A decade of faith-focused community action in Salem

A decade of faith-focused community action marked

in Salem

    SALEM—In the mid-1990s, state Rep. Peter Courtney pounded the table and asked “Where’s the clergy?” as he was putting together the Gang Intervention Task Force to address growing youth violence in Salem and Marion County.
     In response to that challenge, pastors and civic leaders got together and sought a model for city-building that would reinvigorate a dormant faith community and connect it with a willing public-sector desire for partnership.    After two years of seeking God’s direction, the Salem Leadership Foundation was founded in February 1996.
    “Ten years ago there was a gulf in Salem between the churches and the community at large,” said Sam Skillern, the foundation’s executive director, who joined the organization in October 1996. “Today, we have a seamless relationship between people of faith and people of goodwill as our community addresses the needs of hurting kids, families and neighborhoods. We are working toward the day when Salem-Keizer is the healthiest community in Oregon — truly the City of Shalom.”
     Currently, the Salem-Keizer/Marion-County area is one of the most distressed communities in Oregon, according to Skillern. It ranks high on the list of every “statistic of pain” the state measures: hunger, methamphetamine use, homelessness, child abuse, crime, poverty, broken families. Skillern cited several examples of how Salem-Keizer churches are putting faith into action to help heal the community:
    • More than 20 churches and schools have formed partnerships to provide mentoring, reading, after-school activities, health services, child care, English as a Second Language classes, and other family-supporting programs.
    • Ten churches have followed the lead of pioneering Capital Park Wesleyan Church to open their buildings to the kids and families living nearby. Dubbed the “CaN Centers Initiative” (Churches as Neighborhood Centers), this project is serving more than 400 kids weekly and has received more than $400,000 in funding since 2003.
    •The Interfaith Hospitality Network, a partnership of 25 churches, provides overnight shelter for homeless families inside church buildings on a weekly-rotating basis. The Salem network was formed in 1999 and has worked closely with the Oregon Deptartment of Human Services, Salem-Keizer School District, and the Salem city government, among other non-profit and government agencies.
    • In answer to a challenge issued by civic leaders last October, the faith community has inspired more than 125 applicants to complete foster-care training to help ease Marion County’s crisis-level need for foster homes due to the methamphetamine epidemic. More than 100 children come into care each month in Marion County.
    • Churches are active partners in the Community Progress Teams (county) and Neighborhood Asso-ciations (city) that are revitalizing some of the roughest neighborhoods in Salem-Keizer.
    “SLF’s job is to help the Church do the work of the Church, which is not just the proclamation aspect of the Gospel, but the servanthood aspect, as well,” Skillern said. “Our little ministry can’t do much on its own, but 165 congregations can truly transform our city, if they are willing to go outside the four walls and love their neighbor as Jesus commanded.”
     Skillern cited passages such as Isaiah 58, Matthew 25, James 2, and Luke 10 as examples of God’s heart for the poor, and his desire that his people would serve. “Churches love to preach the Great Commission, which is wonderful,” he said, “but why are so few willing to embrace the Greatest Commandment? Do we realize that Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 is interlocked with his directive to love God with all our being, and love our neighbor as ourselves?”
     Last year, the foundation launched the “City as Neighborhood Initiative,” a model by which every neighborhood in Salem-Keizer might be strengthened by partnerships among churches, businesses, schools, agencies and residents. Starting with the high-school feeder districts and moving down through neighborhood association boundaries, the foundation is encouraging relationship-based strategies so the entire community of Salem-Keizer becomes healthier as the smaller geographies within it grow stronger.
    “Remember the phrase, ‘Think Globally, Act Locally?’” Skillern noted. “We want folks to ‘Think Community, Act Neighbor-hood’ in Salem-Keizer. If we can rekindle that Scriptural notion of ‘love thy neighbor’ across our community, we truly can become the city of peace and well-being; the City of Shalom. To God be the glory.”
     On Thursday, May 4, the foundation will celebrate its 10th anniversary and the National Day of Prayer at the organization’s annual “Fancy Dessert” fundraiser in Salem. More than 700 people, including top civic officials, will attend. At press time for Christian News Northwest, a capacity crowd was anticipated and further reservations were not being taken.