August 2004

I’ll never forget the day pastor Dick Lucco called me into his office.  Dick was a founding board member of SLF.  For a couple years, his church—Trinity Covenant—had been sending folks to minister at the Oregon Capitol Inn, a hotel where 200 homeless people live.  In partnership with the School District and SLF, Trinity had a vibrant ministry at the Capitol Inn.  Crime was down, the place was cleaned up, kids could play outside again, there were healthy and educational activities for all.  But when Dick called me into his office, he said: “Sam, we’re pulling out of the Capitol Inn,” What?  The Trinity/Capitol-Inn partnership was one of our best demonstration projects to show churches and civic leaders the value of faith-based Servanthood.  How could Dick pull the plug?  He explained that he’d had an Epiphany.  Even though the effort at the Capitol Inn was working, it wasn’t the right calling for Trinity. A band of faithful servants was going downtown to serve, but the impact was not affecting the whole church.  The light-bulb Epiphany God gave Dick was this: there’s a whole neighborhood—a “parish” if you will—all around Trinity.  That’s where the church would serve, Dick had discerned.  

I can remember blurting out: “But there’s no poverty in South Salem!”  What a dumb thing to say! Poverty is everywhere in our City.  Poverty of resources, poverty of education, poverty of parental time with kids, poverty of moral instruction, poverty of health care.  And so Trinity Covenant pulled out of the Capitol Inn, and began serving the neighborhood around Liberty and Boone Roads.  With Liberty School right across the street.  Hmm… Instead of 8 or 10 people going downtown, the church today has more than 30 volunteers who read with kids at Liberty; another 50 who help host families at Trinity through the Interfaith Hospitality Network; and another 20 who help run the after school program weekdays at the church.  From 10 Christ-inspired volunteers to 100!  Because they use the church as a neighborhood center.  We owe a great debt to Dick and Trinity Covenant for their vision, risk-taking, and Servanthood.