When the COVID-19 pandemic led to shutdowns in East Tennessee, the need for the Church Street Benevolence team almost doubled.
Prior to the pandemic, the Benevolence Team helped an average of eight Knoxville community members pay rent or their KUB utilities bill each week. Now, the need has increased 77% across Knoxville and an average of 20 community members receive help each week from the team.
The Benevolence Team itself was different for most of 2020, with church member Keith Biggers taking the lead on most logistical and operational needs, while also taking the influx of calls between COVID-19 government-issue payments. Biggers stepped away from the team at the end of last year and church member Rob Keener took his place.
And while the Benevolence Team isn’t new, the past few months have shown a new way of doing what the Benevolence Team has always done — help those in need.
“I feel very excited and energized,” Keener says. “We’re building the airplane while flying the airplane, but that’s okay.”
To adapt to the needs of Knoxville community members, Keener connected new volunteers to virtual training through the Compassion Coalition, a community organization helping Knoxville’s churches understand the needs of the community and how to serve them. Keener also reorganized the process for meeting with a new client.
Prior to Keener’s leadership, a few volunteers would meet in-person with potential clients for about 30 minutes at a time. Volunteers would listen to their story and determine the best way to help them, which was typically a microgrant from the church of $100-$300.
Once the pandemic hit East Tennessee, Biggers handled everything from the office in the Christian Life Center (CLC) to meeting with potential clients. Most interactions with community members were a one-time occurrence, and no follow-ups were completed.
“Now, we’ve shifted our emphasis to not just be a ‘one-and-done’ with the client,” Keener says, “but rather to walk with the client and be on a journey with them as they participate in their own recovery.”
Now, each trained volunteer is responsible for one day a week, Monday through Saturday, and they answer any incoming inquiries left on the Benevolence Team voicemail throughout the day. Each volunteer will also follow-up with their previous clients to ensure they have received the care and assistance needed. Volunteers call clients using an app on their phone that protects their personal phone number as the one connected to the voicemail.
Volunteers listen to each client’s story, and take careful attention to figuring out the best way to assist with financial strains.
“We listen empathetically,” Keener says. “We’re always trying to reflect the love of Jesus with our clients.”
In most cases, clients can be directed to governmental services and funding. The Compassion Coalition helped Keener and the Benevolence Team understand the extensive financial resources available to those facing eviction, which during the pandemic and unprecedented job loss, became the top priority.
The process for individuals applying for financial aid from the government can be difficult, so volunteers are intentional with their conversations, following up with clients as often as possible.
“I hope that we can become more relational than transactional and build more relationships for our clients that will lead them to come out of their financial situations,” volunteer Ann Reego says. “I also hope they see the love of Christ through us and are led to find fatih if they are not currently involved.”
Relationships are also built in more emergent situations, such as a disconnect notice from KUB with a few days left. In situations where there isn’t time to apply and wait for government aid, Church Street steps in with microgrants, which are similar to what was given to each client prior to the pandemic.
Looking forward, Keener hopes that a new hybrid system can help connect more clients to Church Street volunteers. While serving on the Benevolence team is “not for the faint of heart,” Keener can’t help but think of the A-Team and John “Hannibal” Smith’s famous quote: “I love it when a plan comes together.”
“That’s how I feel. I love that the plan has come together and that we have motivated, caring volunteers,” Keener says. “It’s exciting and this should be able to stand the test of time.”
All are welcome at Church Street! We believe every person is of sacred worth and created in God’s image. We welcome and celebrate the gifts God has given to all persons without regard to race, color, national origin, ethnicity, age, gender, disability, status, economic condition, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religious affiliation. We respect diversity of opinion and expressions of Christian faith. We believe God loves everyone unconditionally! As God loves us, so let us love and serve in the name of Christ.
Weekly Prayer – June 30
prayer for todayWeekly Prayers for the Church Street Family
Week of June 27, 2021
Written by Rev. Catherine Nance
Almighty God, we call you all-powerful, omnipotent, and yet we look to other powers to restore us. Before we reach out to anything or anyone else, may we acknowledge that you are the power that called forth creation, the power that called us into community; and it was by your power that our Savior Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. What other power would we want flowing towards us?
Gracious God, Mark’s gospel relates two remarkable stories of healing – one a child who seemed to have had everything and one a woman who has lost everything. These show us we have hope for healing within our own lives. We pray for healing in communities where there is despair; from our own Hawkins County as we think about a little girl to families anxiously awaiting news about loved ones in Florida. We pray for our city as citizens and law enforcement strive to work together that we may all live in peace. Lord, have mercy on all of those who need to hear your words of comfort.
O Christ, we call you healer, the great physician. Our bodies are broken and worn down, we have friends and family who are suffering from disease. You have heard us name them in our hearts. We are so bold to pray for healing, but before we can ask for flesh and bone to be restored, for organs to be renewed, we must confess that our spirits are diseased. Cleanse our spirits, soften our hearts, and open our minds so that your healing power can flow through us to all whom you love, also these, your children at Church Street:
As you continue your holy work in all our lives, Caring Lord, accept these prayers of gratitude for your power working on our behalf:
Your love, your grace, your compassion, O God, bring wholeness. We need wholeness and we long to hear you say to us: “Go in peace.” Give us that grace to truly walk in peace, discarding anger, resentment or smugness. And forgive us, we pray, when we set up barriers that keep people from you. May we be followers, may we be a church willing to make room, to make a way for people to get to you. And ay we all hear the words, “You are healed.”
All these prayers and petitions we lift up in earnest this day, in the name of your Son, that Great Channel of Peace, who taught us to pray:
Have a Prayer Request?
Weekly Prayer – June 23, 2021
prayer for todayWeekly Prayers for the Church Street Family
Week of June 20, 2021
Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade
God of Tender Heart, we seem to be plagued by the same pitfalls that we confessed to you only days ago! We wonder why our best intentions crumble so quickly. But even as we lament our failures, we affirm our belief in your power to change us. We praise you that you do not give up on us! Send your creating power to mend our ragged relationships; send your redeeming love to save us from our repetitive misdeeds; and send your sustaining spirit to give us courage and strength to be made anew in your image. And as you bring about those changes in our own hearts and lives, perhaps our hurting world might somehow also be changed.
Merciful Master of Our Lives, as we approach you this week, we come as people harboring varied emotions. While some are teeming with joy and excitement, there are others of us whose lives are flooded with sorrow, weariness, confusion, and estrangement. We come in all our differences because we know you are the omnipotent expression of love and because we know you care. We celebrate the fact that that joy has found many of our brothers and sisters, and ask for new pathways to open for those who are imprisoned by fear.
We remember that when you uttered “Peace, be still!” the raging tempest obeyed, and all was calm. In your own quiet and peaceful way, touch each person in our Church Street family this week, wherever they find themselves, we pray. Calm our restless souls as we offer these particular prayers living in the hearts of your children:
Gratitudes:
Concerns:
O Love Ever Near, we feel your closeness in times of joy, but we are apt to forget you are always beside us in every instance — ready to listen, ready to support and ready to restore. Help us to dedicate a portion of this day, and every day, to commune with you, our Greatest Treasure. We would be wholly yours. And we would be made holy, as was your Son Jesus, who taught us to pray in this way:
Have a Prayer Request?
Weekly Prayer – June 16
Featured, prayer for todayWeekly Prayers for the Church Street Family
Week of June 13, 2021
Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade
We come into your presence, Great Sower of Seeds, seeking your assurance that new growth is still possible within us. In many ways we have allowed our faith to grow dormant as we focused on our own travails associated with the pandemic. We indeed cried out loudly to you throughout the year just passed; but we have failed to recognize your hand behind the miracle of the preventive vaccines. And truly it was your Spirit working within all those courageous ones who risked their own lives to help others in a multitude of ways. Forgive our slowness in acknowledging your silent power of healing and renewal that has never failed us.
Your generous hand ever sprinkles new ideas and new opportunities our way; we admit, however, we often remain on that tired ground we have always traversed. We’ve become so accustomed to our old habits and old patterns of thinking that we prevent your fresh concepts from germinating. O Planter of Newness, help us to conquer our fears and insecurities that we might never again stifle your dreams. Grant that we may so till the soil of our hearts that we would be prepared always to receive the seeds you sow within, and to tend them till they flourish to proclaim our praise and gratitude.
God of Memory, as you have never forgotten us, we give thanks for each of your servants who remembered us, who personally supported us throughout the pandemic, and those who uphold us now, especially . . . . . . . . . . And in this springtime as we celebrate the growth of our children, and as we honor our high school and college graduates, let us give thanks for those who nurtured our own faith throughout our growing years, especially these . . . . . . . . . We praise you for the constancy of your love and grace that continues throughout the generations, working through each of us in surprising ways to fulfill your purpose.
Receive now, we pray, these recent thanksgivings offered by your friends at Church Street; and be attentive, O Holy One, to each of those who bring their hardships and challenges to you, for you know each one by name:
Gratitudes:
Concerns:
Lord of the Harvest, as your Son taught us, we believe there will be a season when all your servants will be gathered into that abundant land where you dwell. Cultivate our faith in your tender mercy, we pray, that we might stay the course in this life, becoming strong, sturdy, and worthy to abide in your Kingdom of Grace. All these prayers and petitions we lift up to your open heart, offering the words Jesus gave us:
Have a Prayer Request?
Senior Spotlight: Clare Duncan
YouthOne of our favorite things about the spring semester each year is celebrating our graduating seniors. And this year, we have a special Senior Spotlight series on our blog. Our seniors answered interview questions earlier this spring and it has been so much fun learning their answers! Check back in each week to get to know our seniors better and help to cheer them on as they wrap up high school and prepare for their next steps!
Meet Clare Duncan!
Weekly Prayer – June 9
UncategorizedWeekly Prayers for the Church Street Family
Week of June 6, 2021
Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade
O Love Beyond Our Imagining, we pause these moments in midweek to remember and to praise you. As we reflect upon the mystery of our lives, we cannot apply reason to our existence – your transcendent grace presents the only answer. Our bodies in themselves are miracles not to be taken for granted. The love we receive from others, the way your Spirit works within us, the beauty of creation, the events that have led us to you, are all outside the bounds of our understanding. These are veiled mysteries that speak of your love, so teach us to move beyond the realm of what makes sense and to remain open to that love that permeates our past, our present, and our future. Breathe in us, O Breath of Life, as we breathe in you.
God of Tender Mercies, we carry heavy personal griefs this day: for those treasured souls who have died, for relationships that are damaged, for our brothers and sisters who are despondent and lonely, for those whose bodies and minds are failing, for those who are unemployed or underemployed. And underneath we also carry the collective grief of our world: the pain inflicted on persons of color, the indigenous children whose bodies are being unearthed in Canada, the murder and maiming caused by terrorist organizations, persecution of Christian, Jew, and Muslim at home and abroad, the unrest and instability within our own country. Lead us, we pray, to those rivers of healing, where your waters of mercy might soothe us and also cleanse our hearts of hatred, prejudice and retribution.
You have called us, Lord, to be a light in this city, but we confess that we have failed you in many ways. Forgive us for focusing on things that matter little and how we pass by opportunities that could make a world of difference in our community. Open us more fully into your mission, that your holy beam would shine through us, drawing all others into a closer communion with you.
As you have shown mercy to us throughout all our days, receive our thanksgivings; and also hear the cries of each one who offers personal prayers in your name:
Gratitudes:
Concerns:
O God, Father of All Mercies, we kneel in awe when we recognize your movement within our lives. And may that recognition kindle in each of us renewed faith, renewed courage, and renewed resolve to live lives worthy of the love you gave us in Jesus. May we cling to your Son, that we may be among those who mount up with wings as eagles, who run and are not weary, who walk and do not faint:
Have a Prayer Request?
Senior Spotlight: Caroline Powell
YouthOne of our favorite things about the spring semester each year is celebrating our graduating seniors. And this year, we have a special Senior Spotlight series on our blog. Our seniors answered interview questions earlier this spring and it has been so much fun learning their answers! Check back in each week to get to know our seniors better and help to cheer them on as they wrap up high school and prepare for their next steps!
Meet Caroline Powell!
Weekly Prayer – June 2
prayer for todayWeekly Prayers for the Church Street Family
Week of May 30, 2021
Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade
O Triune God: Creator, Christ, and Spirit, we do not understand your love for us, nor do we fully understand how you move in our world and in our lives. We can only bow to the mystery of your affection and faithfulness; indeed, your abiding presence is our greatest treasure! When we falter and fail, it is your mercy that redeems us. When daunted by our trials, it is your grace that sustains us. And when we doubt our own abilities, it is your holy breath that fills us with boldness and courage to serve as you have asked. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!”
Your generosity abounds, O Friend of Life, and we are recipients of abundance; yet why is it that we demand more and more? We deplete our natural resources by taking more than we need; we reduce forest and field to wasteland, disregarding important habitats of wild creatures; we squander the inborn splendor of your earth in our quest for goods and manufactured entertainment. Prick our collective conscience, O Framer of the World, that we might repent of our self-indulgence before we have marred the good earth beyond reparation. And bless those, we pray, who dedicate their lives to preservation of the unique and sacred home you have made for your people. Give us grace to walk that more gentle and sacred path.
We hear the bitter cries of the hurting across the globe, O Lord, and the sound singes our souls. For children dying of gun violence, Lord have mercy. For those bereft in the Middle East, whose lives and homes are shattered by terrorism, Lord have mercy. For those who have lost everything due to substance abuse, Lord have mercy. For those tormented ones in India suffering illness and death due to the Covid virus, Lord have mercy. For the brokenness of those whom our own nation has failed, Lord have mercy. Each human life has a name, a face, and a story, and you know each intimately, O Christ. All these, who are beloved of God, we lift up to your care, and also ask that your mercy would surround also these whom you also love, members of our Church Street family:
We pray in unity, Holy One, because we are people of hope, believing that suffering and death never have the last word. May our own thanksgivings we now offer remain a sign to our neighbors that our God offers mercy and grace:
All these prayers and petitions we offer today in the name of our Holy Keeper: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
Have a Prayer Request?
Youth Summer 2021
YouthWelcome to Summer with Church Street Youth!
Benevolence Team evolves to serve increased community need during COVID-19
connectors, MissionsWhen the COVID-19 pandemic led to shutdowns in East Tennessee, the need for the Church Street Benevolence team almost doubled.
Prior to the pandemic, the Benevolence Team helped an average of eight Knoxville community members pay rent or their KUB utilities bill each week. Now, the need has increased 77% across Knoxville and an average of 20 community members receive help each week from the team.
The Benevolence Team itself was different for most of 2020, with church member Keith Biggers taking the lead on most logistical and operational needs, while also taking the influx of calls between COVID-19 government-issue payments. Biggers stepped away from the team at the end of last year and church member Rob Keener took his place.
And while the Benevolence Team isn’t new, the past few months have shown a new way of doing what the Benevolence Team has always done — help those in need.
“I feel very excited and energized,” Keener says. “We’re building the airplane while flying the airplane, but that’s okay.”
To adapt to the needs of Knoxville community members, Keener connected new volunteers to virtual training through the Compassion Coalition, a community organization helping Knoxville’s churches understand the needs of the community and how to serve them. Keener also reorganized the process for meeting with a new client.
Prior to Keener’s leadership, a few volunteers would meet in-person with potential clients for about 30 minutes at a time. Volunteers would listen to their story and determine the best way to help them, which was typically a microgrant from the church of $100-$300.
Once the pandemic hit East Tennessee, Biggers handled everything from the office in the Christian Life Center (CLC) to meeting with potential clients. Most interactions with community members were a one-time occurrence, and no follow-ups were completed.
“Now, we’ve shifted our emphasis to not just be a ‘one-and-done’ with the client,” Keener says, “but rather to walk with the client and be on a journey with them as they participate in their own recovery.”
Now, each trained volunteer is responsible for one day a week, Monday through Saturday, and they answer any incoming inquiries left on the Benevolence Team voicemail throughout the day. Each volunteer will also follow-up with their previous clients to ensure they have received the care and assistance needed. Volunteers call clients using an app on their phone that protects their personal phone number as the one connected to the voicemail.
Volunteers listen to each client’s story, and take careful attention to figuring out the best way to assist with financial strains.
“We listen empathetically,” Keener says. “We’re always trying to reflect the love of Jesus with our clients.”
In most cases, clients can be directed to governmental services and funding. The Compassion Coalition helped Keener and the Benevolence Team understand the extensive financial resources available to those facing eviction, which during the pandemic and unprecedented job loss, became the top priority.
The process for individuals applying for financial aid from the government can be difficult, so volunteers are intentional with their conversations, following up with clients as often as possible.
“I hope that we can become more relational than transactional and build more relationships for our clients that will lead them to come out of their financial situations,” volunteer Ann Reego says. “I also hope they see the love of Christ through us and are led to find fatih if they are not currently involved.”
Relationships are also built in more emergent situations, such as a disconnect notice from KUB with a few days left. In situations where there isn’t time to apply and wait for government aid, Church Street steps in with microgrants, which are similar to what was given to each client prior to the pandemic.
Looking forward, Keener hopes that a new hybrid system can help connect more clients to Church Street volunteers. While serving on the Benevolence team is “not for the faint of heart,” Keener can’t help but think of the A-Team and John “Hannibal” Smith’s famous quote: “I love it when a plan comes together.”
“That’s how I feel. I love that the plan has come together and that we have motivated, caring volunteers,” Keener says. “It’s exciting and this should be able to stand the test of time.”
Senior Spotlight: Gavin Carroll
Featured, YouthOne of our favorite things about the spring semester each year is celebrating our graduating seniors. And this year, we have a special Senior Spotlight series on our blog. Our seniors answered interview questions earlier this spring and it has been so much fun learning their answers! Check back in each week to get to know our seniors better and help to cheer them on as they wrap up high school and prepare for their next steps!
Meet Gavin Carroll!
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10