Conflicting Priorities

When I was a Student Pastor Intern at Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas there was a problem the church continuously faced, campers. No, this isn't people parking huge RV's on the street and in the parking lot, it wasn't even the circus of film crews and star trailers all around a citywide movie set. It's homeless people camping on the church grounds.

I find two edges to this sword.

The First: Three of the six Great Ends of the Church are "the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the people of God," "the promotion of social righteousness" and, "the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world." Alone and in combination, this tells us that caring weak and deposed in this society (including the homeless) is a work the Church (capital "C" the church universal as well as individual congregations).

The Second: At Central, they eventually had to post "No Trespassing" signs because of the damage left by the campers. Everyday the Sexton (Custodian) had to pick up the trash from the night before. He even had to rake the playground to remove the human feces from the sand. Another problem beyond this is that the church was broken into several times by the campers and others who would target the church. The church secretary and I figured the church spent well over $50,000 per year (in 2003) to clean up and repair the damage.

The Crux of the Matter: There are campers at First Presbyterian Church in Marshall. With these campers is a trail of trash and laundry that looks awful. We haven't found human feces on site, nor have we had a robbery. Not yet.

So, I don't want people rousted and taken to jail, but I surely don't want people camping on the grounds of the church.

There are more places and better care for people in Marshall than the grounds of the church. Several of these services are supported by the tithes and offerings of the First Presbyterian Church.

So that's my conundrum, not care but the shape of care. We want people to take advantage of what the church helps support without inviting people to use the grounds like a personal KOA. It's the fine lines between being faithful people to the needy, faithful stewards of the gifts of God, and not being hardened to the needs of the needy.

Can you help?