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| A member of Hope Church network, held monthly at Calvary UMC in York, shares about his organization’s efforts to meet the needs of the York City and County community. Rev. Dr. Mike Brossman (standing at left) started the group four years ago. |
By Sandii Peiffer
This is the second installment in a series of stories highlighting some of the ways God is at work in and through Calvary UMC and its many partner churches to transform the community of York, Pa.
Five years ago, the Calvary UMC building in West York was used only a few days a week. When Rev. Dr. B. Michael “Mike” Brossman was appointed in 2014, things started happening.
Brossman poured encouragement, love, care, healing, team-building, and great amounts of enthusiasm into the church leaders and then, he started making connections out in the surrounding community.
Calvary UMC is now a thriving congregation and the building is utilized seven days a week by a host of church and community groups.
Recently sworn into the York City Police Chaplain’s Corps (by invitation), Brossman is on call to support the police force and for other situations as needed. “It’s about being involved and visible in the community, and being available,” he said.
Brossman’s involvement in the community created the foundation for Hope Church, which started around four years ago. On the fourth Monday of each month Calvary UMC hosts Hope Church, a network of leaders from a wide variety of community organizations that help the underserved people of York.
The mission of Hope Church is:Promoting mutually respectful and cooperative work and conversation among churches, agencies and organizations, schools and businesses for the sake of offering hope to the community that they share.
Hara Lewis, Calvary UMC’s Administrative Assistant, keeps the group organized by maintaining a spreadsheet of contact information for the 270+ organizations that are part of Hope Church and sending monthly updates and meeting notices.
Around 30-40 people attend each monthly meeting. After a brief welcome and introduction by Brossman, those in attendance take turns introducing themselves, describing what their organization does, and promoting upcoming events or special projects. It gives an opportunity to the others in attendance to learn about what is going on in the community and about the myriad organizations available to serve people in need. Hope Church offers a place to network which helps service providers refer needs appropriately. It is a way to build relationships, discover the needs in the community, learn about unique services available, and brainstorm and collaborate on possible solutions to community problems.
“Our focus is to help the people of York City and York County,” said Tracy Young, President of On Common Ground, a non-profit that offers experiential therapies for the recovery community and veterans. “We do a lot of collaboration within the community and that’s how I came to be a part of Hope Church. It’s such a cool concept to bring people together, collaborating, talking, resourcing. As a result of one of the Hope Church meetings, I am now a mentor in the Veteran’s Court.” Tracy is a Marine veteran, and his wife an Army National Guard veteran.
Ken Bruggeman of Campell Associates is also a member of Hope Church. “I am a community guy. I used to live downtown. I have a heart for the city [of York] and awareness of the things that are going on in the city and my faith pushes me forward to do things to serve the city in any way that I possibly can. My role with Campbell Associates has allowed me to do that in the construction end of things and my role with Hope church has allowed me to connect with people and to come up with solutions to challenges that they may be facing.”
One of those challenges is the area of Salem Square, considered to be the worst section of York City in terms of poverty, drug use, and crime. Through Hope Church, four non-profits expressed interest in establishing a community center in Salem Square to serve that community. Calvary owns a parking lot from the former St. Paul’s UMC (merger) there, so Brossman called Bruggeman to discuss the possibility of building on the site. Bruggeman is now working with the four non-profits to move forward on the idea.
“To put a community center in that space would open an opportunity to transform that neighborhood. The non-profits involved are focused on youth and would allow them to have opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have,” said Bruggeman.
For more information contact Hara Lewis at Calvary UMC 717-979-2513 or dimp1022@gmail.com or join the Hope Church York public group page on Facebook where you can find out about community events and meetings.
