know that. If he can use me, he can use anyone...” Lighthouse, Inc. has operated without a building for 30 years, but last year they moved into a 2600 sq. ft downtown office. Andy was grateful for the new space. “We should not be able to afford such digs, but God has provided in ways that you would not believe. People always said, ‘You are not legit till you have a building,’ but our youth development program Critical Mass is taking off while many places are hurting for money. As institutions face these uncertain economic times, the cost to repair buildings and pay the mortgage cut into program and staffing budgets. There are organizations that are working with Lighthouse so that together we can get the job done. Public schools, recreation centers, churches, and YMCAs are finding creative ways to work together.” With no overhead costs, Lighthouse has been well positioned to fill holes left in the community by a tough economy. We invest in people, not buildings, and focus on reclaiming children and families, not paying repairs and utilities,” Andy said. “What was once a liability has turned into our greatest asset, and now Jesus is being lifted up all over our neighborhood without us uttering a single word.” Collaborative – Partnering with 28 churches in the Cleveland area – half of them Nazarene; working with East Tech high school, local YMCA, Chik-fil-A. Incarnational – Going out to the projects to preach, fellowship, and feed for 30 years; making friends and allies among those they serve; developing youth by meeting them where they live, in a community with more than it’s fare share of challenges. Transformative – Empowering people to build community and serve each other; recruiting and developing community leaders; enabling Work & Witness teams to understand urban poverty and incarnational ministry. Andy, his wife Kristen, his father Phil, and the rest of the staff and volunteers at Lighthouse, Inc. are Heroes Among Us. If you would like to submit a Compassionate Ministry Center, church, or individual who you think meets the criteria for the Heroes Among Us recognition, please email us at ncmusacan@nazarene.org