“This is most likely the greatest thing I can possibly do because this is what Christ told us to do, go and serve others. So, we are literally taking the words of Christ and putting them into action.” So states Will Foltz. A powerful statement, made even more so when you realize that Will Foltz is 14 years old.
What does Will keep going back to? It is called the Agape Community Kitchen, and each Wednesday evening in Elizabeth, New Jersey, it serves about 250 guests a warm meal. It is a ministry begun by the Presbyterian Church in Westfield. Not exactly unique, you might think, but this is not the usual soup kitchen. It was started, and continues to be run, by the youth of the church.
“A group of us got together one day to talk about how we could make mission, service to others, a regular part of the youth ministries here in Westfield,” says Tina McCormick, minister to youth. “We decided that if we were going to have Bible study every week, a night for small groups, Sunday school, Sunday night youth fellowship … if all of these components were built into a week of the youth … we had to put in to our schedule a time of service to others.”
“Jesus said, first you need to love God, and secondly you need to love others,” McCormick continued. “It became apparent that this wasn’t reflected in our youth ministry program. We were singing carols to shut-ins at Christmas and we were going on a week-long mission trip in the summer. But how was it built in to the youth ministry life in the church? How were these kids to make it a part of their life if we weren’t giving them that opportunity on a weekly basis? If they were studying the Bible and learning about Jesus on a weekly basis but weren’t putting it into action, then what were we doing it for?”
After having exhausted existing service opportunities (none had the capacity to take a group of kids every week), the group from Westfield decided to partner with The First Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to open up their own soup kitchen. “The first night we had 30 young people and 10 adults and only 13 people came to eat,”remembers McCormick. “Now we serve an average of 250 people each week, 52 weeks a year, even if it’s Christmas.”
Their biggest problem, six years and 60,000 hot meals later? “We have too many teenagers, from our church, from the community, who want to serve,” states McCormick. “On any given Wednesday there could be 20 kids and there could be 50. Our biggest problem is getting those kids over to the soup kitchen and finding ways to keep them busy. What a problem to have!”
In addition to the youth who run the soup kitchen each week there are about 200 adult volunteers, divided up into 12 teams, who work behind the scenes to plan and prepare the food. “Without the adults behind the scenes who give of their money and their time, we wouldn’t be able to do this, to hand off ministry to our students,” comments McCormick. Though initiated and led by the youth, Agape is truly a church-wide endeavor.
Gaither Shaw is a member of the Presbyterian Church in Westfield who recently answered the call for on-site adult help when George Ehrnman, the 83-year-old doorman, fell ill. Agape has been a ministry eye-opener for teens and adults alike, he says. “Where we live it’s a very upscale community and we really don’t run into this on a regular basis. It’s also good for the adults because we don’t run into it either.”
“People always tell you what a big problem poverty is,” says eleventh grader Katherine Roberts. “It is amazing to go there and see it for yourself and to be able to do something about it.” Melanie Schor, a senior in high school, admits, “I was a little nervous about going to Elizabeth and I didn’t really know how to talk to people and I was a little shy at first. But the people were nice and they helped me.” Having overcome her own fear, Melanie has passed along the Agape experience. “I brought my little brother for the first time last summer. I think it is really good for everyone to go.”
“It’s impacted our whole congregation in that kids have become even more a part of the life of the church,” continues McCormick. “Kids have taken on something … that is normally what adults would take on. They are not sitting around waiting for the adults to be the church–they are being the church themselves.”
Not only do the youth take on adult-level service, they do it with a passionate enthusiasm. Tina McCormick comments, “Obviously one of the most amazing things about Agape is how it has changed all of us, and taught us all that the world is a much bigger place than what we thought. Everyone that goes there and works there comes away with the understanding that even though we are serving, we are being served. Even though we are ministering and helping these people, they help us.”
Phillip John, a high school senior who has been involved with Agape since the sixth grade, affirms this as well. “One of the major things about Agape is the fruit.” The idea of fruit comes from John 15:5 where Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” Each week after the guests have been served and the cleanup has ended, Agape volunteers take time to go around the circle and share what “fruit” they witnessed that night. “We come here to serve the people but we are really coming here to also serve God,” continues Phillip John. “Our fruit symbolizes what we saw of God in other people.”
“People who come to eat there, our guests, they are our friends, they know our names,” says McCormick. “The kids, they treat the guests so well, and care for them. Our young people are being changed and loved in a way that I don’t think they would have ever been loved if they had not experienced Agape.” Always mindful that mission leads us to service, McCormick adds, “The other way it is shaping their lives is that they feel compelled to go out and make a difference themselves. They see the things that need to happen, the wrongs that need to be made right, and they take that on as a responsibility themselves.”
Linda Timko, a tenth grader, reflects that reality. Now that she is aware of the needs and has been involved with trying to deal with them, “I don’t think I can give that up and say that someone else will solve it. It is a part of you and you will remember it forever.”
