Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992 TAG: 9202060472
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
CHILDREN GIVE CHURCH NEW LIFE
"People started saying that Trinity Church was going to close, and I guess that made some of us mad enough to do something about it," says Genie Rees.Rees, a retired legal secretary and member of the Old Southwest Roanoke parish for nearly 45 years, wiped her hands after fixing hot dogs for supper. She, as current head of the church's administrative council, and the Rev. David Tanner, the part-time pastor, went into an adjoining spacious room on the third floor to talk about the church before the Wednesday night kids group brought new life to Trinity.
The hot dogs were for about 50 inner city children who would arrive within the hour for supper, Christian education and recreation. A bus, driven by one of the 20 or so volunteers from Trinity and Greene Memorial United Methodist churches, would make two trips in Old Southwest, West End and Southeast to pick up those who are registered for Trinity's children's club.
The club is popular, so much so that in recent weeks its supporters at the church have had to tighten attendance policies. Having learned the hard way that crowds of children can torment each other and even fight, to say nothing of shocking adults unaccustomed to street talk and raising fears of vandalism, Rees, Tanner and others have had to grow tougher.
Mary Ellen Scott, a 10-year veteran of Greene Memorial's ministry to the inner city needy, is now keeping records on those eligible to attend. Their parents know that the Wednesday evening socials and Sunday morning classes are open to children, 4 through 14, living in Old Southwest, West End and Fallon Park.
They know, too, through home visits of the church volunteers, that children must behave.
The key to this, said Rees, is reduction of the number who have swamped the Trinity program since September. Starting in January, the club's maximum is 50. There is a waiting list.
The 24-passenger bus now brings Southeast children for a session from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and makes a second trip through inner city Southwest neighborhoods for a 6:30 to 8 session.
Having too many children - as many as 70 some nights - was the kind of success Trinity's leaders hardly anticipated when the midweek program was started about two years ago. And despite the recent need for registrations and some rules, volunteers said they are now prepared to cope with these adjustments.
It's part of the new kind of ministry an old city church must undertake if it is to survive, said Tanner, 39. His own role also represents a change from classic Methodism. He works full time as a financial consultant for Charterhouse Group, a semi-secular agency run by several church leaders to help ministerial families.
His assignment to Trinity covers worship leadership and pastoral care for about 80 active members and many more too old to leave their homes. The church pays him for 10 hours of work a week.
Retired men and women such as Rees and young religion professionals such as Scott are the keys to neighborhood ministry in churches like Trinity, once the home of hundreds of old Roanokers and their children. It enters its second century in 1992.
Networking, a social service term applied equally well to churches deeply into people ministries, also is happening at Trinity. When more volunteers were needed to maintain the Old Southwest Wednesday night sessions, downtown's Greene Memorial supplied about 20.
Belmont United Methodist, serving the Southeast neighborhood from which some of Trinity's youngsters come, also is considering sharing in the ministry, Tanner said.
Trinity's children's program was started by the gifts of an adult class and later augmented by about $10,000 from the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. Some of this money, distributed from a conferencewide Revealing Christ drive of four years ago, pays a stipend to Pete Camper, a Presbyterian layman who also works for Charterhouse and supervises the Wednesday night program.
The children's ministry is the second project Trinity's leadership has undertaken for a group without formal connection to the parish over the past decade
The first, the Third Street Coffeehouse, remains a success. Providing a four-hour drinkless, smokeless evening of entertainment for men and women over 18, it is usually filled to the safe capacity of 99 every Friday night, Rees said.
An ecumenical board governs the lounge, which uses rent-free street-level quarters on Trinity's Third Street side. The long-ago atmosphere of a Scout room is preserved. A steady group of regulars and newcomers is there each week to listen to live folk-style music by singers and instrumentalists.
Intended for adults of any age, the coffeehouse has attracted mostly those under 40, though some older people also enjoy its atmosphere, Tanner said.
Trinity is a busier place throughout the week than it was a decade ago, Rees observed. Afternoons, part of the building is used by the Downtown Learning Center for school-age children of Community Hospital's day care facility.
Tanner said the rental of their area represents good use of the building but is not connected with the two direct church ministries on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings for neighborhood children or the Friday night lounge for adults.