TFHM Congregational Study 2005

Sheila P. Johnson
SSU 100 NYTS Ecologies of Learning
Dr. Lowell Livesey
April 29, 2005
FROM TRADITIONAL CHURCH TO MARKETPLACE MINISTRY: CHANGING LIVES BY
INTEGRATING CHRISTIAN PRACTICE INTO MARKETPLACE ACTIVITY IN ALPHABET CITY
A Congregational Study of Father’s Heart Church and Ministries
Alphabet City, Lower East Side, New York, NY
Cary Conover for The New York Times
.

2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION PAGE
I. PREFACE 3
II. INTRODUCTION 4
III. THE FATHER’S HEART CHURCH AND MINISTRIES 7
IV. LOCUS 10
V. DEMOGRAPHICS 16
VI. ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS 22
VII. WORKS CITED 33
VIII. APPENDIX 35

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PART I. PREFACE
This study was undertaken as part of coursework for the Ecologies of Learning: Connecting
Church, City and Seminary project of the New York Theological Seminary, led by Dr. Lowell
Livesey.
I will describe the ecology of the congregational setting and its role in determining the kind of
ministry that takes place there and the reciprocal impact of the ministry on that ecology. I will
compare and contrast the Father’s Heart Church and Ministries with other church models and
examine the theological foundations of the ministry, its implications for social activism and the
dimensions of renewal engaged. Drawing upon social theory, I will analyze and identify urban
structures, such as poverty and hunger, which act upon and are acted upon by the ministry.
Finally, I will evaluate and provide recommendations to the ministry.1
I propose to demonstrate how the Father’s Heart Church and Ministries (FHC&M) is a model of
civic and religious engagement that has been able to mitigate the alienation and separation that
generally occurs between Christians and non-Christians. Through the generation and
mobilization of social capital, FHC&M has morphed into a marketplace ministry with innovative
entrepreneurial strategies that build community relationships while sustaining its vision and
bridging the gap between its priestly calling and core prophetic activism.
1
Revised Syllabus, SSU100 Social Theory and Analysis, New York Theological Seminary, 11 March
2005.

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PART II. INTRODUCTION
Theology
The reconciling message of this ministry – “the Father is not angry because He has reconciled
Himself to us through the sacrifice of His son, Jesus” (2 Cor.5:18-19) – is based upon an
incarnational/relational theology and ethic of “unconditional love, unconditional acceptance,
unconditional forgiveness and unconditional commitment,”2
that affirms the value of all human
beings and defies separatism and exclusion.
Just as Jesus was in solidarity with humankind, the Father’s Heart Church and Ministries is
deeply connected with its community. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection attest to the efficacy of
His identification with suffering humanity. The incarnation, the cross and the suffering of Jesus
Christ resonates within a theology of liberation – a political theology of the oppressed, that
addresses both the suffering of marginalized folks and Christian hegemony, as theological
problems. Incarnation is not a historical act of transcendence but ontological reality for the
ministry. And, knowing that Jesus practiced what he preached, this ministry strives to do what
Jesus did - embracing the Cross and its radical all-embracing message of Mitleid.
Declaring that God’s heart is beating in Alphabet City, The Father’s Heart Church and Ministry
Center continues to carry the torch for its early 20th
century immigrant founders. Just as the
founders sought to be a lighthouse and prophetic vehicle for the Pentecostal Slavic (Russian,
Ukrainian, and Polish) immigrants who had settled in Alphabet City, FHC&M is addressing the
needs of “immigrants, unskilled workers, the unemployed, the illiterate and those without social
or family support,”3
and the outcast and homeless, by renewing their minds and thereby
transforming their spiritual and social existence. Just how this transformation is taking place will
be described later.
Theology cannot exist at variance with a church or church groups identity and purpose.
Therefore, the outcomes of the distinctly incarnational theology of the Father’s Heart Church and
Ministries will be addressed in light of their social and missional outreach.
Context
Congregational context is determined by history, demography and organization.4
Founded in
1919, this church was the first Slavic Pentecostal church in America, and known as the Russian
Ukrainian Polish and Pentecostal Church or “RUPP” (see “History of East 11th
Street). Its
English speaking counterpart – the Evangelical Christian Church, (ECC) was established in 1932
with an initial focus on children’s ministry. The Russian and English-speaking congregations
combined and incorporated in 1983 under the name of The Evangelical Christian Church.
In 1998, The Father’s Heart Church joined the Father’s Heart Ministries to form The Father’s
Heart Ministry Center – a non-denominational amalgam of church and parachurch models. The
Father’s Heart Ministry Center is a faith-based 501(c)3 not-for-profit ministry. Their goal was to
train Christian workers and leaders to demonstrate the good news of God’s love by going out
2
Reverend Charles Vedral, History of East 11th
Street, (New York, February 20, 2000), 4.
3
Homepage, The Father’s Heart Ministries on VolunteerNYC.org. accessed 14 April 2005,
http://www.volunteernyc.org/org/2337573.html
4
Nancy L. Eiesland and R. Stephen Warner, “Ecology: Seeing the Congregation in Context,” Studying
Congregations: A New Handbook,, ed. Nancy Ammerman, Jackson W. Carroll, Carl S. Dudley and William
McKinney, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 42

5
into the streets of our community.5
Later, what the “streets” symbolize to this ministry will be
considered in Part VI (Analysis).
Corporate Identification
A study by McCormick Theological Seminary identified five church images which “reflect their
memory of their congregational history in their social context”(Dudley and Johnson, 1991).6
These images reflect the core values embedded in their lived experience as a church. These
images include the “survivor church”, the “crusader church,” the “pillar church,” the “pilgrim
church” and the “servant church.”
According to the study the first two images (“survivor” and “crusader”) ,are linked with
imminent danger or crisis and these churches typically use crises to mobilize member
volunteerism and activism. The “pillar” churches are deeply identified and embedded in their
communities and see themselves as bearers of religious and civic responsibility.7
The “pilgrim”
church, “moves through life with a focus, not on the place, but on the people they served through
a network which mixed language and culture with their understanding of the Christian faith.”8
The final image, with which I have identified the Father’s Heart Church and Ministries, is that of
the “servant church”, which has a broad outreach to anyone who needs them “and attracts people
who like to help others.”9
The Father’s Heart is a symbolic representation of God’s heart and explicitly, the name of the
ministry alone, determines its identity as a place for individuals and families. This should create
a powerful attraction, particularly for the homeless, outcast and suffering members of the
community. The question is why are there so few members in such a dynamic ministry?
Implicitly, the boundaries between the Father’s Heart Ministries and the world outside its doors
are permeable. Ammerman refers to this boundaryless aspect of the church culture and identity
as conducive to groups which “emphasize being part of the culture … and shun the strictness and
intolerance seen in other groups.”10
Their openness to the community illuminates an ethic of
inclusion.
Vertical Networks
Partnering with social service agencies, non-profit organizations and secular organizations, the
Father’s Heart Ministry Center has networked with the faith based community, and government,
corporate and private organizations, including The Food Bank for New York City, NYC
Coalition Against Hunger, City Harvest, America’s Second Harvest, Chinese American Planning
Council, Dept. of Youth and Child Development, New York Cares, Beth Israel Continuum
Health Partners, the Food Stamp Outreach Project, World Vision, Habitat for Humanity,
JPMorganChase, the USDA, Stuyvesant Square Chemical Dependency Treatment Program,
WorkForce NYC and The Stromberg Consulting Group, to name but a few. After 9/11, their
strategic location in Alphabet City, excellent reputation and mobilization capabilities positioned
them to become a FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) site.
5
Rev. Charles Vedral, History of East 11th
Street, 5.
6
Carl S. Dudley, “From Typical Church to Social Ministry: A Study of the Elements Which Mobilize
Congregations”, Review of Religious Research, 32, no. 3 (1991): 205.
7
Carl S. Dudley, “From Typical Church to Social Ministry”, Ibid, 206.
8
Ibid.
9
Ammerman, “Culture and Identity in the Congregation,” 98.
10
Ibid,” 81.

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Social Enterprise
The recent grand opening of a for-profit entity, on its premises, Alphabet Scoop, a wholesale and
retail ice creamery is a dramatic example of the blurring of faith-based and profit based
initiatives. This raises some important issues. How does the church maintain a critical distance
and stand in judgment in the same market, since it is embedded in the economy of Alphabet
City? What is the relationship between the church and the market? We will consider these issues
in the Analytical Section.
Model
It is evident that the church has transitioned from a survivor mode to a missional mode. Their
income was $50 in 1997 and grew to $862,000 in 2004. Their post 9/11 income was
approximately $1.3 million. Their current church model is a combination of Contemporary in its
use of state-of-the-art technology; Renewal – in its focus on prayer and the ministry of the Holy
Spirit often accompanied by physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit and Seeker-Sensitive in its
worship services designed for the unsaved. They minimize the use of theological language,
tradition and normatives (such as strict dress codes, and requests of names and address of visitors
and volunteers) and have been able to achieve a multicultural purpose because of their open
invitation to the community. That is why approximately 200 Chinese men, women and children
travel almost 2 miles every Saturday morning to receive food and fellowship.

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PART III. THE FATHER’S HEART CHURCH AND MINISTRIES
The original vision of the Father’s Heart Church and Ministries was to provide training for
church leaders and laity, equipping them to reach their respective communities with the good
news of God’s love with practical expressions of compassion and miraculous signs to confirm
God’s kingdom. However, a unique model emerged. They are fulfilling the great commission
under the auspices of The Father’s Heart Ministries, which evangelizes and births the “lost” who
are then nurtured by The Father’s Heart Church, and discipled and/or credentialed by the
Father’s Heart Ministry Training Center and, finally, released to evangelize the lost. They don’t
try to hold onto, nor do they “hold back” members or staff – their vision is to send them out into
other ministries and to the world. “The Father’s Heart Ministry Center is committed to
demonstrating in practical ways through street evangelism, food/clothing distribution, job
training and loving kindness that Jesus is seeking the lost and the Father is seeking
worshipers”11
.
History of East 11th Street 12
This facility originally housed the People’s Home Church and Settlement House, a Methodist
home-missionary service for newly arrived immigrants and first-Generation Americans.
With its roots in the Russian Baptist Church, it became the first Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian and
Polish) Pentecostal Church in America. On July 1, 1919, with eighteen members from the
Russian Baptist Church, who were baptized with the Holy Spirit and spoke with new tongues,
the church was born. The founding Pastor was Ivan Efimovich Voronaeff, a Cossack born in
1892 in the Ural Mountains of Central Russia. The Church was incorporated on February 25,
1925 as, “The Russian Ukrainian and Polish Pentecostal Church.” Continuing to reach out to the
Slavic speaking peoples of the community, the church grew to over 300 members. Before the
church moved to Eleventh Street it was located on Sixth Street, using the facilities of Emmanuel
Presbyterian Church. In 1941 the church bought the current facility on East 11th
Street from the
Methodist Church of New York.
They purchased a print shop in Philadelphia to print Bibles, hymnals and other literature in their
native languages. They sent these materials all over the world to people who requested them. The
church also supported Missionaries endeavoring to reach Slavic speaking people around the
world. The Ukrainian and Polish speaking members of the church held worship services in their
native tongue. And, from the 1960’s onward, as an English-speaking youth group grew, the
church realized their need of an English-speaking pastor. Ultimately, services were conducted
separately in both English and Russian yet they remained one body. In 1983, both Russian and
English-speaking congregations joined in changing the name of the Corporation to Evangelical
Christian Church to more effectively relate to the ever changing community. Russian language
services ended in 1988 as the aged Russians died off.
Rev. Ann Scirmont became the first English-speaking pastor and served in that position for three
and a half years. When she left to assume the position of Associate Pastor at the Rock Church in
Manhattan, Rev. and Mrs. Gunnar Jacobsen took the pastorate. Under their ministry there was a
tremendous outreach to the children and youth of this community. Under Sister Jacobsen and,
later, Mary Dash, the Sunday School grew and the required Teacher Training became one of the
hallmark ministries of the church and a link to the community. When Pastor Jacobsen left to
11
Ibid, 5.
12
Ibid., 1-4. Excerpts reproduced with permission of The Father’s Heart Ministries, Inc.

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start urban mission centers throughout New York City, John Dash served as a lay minister to the
congregation.
Revs. Forrest and Faith Dodge were appointed to the pastorate and over the next five years, and
it was under their ministry that the Evangelical Christian Church was incorporated. The
children’s ministry expanded beyond Sunday School to encompass Saturday School where
children learned Bible stories, songs and arts and crafts and held Youth meetings. Many seeds
were sown that have continued to bear fruit even to this day. It was under the ministry of Revs.
Forrest and Faith Dodge, that Rev. Chuck Vedral, Sr. Pastor of the Father’s Heart Church, was
saved. In 1966 the Dodges left to serve as Missionaries to Columbia, S.A. From the time Pastor
Dodge left for Columbia until Chuck Vedral became pastor, Ralph Allen, Ed Corley, and John
Romaine served as interim pastors.
Leadership Transition
Pastor Vedral was Pastor from 1967 until 1988 when he assumed the position of Overseer of the
church. Under Pastor Vedral’s ministry “The Practical Ministry Center” was established.
Students and graduates from five Bible Schools (Elim Bible Institute, Zion Bible Institute, Long
Island Bible Institute, Pinecrest and Valley Forge Bible College) were trained in the practical
areas of Urban Ministry. Since there were few adult converts from the community, Bible school
students and graduates enabled the church to continue to proclaim the gospel to the community.
Transition to Social Activism
In 1977, the church experienced a major shift in the character of its ministry. The Sunday School
and Youth Ministry, which was ongoing throughout the years, gave way to a move of the Holy
Spirit that focused on deliverance from substance abuse and the reconciliation and restoration of
families.
The appointment of Perry and Marian Hutchins and Mark and Linda Tarantino as associate
pastors was pivotal in the church’s evolution toward social activism. Under their leadership, the
church expanded the scope of its mission and ministry – giving birth to more focused and
balanced ministry. Practical programs directed at restoring self-esteem and healing broken
relationships evolved and included:
 Literacy, ESL and GED
 The Christian Gallery Bookstore Ministry (Job Training)
 New Life general Contracting Work Program (Job Training)
 AIDS Ministry (C.A.RE.S) to those suffering from AIDS
In May of 1988, Pastor Hutchins became the Pastor of the church and Pastor Vedral became the
Overseer. Under Pastor Hutchins’ ministry the church continued to refine its mission and
purpose. God put upon his heart a vision for enlarging the ministry to become a “store house”
that would address the varied and pressing needs of the poor of our community. In 1994, the
church affiliated with Elim Fellowship, Lima, New York. [Excerpt ends]. This pivotal
relationship facilitated the government funding which enabled the establishment of a Food
Pantry that distributed food to 400 - 600 people per week.
Current Leadership
Rev. Charles J. (Chuck) Vedral, Pastor, age 61, is the Sr. Pastor of the Father’s Heart Church and
President and CEO of Father’s Heart Ministries. His wife, Pastor Carol Vedral, age 57, is
Executive Director of Father’s Heart Ministries. Perry Hutchins, is Program Director of the
Overcomer’s Outreach and his wife, Pastor Marian Hutchins is Director, Hunger Prevention

9
Program and Job Readiness Program. Both are in their early to mid-40’s. Myrna Calderon,
Latina is Program Director of the ESL Program. Pastor Peggy Beisler, Kitchen Manager of the
Feeding Program and, Associate Pastor Jesus Martinez, 29, is General Manager of Alphabet
Scoop. He is assisted by his wife, Jackie Martinez (formerly Vedral). Sheila Johnson, 55, is
program director for their nascent chaplaincy and counseling center. The ethnicity of the
leadership is approximately 67% Anglo, 22% Latino/Latina and 11% African American.
Membership
Numbering nearly 200 members at one time, membership seriously eroded when the ministry
changed its focus to prophetic social activism. The fact that the leadership’s energy is consumed
with maintaining the momentum of its social outreach programs and in particular, its hunger
prevention program which, in 2004, distributed 696,770 meals to 97,373 people (21% children,
66% adults and 13% seniors) may be a primary factor in the church’s slow growth. According to
the leadership, “the expansion of the hunger prevention ministry was so rapid that they were not
able to train enough personnel to keep up with the growth. This led them to reach out to other
churches, ministries, corporations and secular organizations for assistance.”
Currently, the membership of the church, though small – consisting of only 20 members, is quite
dynamic. However, only ten percent live in Alphabet City. Seventy-five percent of the members
reside in Queens, NY; 10% reside in Brooklyn, NY and the remaining 5% live in Manhattan –
outside of Alphabet City.
Current Social Ministry and Outreach
The ministry provides spiritual guidance and direction and discipleship by means of its
leadership training course, weekly Bible instruction to adults and children and annual adult and
youth retreats.
The Father’s Heart Ministry Center also operates the following programs:
 Hunger Prevention - Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry
 Shelter Placement Assistance
 Public and Welfare Assistance
 Adult Education - Literacy, ESL and GED Classes
 Job Readiness - Job training, Employment and Referral Program
 Domestic Violence and Family Life, subsidiary programs of which include: Family Crisis
Prevention and Recovery Classes; KidZone™ - Gang Prevention and Youth Development
Program; Overcomer’s Outreach Substance Abuse Support Group and Building Blocks for
Family Living Classes

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PART IV. LOCUS
Description of Setting
The red brick church building is located on two adjacent lots, at 543-545 East 11th
Street, New
York, NY 10009. It was built in 1868 and the parsonage added in 1899. The Father’s Heart
Church and Ministry Center is located in this restored four-story walk-up tenement building.
This building was once home to the People’s Home Church and Settlement House, a Methodist
home-missionary service for newly arrived immigrants and first-Generation Americans, whose
mission was to provide a church home that would help Italian, Russian, Polish, Hungarian,
Czechoslovakian, French, German, Austrian and South American immigrants adjust to life in
America. The church building was purchased in 1941 for $16,000 and is mortgage-free. Though
considered to be without value in the 1970’s, per Pastor Chuck Vedral, “You couldn’t give it
away,” it is now considered to be priceless.
The building is located on the northeast side of East 11th
Street, between Avenues A and B, in
what is also known as “Alphabet City,” or ‘Loisada,” by the Latino/Latina population. Located
between the East River and Avenue A, from 1st
Street to 14th
Street, this neighborhood has been
in continuous flux and a home to transients since the mid 19th
century. Since the 1990’s the
neighborhood has become home to both young upwardly mobile professionals who work on
Wall Street or Midtown and want a short commute to work, and the working poor.
The neighborhood is now heavily gentrified. Its restaurants are listed in Zagat’s and half-way up
the block a penthouse was recently sold by Douglas Elliman Property Development for over two
million dollars. Formerly, it was an old garage/eyesore and the kids used to throw old shoes over
an electric line which was suspended above the garage.
The main sanctuary which is four stories high, has a traditional raised baptismal pool for full
immersion. The pool is surrounded by a pastoral mural depicting a lamb in a field. Though the
years have muted its colors it remains both a symbolic and transcendent reminder of the Lamb of
God – Jesus Christ. Inside, there are no crosses or human representations of Jesus. Only on the
outside is a magnificent neon cross suspended three stories high, which says “Jesus Saves.” It
has a very 1930’s ambiance. The altar, positioned on a raised stage/platform, is flanked by
American and Israeli flags. Once filled with beautiful oak pews, the sanctuary is now filled with
15 ten-foot tables and 150 chairs. The sanctuary is now multi-purpose, as is all of the building.
The chapel is used for food preparation and bagging. During the week, the main sanctuary is
converted to KidZone, a gang violence prevention and youth development program. Upper floors
are used for the computer learning lab, self-defense classes, guitar classes and administrative
offices. The parsonage contains two apartments that have been completely renovated for visiting
guests. Across the street is a building, now converted for commercial use, that once housed a
bath house, a mainstay in the Lower East Side for immigrants living in neighboring tenements in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The bathrooms, which are immaculate, have been recently renovated and provide for
handicapped accessibility and are baby friendly – there is a large stall for the disabled and a wall-
mounted changing table for infants. Across the street is a building, now converted for
commercial use, that once housed a bath house, a mainstay in the Lower East Side for
immigrants living in neighboring tenements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Alphabet Scoop Ice Creamery, which is owned and operated by the ministry, is located in an
adjacent, connecting building and consisting of a 160 sq. ft. space painted in lime sherbet green
and raspberry colors on opposite walls. Three steps lead up to its newly canopied entrance.

11
Scoops hosted its grand reopening on April 13, 2005. The store was closed for about a year
because of a business downturn which they believe was precipitated by the presence of a major
Con Edison construction site (in front of the entrance). The floor is tiled in a black and white
checkerboard pattern. Equipment consists of a 750 lb. stainless steel Emerson ice cream maker,
two display freezers, and a milkshake machine. Two large blackboards, mounted behind the
counter list 30 flavors including the ubiquitous vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, plus rum raisin,
mint chocolate chip, peanut butter cup, and other gourmet flavors. A counter is available for
seating and four stools were set up. It is accessed from the street as well as inside the main
church building through two glass entryways. A display on one wall holds samples of branded
hats and tee shirts that are for sale. A huge stainless steel hardening cabinet set at 39○
F is in the
kitchen, which is adjacent to the ice creamery. The cost of the ice cream equipment alone was
$20,539. Construction, permits, marketing and advertising costs were additional.
The church is located one block west of a major cross town bus which terminates in the West
Village; one block south of a bus that terminate on Grand Street and one block east of a bus that
runs all the way to the former World Trade Center site. The 4, 5, 6, N, R, W, and L trains are
approximately ½ mile away – about a 10 to 15 minute walk.
Geographical Information
The Father’s Heart Ministries is located in Alphabet
City – a neighborhood squeezed between the
largely Puerto Rican housing projects by the East
River and Greenwich Village to the West. The
lettered avenues (A, B, C and D) of the East Village
were built largely on reclaimed harbor. East River
Park and the FDR Drive form its eastern
boundaries; East Houston Street its southern;
Avenue A its western, and East 14th
Street its
northern boundary.13
This area is totally flatlands. The central landmark
for Alphabet City is Tompkins Square Park, a 110
acre park, located from 7th Street to 10th Street,
between Avenues A and B. Once desolate and
overrun with drug dealers, and homeless shacks, the
park features renovated play areas, two basketball courts, two dog runs and restroom facilities.
The park was the site of the Tompkins Square Park riots in the 1980’s which erupted in response
to gentrification. A mural on the side of a building on East 7th Street and Avenue A facing the
park memorializes “Joe Strummer 1952 – 2002” with his likeness and the legend "Know your
Rights." The occurrence that led to the commission of the memorial is unknown to me, but its
message is emblematic of the social consciousness of the neighborhood. An additional small
pocket park – the El Sol Brillliante - Joseph C. Sauer Park located on 12th Street between
Avenues A and B is also operated by the National Parks Service. “Green space” is very
important to the residents of this neighbor – evident in the 13 community gardens scattered
throughout this 0.14 square mile area. Some gardens are no more than one lot in size, others at
13
Gentrification on Avenue D: Reformation for Lower East Side or Puerto Rican Downfall?)
<http://www.etov.com/site2/archives/17-Gentrification-on-Avenue-D:Reformation-for-Lower-East-…>
N

12
least 8 lots with sculpture and seating areas. Garden names include: Gilbert’s Garden, Miracle
Garden, Orchard Alley Community Garden, Children’s Garden and Firemen’s Memorial Garden.
“This area has always been a major center for the narcotics trade and is said to be the birthplace
of the modern global drug subculture. The term “smack” (heroin) originated here in the 1930’s,
when the area was dominated by Jewish immigrants … and is derived from the Yiddish word
“schmecker,” meaning taste.”14
Known as “El Barrio” and later “LOISADA,” (a Hispanicization
of Lower East Side), this area was known as one of the worst in New York City in the 1960’s –
early 1980’s.
During that era, drug dealers conducted open sales with little interference from the police;
squatters bathed in fire hydrants and their “tent cities,” and homeless shacks were a regular
feature of the landscape. Roosters crowed all day (not just at daybreak), trash and dog excrement
lined the sidewalks and open air cooking and wood burning was a common scent. “Alphabet
City… hit bottom when Ed Koch's administration sent in SWAT-team-like anti-drug forces
under the mostly ineffective Operation Pressure Point in the late 1980s.
Since then, the crime-fighting efforts of Rudy Giuliani and a series of new investments have
slowly transformed Alphabet City from an open-air heroin market and campground for the
homeless to a gentrifying area full of nightspots and boutiques. Crime has decreased about 65
percent since 1990 for the neighborhood's 70,000 residents.”15
According to police statistics,
from 1993 to 2000, crime in the area dropped by almost 57%.16
This area is now seen as an
increasingly safe one in which to live.
Housing Characteristics
Characterized by tenement housing, built around the late 1890’s, most buildings are typically
five-story walk-ups (in accordance with local zoning laws, six-story buildings are required to
have elevators, hence the proliferation of five-story walk-ups). As late as the 1980’s many still
had shared community toilets in the hallways. Due to low building heights, this neighborhood is
very sunny and year-round the temperature even seems warmer.
Housing in the neighborhood consists of 13 public housing sites, including the massive Jacob
Riis Housing Project which runs from 5th
Street to 12th
Street between Avenue D Street and the
East River Drive; and the Lillian Wald Houses which encompasses 1st
to 4th
Street between
Avenue D and the East River Drive. Campos Plaza, a NYCHA development built approximately
20 years ago includes senior citizen and low income housing as well as a massive parking lot for
its residents.
New construction in the public housing sector appears to be booming, with new construction
evident in 11 sites sponsored by the New York City Housing Authority, New York State
Housing Trust Fund and East Side Coalition Housing. One large excavation had signage which
indicated that low income housing was being funded by the Washington Mutual Community
Lending and Investment Corp. Mitchell-Lama housing has been a stabilizing factor in this
neighborhood since the 1960’s. With Haven Plaza as its centerpiece, this low to middle income
housing project is located between 10th
– 12th
Streets between Avenues C and D Street. It has a
14
Peter McDermott, “New York Through the Eye of a Needle,” New York Times, October 1992,
http://www.leda.lycaem.org/?ID=11366
15
Eli Lehrer, “Crime Fighting and Urban Renewal” Public Interest, Fall 2000. Accessed 20 April 2005,
http://www.FindArticles.com/crime and urban renewal.htm>
16
See http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_24/b3736044.htm. Accessed 22 February 2005.

13
strip shopping center consisting of a supermarket chain, pharmacy, pizzeria, a Curves Fitness
Center, and dry cleaners. With the exception of the new sign for the fitness center, it appears
that the same businesses have served this community for decades.
There are at least 20 new condominiums in Alphabet City. Two bedroom/two bath
condominiums are on sale on 4th
Street and Avenue D with prices starting at $555,000. The
largest condominium project, located on East Houston St. and Avenue A. It is a twelve-story
high rise with 13 commercial storefronts including Baskin/Robbins, Fed Ex/Kinkos, H&R Block,
Subways, and AutoZone. Three major nearby universities – New York University, The New
School and Cooper Union are providing the pool of potential tenants that the developers are
tapping. (See Table 1 for the summary of my personal survey of the Alphabet City community).
Socio-Economic Forces
This may be one of the most politicized areas in New York City due to the tension between the
people being displaced by gentrification and the economic and social forces that are driving
gentrification. Because of all of the construction activity, I would guess that the banks and
construction companies have significant economic and political clout. The community housing
coalitions and tenant organizers are strong too, as evidenced by the impressive amount of new
public housing being built and the substantial presence of green space. The Father’s Heart
Ministries is located in Congressional District 14, which is Carol Maloney’s district. Rev. Vedral
indicated that her office (located at 1651 Third Avenue, Suite 311, New York, NY 10128 in
Midtown is unresponsive). Ironically, the office for Congressional District 12 (Nydia Vasquez)
that is located across the street from the church, on 11th
Street and Avenue B, has been very
helpful to the ministry.
The predominant businesses are Con Edison (Power Substation), the Department of
Environmental Protection (Waste Treatment Facility), and the New York City Housing Authority
which operates and manages the massive public housing projects in the area; followed by the
Health Care Networks and Nursing Homes and Rehabilitation Centers (5); Public Schools (4);
Parochial Schools (4) and Private Schools (1); Restaurants (84); Supermarkets and Grocery
Stores (28); Real estate construction and trades with 30 construction sites (20 private and 10
public); Churches (33); Banks (3); and, Tax and Financial Services (7).
The Health Care related facilities located in Alphabet City are fairly large established facilities
that are now community institutions. Additionally, within a few blocks, are Beth Israel Medical
Center (16th
Street and 1st
Avenue), and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (310 East 14th
St).
Most of the workers observed during a lunch time survey wore hardhats – another indicator of
Alphabet City’s robust construction market. Although there are six mom and pop pharmacies in
Alphabet City, the presence of major retail drug stores such as Rite Aid (2 locations), and Duane
Reade is a sure sign of the times. Big box discounters such as Kmart are only a few blocks west
on Astor Place. I presume that they would not be located in or near areas considered
economically unviable. What surprises me is the complete absence of the ubiquitous Starbucks
coffee shops in Alphabet City.
The number of personal services businesses (12) such as beauty salons, skin care clinics, barber
shops and dry cleaners (15) is worth noting. There are six liquor stores in Alphabet City: One is
located on Avenue D and 9th
Street; two on Avenue B (6th
Street and 12th
Street); Of the
remaining, three are scattered along Avenue A (2nd
, 5th
and 12th
Streets). It is significant that half
of the liquor stores are near public housing projects.

14
Environmental Data
There are 84 facilities that are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency in Alphabet
City – all of which handle hazardous materials. Consolidated Edison Company of New York has
thirteen locations alone, in and/or near Alphabet City including a electric power generation,
transmission and distribution plants, substations, steam operation and cooling, mill yards. It’s
largest facility at 810 E. 14th
Street, was recently cited for discharging pollutants into the East
River, releasing toxic waste and air pollutants into the environment.17
The New York City
Housing Authority uses steam heat for its 13 public housing sites, as well as Stuyvesant Town,
and Village View Housing Cooperatives. The NYC Board of Education, Department of
Transportation and U.S. Postal Service are also dependent upon Con Edison for steam heat for
their facilities. Dry cleaners and dry cleaning plants account for the bulk of commercial
environmental waste in this area.18
In Alphabet City 9% or 68,000 housing units out of a total of 410,000, have a high risk of lead
hazards. Approximately 25% of the housing units are occupied by low income residents,
including 24,000 children under age 5 who are living below the poverty level.19
Alphabet City is located in one of the dirtiest counties in New York State for major chemical
releases or waste generation, scoring consistently in the 90th
–100th
percentiles for environmental
release, cancer and non-cancer risk scores (air and water release), and recognized carcinogens,
developmental and reproductive toxicants.20
17
U.S. Department of Environmental Protection. Envirofacts Data Warehouse,
http://www.oaspub.epa.gov/fii_master_retrieve , accessed 22 April 2005.
18
Ibid, http://oaspub.epa.gov/enviro/fii_master.fii_retrieve?postalcode=10009&all_programs=Y
19
Scorecard.org. http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/lead/county.tcl?_fips_county_code=36061#map
20
Scorecard.org, http://www.scorecard.org/env-
releases/county.tcl?fips_county_code=36061#major_chemical_releases

15
Table 1: Summary of Personal Survey of the Alphabet City Community
Type of Establishment Number
Appliance Store/TV Repair/Computer Store 4
Art Supplies, Galleries & Cultural Centers 6
Automotive: Supplies, Body, Flats, Gas Station 7
Banks/Financial Services 10
Bars & Liquor Stores 16
Boutique/Clothing Store 2
Car Service 1
Cinema/Off-Broadway Theatre 2
Commercial Storage 1
Condo/Co-Op/New Construction 20
Discount Stores/Thrift Shops/Gift Shop 5
Drug Store Chain/Pharmacies 7
Dry Cleaners, Laundromats & Tailors 24
Florist 1
Funeral Home 1
Govt. & Congressional Offices 2
Graffiti Mural 2
Green Space 14
Grocery Stores: Supermarkets/Deli's/Bodegas 41
Grooming: Beauty/Barber/Salon/Supplies/Nails/Skin/Tattoo & Shoe Repair 15
Hardware/Plumbing Supplies 3
Ice Cream Franchises/Bakery 2
Industrial 2
Institutional Residences 4
Interior Design Service, F&F/Furniture Store 2
Law Offices 3
Library 1
Medical Facilities: Dentists/Health/Mental Health Service/Optician 12
Non-Profit Organizations 6
Nursery/Day Care & Youth/Community Centers 8
NYC Public Housing 13
Office Services/Mail & Phone Stores/Communications/Internet Svc 7
Pet Shops/Grooming 6
Police & Fire Dept. 3
Printing Co./Photo Lab 3
Record/Video Store 5
Recreation: Fitness/Martial Arts/Massage/Pool 7
Religious Institution/House of Worship 32
Restaurants/Coffee Shops 90
Schools 7
Spiritual Expression 2
Utilities 3

16
PART V. DEMOGRAPHICS
Household Demographics
According to 2000 Census Data (for
selected Census Tracts 22.02, 26.01,
26.02, 28, 30.02, 32 and 34 which
encompass Alphabet City), the percentage
of Family Households out of all
households, that live in Alphabet City
(56%) is significantly lower than the
corresponding percentage for all of
Manhattan (61%) and for NYC as a whole
(80%). Similarly, the percentage of
Married-Couple Family Households that
live in Alphabet City (19%) is
significantly lower than the corresponding
percentage for all of Manhattan (25%) and
for NYC as a whole (37%). As a consequence, the percentage of Alphabet City households with
related children under the age of 18 (17.7%) is relatively low compared to all of Manhattan and
NYC as a whole – it’s approximately one-half the percentage for NYC as a whole (33.5%). It is
also noteworthy that the Housing Unit Vacancy Rate is significantly lower in Alphabet City (4%)
than it is for all of Manhattan (7%) and for NYC as a whole (6%). [See Figures 1 and 2]
Over the ten-year period from 1990 to
2000, the housing demographics for
Alphabet City experienced minimal
change with the exception of the housing
vacancy rate which decreased from 7%
to 4%. Family households went from
55% to 56%, Married Couple households
went from 20% to 19%, the percentage
of Married Couple families with related
children under the age of 18 decreased
from 9% to 8% and percentage of single
parent families with children under the
age of 18 decreased from 11% to 10%
Ethnicity
As indicated in Figure 3 (on the next page), the 2000 Census revealed that a significantly higher
percentage of Hispanics and lower percentage of Black/African Americans live in Alphabet City
(34% & 9%, respectively) than the corresponding percentages for all of Manhattan (27% & 15%)
and NYC as a whole (27% & 25%). The percentage of whites living in Alphabet City (43%) is
similar to the percentage for all of Manhattan (45%) and correspondingly significantly higher
than the percentage for NYC as a whole (35%).
The 1990 Census did not separate out Hispanics as a racial group. Some were classified as White
or Other. The only viable areas for comparison between the two censuses are Black/African
Americans and Asians. During the ten year period between the 1990 and 2000 Census the
percentage of Black/African Americans residing in Alphabet City decreased from 13% to 9%
and the percentage of Asians increased from 10% to 11%.

17
However, according to a June 11, 2001
Business Week Online article, New
York City Planning Dept. statistics
indicate a 6.9% rise in whites and a
14.1% decline in Hispanics from 1990
to 2000 in the area covered by
Community Board #3.21
While the
precise impact of this cannot be
determined since the total population
of Alphabet City increased 7% during
that ten-year period, the only viable
conclusion that can be surmised, is that
the Hispanics and Black/African
Americans who moved out of Alphabet
City were replaced mostly by whites.
Also of note is that the percentage of U.S. born residents in Alphabet City (73%) is slightly
higher than for all of Manhattan (71%) and NYC as a whole (64%). The percentage of residents
of Alphabet City who don’t speak English “very well” is just about the same as for all of
Manhattan and NYC as a whole – about 20%. Comparative 1990 city-wide data for English
fluency was unavailable. However, we do know that the percentage of residents who spoke
English poorly in Alphabet City per the 1990 Census represents 15% of this population.
The neighborhood is Heterogeneous – older Eastern Europeans immigrants live alongside
Hispanics, Black/African Americans, Asians, Whites, Pacific Islanders, punks, Rastafarians,
hippies and almost every other group imaginable. But, due to the gentrification trend which
began in the 1980’s, and intensified in the 1990’s, a whole new culture is transforming the
landscape. Young urban professionals who work on Wall Street or in Midtown, looking for
short commutes to work are driving the real estate, entertainment and restaurant industries in the
area. The sheer number of clubs and new and trendy restaurants, many Zagat rated, confirm the
demographic that this neighborhood is now attracting.
Age Profile
As Figure 4 reveals, compared to
all of Manhattan and NYC as a
whole, the Median Age of
residents in Alphabet City is
lower (Alphabet City: 33.7 years;
Manhattan: 35.8 years; NYC:
34.2 years). This is reflective of
the percentage of Alphabet City
residents aged 20-39 years (45%)
being significantly higher than
the corresponding age
distribution for residents of all of
Manhattan (38%) and NYC as a
whole (33%).
21
Pekarchik, Karen, “Alphabet City: The ABCs of Gentrification.” Business WeekOnline. 11 June 2001.
Accessed 03 March 2005. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_24/b3736044.htm
Total Population: 38,313

18
While the Median Age for Alphabet City residents is not specifically available in the 1990
Census data, the age distribution data for 1990 reveals that the Median Age did not change much
in that ten-year period. The data indicates that in 1990 the Median Age was somewhere between
30 and 34 years – probably a little lower than the 33.7 years it was in 2000.
Educational Profile
Figure 5 depicts the Educational
Profile for Alphabet City residents. It
is noteworthy that 40% of the
residents have four-year college
degrees. This percentage compares
favorably with the percentage for
residents of all of Manhattan (49%)
and NYC as a whole (27%). [1990
Census figures regarding levels of
education were unavailable]
Income Profile
The Income Profile and
Poverty Status data for
Alphabet City reveal some
interesting facts [See
Figure 6]. The Median
Income for both Families
and Households within
Alphabet City are
significantly lower than
those in all of Manhattan
and NYC as a whole. The
Median Household Income
in Alphabet City is 32%
below the median for all of
Manhattan and 17% below
the median for NYC as a whole. Similarly, the Median Family Income in Alphabet City is 40%
below the median for all of Manhattan and 29% below the median for NYC as a whole. This
income disparity is reflective of the fact a significantly greater percentage of households and
families in Alphabet City have incomes below $10,000 than do households and families in all of
Manhattan and NYC as a whole. Similarly, at the other end of the income scale (i.e. income
greater than $100,000), we find the opposite. A consequence of the income disparity is that a
significantly higher percentage of families in Alphabet City live below the Poverty Level (26%)
compared to the percentage of families in all of Manhattan and NYC as a whole that live below
the Poverty Level (18% for both).

19
It is noteworthy that in the period between 1990 and 2000, the median income for both
households and families in Alphabet City increased by 50%, from $21,000 to $32,000 and from
$21,000 to $30,000, respectively. Nevertheless, the percentage of Alphabet City families living
in poverty only decreased by one percentage point from 27% to 26% during that time period.
Labor Profile
Figure 7 provides a snapshot of
Alphabet City’s Labor Profile
which clearly reveals that the
Unemployment Rate for residents
of Alphabet City (7.5%) is lower
that the rates for both all of
Manhattan (8.5%) and NYC as a
whole (9.6%). Additionally, the
Employment Rate for Alphabet
City females is higher than it is for
the males, which is the opposite
of the situation in all of Manhattan
and NYC as a whole, where the
Employment Rate for males is
higher than it is for females. This
is especially significant in light of the fact that median incomes are lower in Alphabet City and
poverty is more prevalent. This appears to indicate that Alphabet City residents work more but
are paid less than residents of all of Manhattan and NYC as a whole. It appears that many
Alphabet City residents comprise what can be called the “working poor.”
During the period 1990 – 2000 the unemployment rate for Alphabet City residents decreased by
two percentage points. The female employment rate increased from 92% to 94 percent; male
employment increased from 89% to 92% and total employment increased from 90% to 93%.
Religious Ecology
There are thirty houses of worship
within Alphabet City, all of which
adhere to the teachings of
Christianity. However, just
outside of the borders of Alphabet
City there is at least one Jewish
Synagogue (Tifereth Israel, Town
and Village Synagogue; 334 East
14th
Street) and one Islamic house
of worship (Islamic Council of
America, Inc., 491 East 11th
Street). The denominational
representation of the churches in
Alphabet City is depicted in
Figure 8 and their names and
addresses are listed in Table 2.
There is evidence of other spiritual activity in Alphabet City consisting of Santeria, New Age,
Wicca, and the ubiquitous psychic readers represented by a Botanica located on East 3rd
St.

20
between Avenues D and C; psychic readers on East 7th
St. and on East 12th
Street, between
Avenues B and C; the Aquarian Foundation at 235 East 4th
Street and Enchantments - a
Witchcraft Store and Wicca Center located on East 9th
St. off of Ave. A.
Noteworthy Religious Trends
According to The Barna Group, “nationally, church attendance is decreasing and one-third of all
adults (34%) remain unchurched … and because of the nation’s population growth, the number
of unchurched adults continues to grow by nearly a million people annually.”22
Furthermore,
42% of adults in the Northeast have no church involvement. Of those who do attend church,
college graduates are more likely to attend than individuals without college degree and low
incomes.23
Additionally, overall, 41% of Hispanics – an ethnic group that comprises a
disproportionately large percentage of the population of Alphabet City – are unchurched.24
All of
this considered, it is likely that the number of churches in Alphabet City will remain substantially
unchanged.
Summary of Demographics
Alphabet City is truly a living mosaic of the complete spectrum of the human condition. It is
populated by people from just about every ethnic group from all over the world, running the
gamut of socio-economic possibilities. The higher employment rate of the populace, compared
to rest of Manhattan and all of NYC, is evidence of their positive work ethic. Unfortunately, as
testified by the area’s lower median income and higher poverty rate, many in that populace are
classified as the “working poor.” Yes, Alphabet City is home to both the impoverished and the
ultra-rich – and all economic strata in-between. Residents living in the “PJ’s” (projects) are just
down the block from those living in ultra-modern, multi-million dollar condominiums. And, the
broad diversity of spiritualism in the lives of the inhabitants can easily be seen throughout the
landscape. The community is home to a wide variety of spiritual expression, ranging from
Santeria, New Age, witchcraft and psychic readers to the traditional organized religions of
Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
This neighborhood is home to a well educated, somewhat younger population, and relatively
fewer family and married-couple households. For undetermined reasons, a significant trend that
seems to be unfolding in this neighborhood is the exodus of the Hispanic and Black/African
American populace. It appears that the void is being filled by whites – probably whites with
more financial clout than the individuals being replaced; probably the result of gentrification.
Can it be that money – the root of all kinds of evil – will eventually destroy the vibrancy and
colorfulness of this historic, multicultural neighborhood?
Note: Data for Figures 1-8 is provided in Appendix A. The source of the data for the charts is
the 2000 Census for selected Census Tracts 22.02, 26.01 ,26.02 , 28, 30.02, 32 and 34 which
encompass Alphabet City.
22
“One in Three Adults is Unchurched”This data was “based upon telephone interviews conducted in
January 2005 by The Barna Group using a random sample of 1003 adults. According to The Barna Group, the
maximum margin of sampling error associated with the sample of parents is ±3.2 percentage points at the 95%
confidence level. Accessed 18 April 2005,
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=185
23
Ibid.
24
Ibid

21
Table 2: Alphabet City Churches/Houses of Worship
Denomination Name and Address of Church/House of Worship
Baptist East 7th
Street Baptist Ministry 7th
Street, (Ave. C – D)
Baptist Gethsemane Garden Baptist Church, 223 E. 7th
St., (Ave. B – C)
Baptist Greater New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Inc., Rev. Dr. Joan D.
Brightharp, Pastor, 507 East 11th
Street (Ave. A – B)
Baptist Iglesia Bautista Evangelica, E. 8th
Street (Ave. C – D)
Baptist Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel, 256 E. 4th
St. (Ave. B – C)
Catholic Angel Memorial, 149 Avenue B, (8 – 9th
St.)
Catholic Mary Help of Christians Church, 440 East 12th
Street (Ave. A – 1st
Ave.)
Catholic St. Emeric’s Church, 740 East 13th
St, (Ave. C – D)
Catholic St. Brigid's R.C. Church (English/Spanish Services), 185 East 7th
St. (Ave. A
– B)
Catholic Most Holy Redeemer R.C. Church, 173 E. 3rd
St. (Ave. A-B)
Eastern
Orthodox
St. Nicholas Carpathian Russian Church, 288 East 10th
St. (corner Ave. A &
10th
St.)
Eastern
Orthodox
San Isidora & San Leandro Western Orthodox Christian Church, 345 East
4th St. (Ave. B – C)
Evangelical Damascus Christian Church 289 E. 4th
St. NYC (Ave. C – D)
Evangelical Monte Hermon Christian Church, 289 E. 3rd
St. (Ave.
Evangelical Father’s Heart Ministries, Inc. 545 E. 11th
St. (Ave. A – B)
Jehovah’s
Witness
Kingdom Hall. E.4th
Street and Avenue D.
Lutheran Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish, 602 East 9th
Street (Ave. B – C)
Pentecostal Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal Alpha & Omega, 168 Ave. A (bet. 10 - 11th
St.)
Pentecostal Iglesia de Dios Church of God, E. 6th
St. (Ave. B – C)
Pentecostal Iglesia Pentecostal Serpeta, 701 East 6th
St. (Ave. C NE Side)
Pentecostal Iglesia Cristiana Missionera, 247 East 7th St. (Ave. C – B)
Pentecostal Iglesia de Dios, E. 7th St. (Ave. C – B)
Pentecostal Holiness Unto The Lord Church, Inc., Helen Jenkins, Pastor, E. 3rd
(Ave. D –
C)
Pentecostal Iglesia Cristiana Montesion, 297 East 3rd St. (Ave. D – C)
Pentecostal Holy Ghost Deliverance Church, Pastor Leamon Morgan, E. 3rd
St. (Ave. D –
C)
Pentecostal Iglesia Pentecostal El Divinio Maestro, Rev. Julio Calcano, Pastor, 250 E.
3rd
St. (Ave. D – C)
Pentecostal Iglesia Pentecostal Camino A. Damasco, Pastor Raul Bruno, 4th St. (Ave. B
– C)
Pentecostal Iglesia Pentecostal Arcadia Salvacion, Inc., Pastor Orland Blancovitch, Ave.
A and East Houston/Suffolk, 265 East Houston St. (@ 3rd
St.)
Pentecostal Iglesia Pentecostal Huerto, 37 Ave. C
Pentecostal Redimida Pentecostal Church, 65 Ave. D. (@ 2nd
St.
Presbyterian Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, 737 East 6th
St. (Ave. C )
Unknown Basilica Scientific School, 202 Ave. B (11th St.)

22
PART VI. ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS
Theological Perspectives
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to be free, The
wretched refuse of your teeming shores, Send these, the homeless, the tempest
tossed, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. (Emily Lazarus)
Alphabet City, a microcosm of the Lower East Side of New York City, is by extension,
America’s backdoor to freedom.25
This neighborhood was built by immigrants, and once housed
African Americas, freed from slavery, immigrants from Ireland fleeing the potato famine and
Jews, German, Southern Italians and many others who were seeking a better life for themselves
and their families. The immigrant ethos is reflected in the location of the FHC&M as a sanctuary
for the poor and marginalized who, increasingly, have less and less access to food, shelter,
healthcare and employment.
God’s preference for the poor and God’s willingness to engage a suffering humanity is clearly
seen in the ministry’s theological response to the inhabitants of the city. Herzog says that “God’s
deprivation in Jesus, God’s impoverishment, is a correlate of God’s solidarity with the poor and
oppressed. As the divine person enters human deprivation in the ‘nonperson,’ the deprived
‘nonperson,’ Jesus also, constitutes God. So God as person is constituted also by the homeless,
the faceless.”26
This is also contextualized globally and socially because of the ministry’s ability and willingness
to see Christ in everyone, no matter what nationality or religion or sexual preference. According
to Jesus, the second central commandment of the Bible is to “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Mark
12:31). The ministry, albeit unintentionally, is producing its own contextual theology as it locates
its ‘God talk’ and ‘God walk’ in liberating and salvific acts for the poor and marginalized and its
awareness of structural vs. individual evils in society that create suffering, hunger and poverty.
This theology tells the poor that God loves them. And the ministry’s mission – vitiated by a
gospel of love – is to relieve the suffering of both the oppressed and their oppressors.
Although this ministry attracts ‘exiles’ “the paradigm of incarnation is more meaningful than the
Exodus story… because this Christology ‘from below’ that helped theologians rediscover the
historical dimensions of faith and the life of Jesus is continually revitalized by a Christology
‘from above’ that demonstrates that God chooses to walk on our paths in order to change them
and us.”27
The importance of an incarnational theology to FHC&M’s adult and youth ministry cannot be
underestimated and is deeply dependent upon meeting folks at their point of need and being
willing to undergo suffering and abuse to do so. The ministry recognizes that mental, emotional,
and relational problems all have spiritual components and that these issues also have a basis in
one’s physical nature. The weekly volunteer orientation conducted during the Saturday morning
feeding program stresses that people will curse you… be mad at you, but to remember that they
25
Ellis Island is referred to as “America’s Front Door to Freedom” in Ellis Island History, accessed 19
April 19, 2005, http://www.ellisisland.com/indexHistory.html
26
Frederick Herzog, “A New Spirituality: Shaping Doctrine at the Grassroots, The Christian Century,
(July30-August 6, 1986): 680-681. Article prepared by Harry W. and Grace C. Adams for Religion Online, accessed
21 April 2005, http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=322 .
27
Nancy E. Bedford, “Whatever Happened to Liberation Theology,” The Christian Century, 116, no. 28
(20 October 1999): 996.

23
are hurting and afraid, and that they carry the heavy baggage of deep emotional wounds. Their
pain and suffering may be the result of moral failure, victimization or the result of living in a
fallen world. This ministry doesn’t privilege itself to sit in judgment. What is important is that a
haven of physical, spiritual and psychological safety is provided.
Jesus’ radical message of self-denial, with-suffering (Mitleid in German, “which means to
overcome the subject/object division and be thrust into solidarity with another and experience, in
one’s person, the highest possible degree of identity with the other”28
), and the promise of a new
life (Matt. 10:38-39,16:24-25; Mark 8:34-35,10:21; Luke 9:23-24, 14:27) is extended to those
served by FHC&M.
Many of those called to serve at the Father’s Heart Church and Ministry Center are themselves
“wounded healers” and a theology of incarnation drives them deeper into their own wounds as
they suffer alongside those whom they are called to serve. This engenders inter-subjectivity and
participation vs. subject-object relationship and domination. Thus, Christian practice is
unconditional when individuals are free to be themselves and come to God (or not) on their own
terms.
The sense of belonging that the ministry provides is key to their success. Michael Polyanyu says
that, “Our believing is conditioned at its source by belonging.”29
This presupposes that faith
arises from belonging as much as it does believing. Incarnation is a reality with the confession
and Christ and belief in the continuing power and activity of the Holy Spirit in the recreation of
lives.
Structural Issues Engaged – Hunger and Poverty
While remaining true to its vision, FHC&M has been forced to undergo a radical, biblical
reorganization in order to achieve its core mission – to go beyond the walls of the church and
into the streets and fulfill the great commission and militate against hunger, poverty and social
injustice. This was necessitated by underground socio-economic and demographic shifts in the
community that the ministry discerned – along with FHC&M’s own fight to secure the survival
of its ministry.
Many of the individuals served by FHC&M come from outside of the community, e.g.
Chinatown. This influx is directly related to 9/11 and the onerous burden that the Chinatown
community still carries as a result of the massive business closures and job losses sustained. An
excerpt from The Nation, Posted February 27, 2003 follows:
“Chinatown--located a mile from Ground Zero--was also the community hardest hit by the
terrorist attack. Because of security checkpoints, traffic congestion during the season in which
garments had to be trucked and a sudden drop in tourism, Chinatown's economy collapsed in the
weeks after 9/11. Sixty-five garment factories in the neighborhood closed in the year after the
attack. Three-quarters of Chinatown's work force temporarily lost their jobs in the weeks after the
attack, according to the Asian American Federation, a community advocacy group. Although
Chinatown employees were only about 1 percent of New York City's work force, they suffered 10
percent of the unemployment caused by the calamity. Even three months after 9/11, the Asian
American Federation estimates, about 8,000 Chinatown workers were still unemployed.”30
“According to the New York City Coalition for the Homeless, the number of single adults
sleeping in the shelter system has increased by 41 percent since 1994 … and the number of
28
Ibid, 23.
29
Michael V. Polanyu, “Transcendance and Self-Transcendance” Sounding 53:1 (Spring,1970), 89
30
Jack Newfield, “How the Other Half Still Lives,” The Nation, 27 February, 2003,
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?I=e20030317&c=4&s=newfield

24
homeless single adults sleeping in shelters currently is at the highest point since 1990 - on a daily
basis there are 36,166 homeless adults and children sleeping each night in shelters and welfare
hotels and 74% of this number includes children and their families. The average daily census for
single adults (female and male) is 6,598 homeless single men and 2,045 homeless single
women.” And approximately 90% of homeless New Yorkers are black or Latino/a, although only
53% of New York’s total population is black or Latino/a.” 31
This doesn’t include the hardcore
street homeless (officially listed at 4,395 in a recent city-wide census) who are notoriously
undercounted. FHC&M sees evidence of homeless single adults and children and their families
at every feeding program. In fact, they estimate that at least 15% of their clientele is homeless.
The racial and ethnic context for its ministry was initially reflective of the Slavic ethnicity of its
membership and traditional church activities (i.e. concentration on Sunday Services, Bible Study
and Sunday School). This changed with the influx of Hispanics and African Americans in the
1970’s. At the same time, America’s problem with illegal drug use was raging in Alphabet City,
perpetuating the physical and spiritual impoverishment of the community. Many drug users and
addicts found a home in the church. Along with drug abuse, came homelessness, hunger and
poverty. And though the “campgrounds for the homeless” were eliminated, the homeless remain.
There are 27 drop-in centers for the homeless in the five boroughs of New York City, however
the one closest to the FHC&M is located at 437 W. 16th
St (at Ninth Avenue).32
“A landmark study of the relationship between income inequality, housing markets, and
homelessness was conducted by economist Brendan O’Flaherty, who analyzed homelessness and
housing in six large cities in industrialized countries (including New York City). He determined
that, on a structural level, modern homelessness was largely the result of changes in New York
City’s housing markets triggered by rising income inequality. According O’Flaherty’s analysis,
homelessness increased more in New York City than elsewhere because its rate of income
inequality was higher than those in other large cities. As a result, the number of housing units
produced for the shrinking middle class – which, over time, becomes housing for poor
households – declined, driving up prices at the bottom end of the housing market. The
consequence is that thousands of households were literally pushed out of the housing market and
became homeless.”33
Ministry in this community continuously collides with hegemonic patterns, such as racism and
classism that foster the political and social isolation and nihilism so apparent in marginalized
communities today. I believe that the ministry’s shift in the early 1980’s, from “business as
usual” to street evangelism, food/clothing distribution, and job training was a response to this
reality. This was an era of greed and excess, so aptly depicted in the movie, “Wall Street.” The
erosion of moral values, decimation of housing stock in the “hood,” and the depressed economy
compelled the ministry’s leadership to address the structural issues that accompany the
“unraveling of a community’s social fabric” (Arno).34
31
“Basic Facts about Homelessness” accessed 26 April 2005,
http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/advocacy/basic_facts.html
32
Resource Guide, New York Coalition for the Homeless. Accessed 22 April 2005.
http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/resource_guide/rm_search.asp?criteria=drop-in&x=8&y=10
33
Patrick Markee, The History of Modern Homelessness in New York prepared by The Coalition for the
Homeless, March 2003, http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/NYCHomelessnessHistory.pdf
34
“What a Difference a Digit Makes: A Neighborhood-by-Neighborhood Look at Infant Mortality in New
York City,” accessed 29 March 2005, http://www.inequality.org/differencedigit.html

25
Furthermore, critical events in the history of America and the church led to the development of
the church’s identity as a socially conscious and active entity. The turning point that led to the
formation of Father’s Heart Ministries was the AIDS epidemic and the resulting manifestation of
the “Boarder Babies” phenomena. At a time when most churches in the community were afraid
to open their doors to persons suffering from HIV and AIDS, Pastor Vedral intentionally and
publicly addressed this problem of exclusion.
Many of the members of the congregation were suffering, either directly or indirectly, and the
doors of the church were opened wide for them. Furthermore, the ministry’s focus on the health
and welfare issues of the African American community was unprecedented in its history. They
recruited volunteers for Harlem Hospital’s Pediatric AIDS Unit and mounted highly successful
fundraising and public awareness programs aimed at churches and civic associations in the
metropolitan area. They were successful in procuring grants, goods and services and developed
trusting and enduring relationships with the administration and healthcare workers at the Harlem
Hospital Center.
Moreover, Pastors Chuck and Carol Vedral were moved to become foster parents to 15 African
American babies and children and eventually were able to adopt two Jewish children. Because
of the resistance they faced as Caucasians who wanted to adopt minority children, they decided
to open their own adoption agency – and named it “The Father’s Heart Ministries.”
Soon after, they came to understand that their ministry as spiritual parents was much broader and
more comprehensive: they were to minister to all of God’s fatherless and motherless and
homeless “children.”
The walls formerly erected by ethnicity and tradition had finally come down in a powerful and
enduring way and the ministry was in solidarity with the suffering of its neighbors.
The Impact of Gentrification on Alphabet City
How much the neighborhood has changed! Up until the late 1960’s this neighborhood was a
ghetto – for poor, mostly Polish and Ukrainian folks. When the drug culture arrived in the
1970’s it became a drug war zone, inhabited by poor Puerto Ricans and African Americans. The
speculators arrived in the 1980’s and gentrification took hold.
I lived in Alphabet City from 1973 to 1989 and have intimate knowledge of the socio-economic
dynamics at play during that time period and will use personal anecdotal evidence to demonstrate
the effect of gentrification on this community. Even today, in 2005, Alphabet City still has a
strong neighborhood feel, despite heavy gentrification. People greet and or acknowledge you as
you walk down the streets. But the neighborhood now seems sanitized in comparison to its past
condition.
Beginning in the early 1970’s, housing activists, known as “homesteaders” of which I am proud
to have been associated with, in partnership with the NYC Dept. of Housing Preservation and
Development, fought against unscrupulous landlords who used illegal means such as failure to
provide heat and hot water, renting units to drug dealers who terrorized tenants, and even arson,
to empty buildings. Along with anti-drug activists (who drove out drug activity and drug sales)
we initiated the transformation of deteriorating housing stock in Alphabet City, through gut-
rehabbing and/or renovating tenement buildings, that we managed and later purchased under the
little known and (I believe intentionally) under-publicized Local Real Estate Law 7A. Through
the 7A Program, we were able to purchase apartments for a mere $250. Little did we know that
this would open the door to gentrification.

26
Rents are now in the $3,500 – $4,500 per month range. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, rents were in
the $65- $115 per month range. When I moved to this neighborhood in January, 1973, I was
paying $115 per month for a one bedroom, fifth floor walk-up apartment. There were no
minorities in most of the buildings then and it was difficult to rent an apartment in those days if
you happened to be a member of a minority group. When I left in 1989, I owned a two bedroom,
2 bath co-op with beautiful oak floors and double French doors, which I purchased for $500 from
the City of New York and sold for $40,000. Today a rental on this same apartment is $3,000 per
month and the market value around $450,000. It’s again hard to find minorities in my old
building, but for different reasons.
Furthermore, in those days mortgages for apartments in this neighborhood were unavailable
because of the practice of redlining. Potential purchasers had to have the cash or take out
personal loans which local banks then capped at $20,000. Now even the Lower East Side
Peoples Federal Credit Union advertises “micro-loans” and co-op loans. Now no one thinks
twice about purchasing property in this community. In fact, there is evidence of new construction
throughout this community with prices starting at $555,000. Some of this construction is
adjacent to major public housing development. “Back in the day,” no one wanted to live here
(much less buy anything “starting at $555,000) because white folks wouldn’t venture past First
Avenue, much less over to Avenue D, unless they were buying drugs. Filled with couture shops,
boutiques and Zagat rated restaurants, Alphabet City is now considered to be a desirable
“destination” neighborhood.
The ministry not only attracts the poor but also affluent community members who want to
contribute financially. One of their benefactors, who was familiar with their outreach, noticed
how out of step the building exteriors were with the rest of the neighbor, so he paid to have the
exteriors renovated; others provided free consulting and legal services, set up computer labs,
provide accounting and web master services, etc. Back in the seventies and eighties it seemed
that the church and the community were antagonists. They are now partners.
Nevertheless, the demography has changed dramatically. This gap between the “haves” and
“have nots” has widened and these groups are struggling (and not necessarily together) in the
same geographic location. The “haves” are generally represented by young white professionals.
The “have nots” are still African American and Hispanic and the Chinese community has now
joined the fray. This is confirmed by the constituency that the ministry serves in its Saturday
morning pantry and soup kitchen program.
Typical demographics for the ministry’s feeding program fluctuate between 30% Hispanic; 25-
30% African American; 40% Chinese (Fujianese and Cantonese); and 5 – 10% Polish American.
Eighty-five percent of those served represent the working poor and about 15% are homeless. An
estimated 25% - 30% are mentally ill; and 25% -30% suffer from substance abuse problems,
(down from 100% in the 1970’s). Of the population served, 15% are senior citizens, 51% are
adults and 34% are children. The number of elderly and children seeking food rose by 3% and
10% respectively since 2003. The Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry served 53,730 meals in 2003
and 646,143 meals in 2004. According to Pastor Chuck, the community “always has been, and
always will be transient.” The rise in numbers served may be attributed to the ministry’s
growing agility in networking with public and private agencies, and a general increase in poverty
and hunger.

27
The City of New York conducted a census of the homeless who live on the streets of the city.35
The number of “hardcore street homeless”, i.e. those who lack temporary shelter is estimated to
be 4,395. One of the homeless persons interviewed in the article stated, “It’s one of the biggest
and richest cities, and yet they can’t find homes for everyone because they’re priced out.”36
Nowhere is this more evident than in Alphabet City.
Living in two different worlds, the unemployed and the working poor and those who can afford
housing are faced with vastly different life issues. Lacking basics such as food and shelter – life
becomes an exercise in survival. A 2003 study of 1990’s mobility by two economists at the
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that the chances that poor Americans would stay stuck in
their strata had increased vs. the 1970’s when the potential for upward mobility was more
likely.37
And not because they’re on welfare or unemployed. Over 63% of U.S. families below
the federal poverty line have one or more workers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. They’re
not just minorities, either. Nearly 60% are white. About one fifth of the working poor are
foreign-born, mostly from Mexico. And, the majority possess high school diplomas and even
some college – which 30 years ago would have assured them a shot at the middle class.38
As
stated earlier, 85% of those served at the Hunger Prevention Program are classified as the
“working poor.” The analysis of census data for Alphabet City supports this conclusion.
Certainly, the poor cannot support the neighborhood’s trendy restaurants and pricey shops. These
shops, that they cannot afford to patronize, were opened in response to a new demand, by new
affluent neighbors. Nor do they have the leisure time implicit in the ability to have membership
in one of the many fitness clubs that are springing up in Alphabet City. There is a marked social
stratification in this community, which shows no signs of abating.
Urbanization in Alphabet City
How does the FHC&M impact and how it is impacted by the urban ecology of Alphabet City?
The effects of urbanization on this community are clear. According to Wirth, urbanization has a
negative affect upon family life.39
This is evident in the weakening of kinship ties and sense of
alienation and separation experienced by the core constituency that the Father’s Heart Church
and Ministries serves. The call from the ministry to “come home” … that “Daddy’s not angry
anymore” is rendered that much more poignant. It is also a prophetic call for the recovery of the
family, which, according to Putnam, is “the most fundamental form of social capital.”40
A
consequence of urbanization may also be impoverished social capital, and an inability of
individuals to change the larger systems that affect them. This may be a result of fractured
relationships, diminished human potential, and diminished “human capital,” which is defined as
“the knowledge, skills, competences and other attributes embodied in individuals that are
35
“Street is Home for 4,395: That’s the estimate of first citywide census of homeless who don’t live in
shelters or temporary housing,” New York Newsday, 23 April 2005, p.A5.
36
Ibid.
37
BusinessWeek Online, May 31, 2004,
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_22/b3885001_mz001.htm. Accessed 18 April 2005.
38
Ibid.
39
Louis Wirth, “Urbanism as a Way of Life” in The City Reader, 3rd
ed., Edited by Richard T. LeGates
and Frederic Stout, (London and New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group 2000), 103.
40
Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital” in The City Reader, 3rd
ed.,
Edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout, (London and New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
2000), 107, 110.

28
relevant to economic activity.”41
John Coleman identifies religious organizations as primary
incubators for social capital in America,42
and FHC&M certainly generates religious capital.
New York City and its sub-neighborhood, Alphabet City, is blessed with rich networks of civic
engagement and the Father’s Heart Church and Ministries has itself established The Alphabet
City Network. The goal of this group is to organize cooperative neighborhood networks to
diversify and reduce duplication of local social services and effectively tackle social problems in
the community. To date, five non-profit organizations are fully committed to the network.
The networking strategy is reminiscent of the one that the Four Corners Action Coalition
attempted.43
The Alphabet City Network started out with a large turnout of organizations that has
now dwindled down to five. It is hoped that these numbers are sufficient to create the synergies
they need to mobilize community resources and planning. My question is: why no other churches
are represented? The scope of this current study precludes resolution of this query.
It is not coincidental that FHC&M initiated the Alphabet City network, which may be defined as
a “horizontal network,”44
in that it represents connections among neighborhood institutions that
help to focus existing resources to address neighborhood problems.
Volunteerism is high at the FHC&M and the impact of the ministry on the ecology of Alphabet
City is evident in the level of volunteerism or civic engagement that the ministry inspires. The
diversity of volunteers that the ministry attracts is too long to list here. Unlike most faith-based
organizations, one doesn’t have to be a member of the church or even be a Christian to volunteer
here. This model has resulted in multicultural diversity, and ecumenical reciprocity. Volunteers
come from over 200 organizations across the United States, including denominational and non-
denominational churches from Chinatown, the Bronx and Paderborn, Germany; synagogues,
local high schools, the Junior League, Jack and Jill, Mid-western Christian Student Associations,
the Hindu Society, U.S. Coast Guard, and many of the largest corporations in America. In fact,
as of February, 2005, volunteers were booked clear through September 2005. The ministry has
an AmeriCorps*VISTA Project volunteer, provided through a program run by The Food Bank
for New York City, who is writing grant proposals to create sustainable assets for the ministry.
The Father’s Heart Church and Ministry Center networks with the faith based community,
government, corporate and private organizations, including The Food Bank for New York City,
NYC Coalition Against Hunger, City Harvest, America’s Second Harvest, Chinese American
Planning Council, Dept. of Youth and Child Development, Barrier Free Living, Inc., New York
Cares, Beth Israel Continuum Health Partners, the Food Stamp Outreach Project, World Vision,
Habitat for Humanity, JPMorganChase, the USDA, Stuyvesant Square Chemical Dependency
Treatment Program, WorkForce NYC to name but a few. The ministry became a designated
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) site after 9/11. In fact, Stromberg
Consulting, a Manhattan based marketing firm, that worked with the ministry over a period of
eight weeks to develop the branding strategy for Alphabet Scoop, originally came to the ministry
41
“The Complementary Roles of Human and Social Capital,” isuma,2, no. 1, (Spring 2001): 1. Accessed 20
April 2005, http://www.isuma.net/v02n01/schuller/schuller_e.shtml.
42
John Coleman, “Religious Social Capital: Its Nature, Social Location, and Limits,” in Religion as Social
Capital: Producing the Common Good, (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2003), 33.
43
Omar M. McRoberts, Streets of Glory, (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2003),
125.
44
Ibid, 123.

29
to bag groceries for the Saturday morning feeding program. That experience led them to provide
pro bono services to the ministry.
McRoberts, would refer to “these connections between neighborhood and extra-neighborhood
institutions … as ‘vertical networks’ which draw resources to the community while presenting
neighborhood affairs to a broader public.”45
The ministry successfully mediates social
transformation in Alphabet City because it acts as an “institutional agent that can impact the
trajectory and outcomes of neighborhood collective action”46
as it attracts goods and services to
the community. The ministry has made itself known in the community, through its feeding
ministry and Alphabet Scoop, it’s retail and wholesale ice creamery and job training program –
making a significant impact on the local economy and real estate market. The very existence of
Alphabet Scoop is evidence of the ministry’s broad appeal. Architects, electrical and plumbing
contractors, and consultants worked pro bono to make it a reality and its presence is a stabilizing
factor that signifies that the community is a nice place in which to live. The irony is that
gentrification has provided the economics that makes Alphabet Scoop a viable enterprise.
To the ministry, the “street” represents “a point of contact with persons at risk who are to be
served.”47
This mirrors the theological orientation of the Azusa Christian Community profiled in
Streets of Glory. “They took the street neither as an inherently evil place nor as a space for
recruitment. To the contrary, the street was the place where Jesus tested the commitment of the
faithful to those poor and vulnerable.”48
Like Azusa, the Father’s Heart Church and Ministry is
interested in spiritual salvation, but offers, “in the meantime, preemptive and palliative social
services, to treat the causes and consequences of youth violence.”49
And, like Azusa, the division
between the street and the church is blurred. Indeed, the Father’s Heart could be seen as a
“church without walls,” in homage to Paula White’s spectacular “Church Without Walls
International Ministry,” located in Tampa, FL. Active recruitment of member is discouraged at
the Father’s Heart and unlike most churches and parachurch organizations, names and addresses
are optional here.
Religious social capital works here as a secondary effect. At the intersection of prophetic social
activism and capitalism is Alphabet Scoop – a “for-profit” retail and wholesale ice creamery.
Their professionally produced brochure states, “Alphabet Scoop is a socially conscious ice
creamery located in the heart of Alphabet City. We are offering high quality ice cream while
serving as a job training program in which at-risk youth are equipped with life skills that will
serve them as they mature and advance in school and the job market. Every time you buy our ice
cream you will be helping a teen stay off the streets and away from gangs.”
The idea of “social capital” is defined it in terms of “networks, norms and trust that facilitate
coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit.”50
Therefore, what are the “norms, networks
and trusts” at FHC&M?
I believe that the norms are expressed in the ministry’s four timeless fundamentals:
unconditional love, unconditional acceptance, unconditional forgiveness and unconditional
commitment. These are the core values that are transmitted through the ministry’s message and
45
McRoberts, Streets of Glory, 123.
46
Ibid.
47
Ibid, 91.
48
Ibid.
49
Ibid.
50
Putnam, “Bowling Alone,” 110.

30
relational model. The networks are between the children and youth, their parents, volunteers and
ministry staff.
Social trust is an important dimension of social capital and here at FHC&M it is forged between
parents, children, youth workers and the pastors. There is evidence that inter-racial trust is high
at FHC&M. This dimension is seen as the most significant challenge to creating social capital in
diverse communities.51
Alphabet Scoop was birthed through KidZone™ – a gang prevention and youth development
program for children and youth ages 4 to 18, operated by the Father’s Heart Ministry Center. The
program provides a place for youth to connect with each other and positive adult role models. It
is designed to reduce risk factors that lead to gang involvement. This program transforms the
multi-purpose sanctuary into a community center every Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. Children,
youth and family members are invited to receive a fun meal, sometime from McDonald’s or Papa
John’s, or their own kitchen ministry. After eating, the kids have arts and crafts, free guitar and
self-defense lessons or nutritional education classes. Their families “visit with each other, play
chess or crochet” while the youth are engaged in program activities. They and the ministry are
forming tight social networks of accountability that are perpetuated beyond the program setting.
They have the parent’s telephone numbers and ensure that communication between parents, their
children and the ministry is consistently maintained.
What kinds of relationships that create communal and collective benefit operate at FHC&M?
Youth who participate in KidZone™ are encouraged to join the job training program that the
ministry offers through Alphabet Scoop. Youth trainees also come to the program by word-of-
mouth. As they learn how to be spiritually mature, productive citizens, they develop
relationships and trust. In fact, one of the first graduates from the program has just been
promoted to First Mate by Spirit Cruises. This young man continues to volunteer. His current
success is due to the synergies that this ministry generates, because he was able to find
employment through an individual who stumbled into the church for prayer and who happened to
work for the cruise line. Prayer answered, he began volunteering with the ministry and was
himself recently licensed and promoted as Ship’s Captain. He developed relationships and has
become a reliable and trustworthy resource for jobs and recently hired yet another volunteer. He
has extended himself to his fellow volunteers and they reward him by excelling on the job. These
relationships demonstrate the type of obligation and commitment that characterizes social
capital. These individuals, thus benefited, continue to serve the ministry and are becoming
economically self-sufficient. This example demonstrates the efficacy of the religious social
capital at the Father’s Heart Church and Ministries.
But one wonders how the ministry can straddle two worlds – of religion and capitalism and
retain a critical distance from capitalism. This question, “what is the church doing in the ice
cream business?” was proposed to Pastor Carol at the Father’s Heart. Her reply follows:
CV: Right. I wonder too. But it helps that it is being opened by a non-profit and not the church.
But it could still be opened by a church. It could easily be opened by a church. It would be a great
benefit. Ephesians 3:10 says that God’s intention is that now through the church His manifest
wisdom will be revealed to the powers and authorities. I believe that God wants to reveal his
wisdom in everything that’s going on through His people. And the Church has taken a very
religious approach to that, where it has to be through the traditional means we’ve always used.
But I think some in the Body are very creative in doing these social enterprises as well as just pure
51
Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, accessed 22 April 2005,
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/saguaro/communitysurvey/results5.html.

31
business. What’s wrong with godly businesses? I feel like the whole culture of industry has gone
to greed. We cut jobs so that the top people can make millions and millions and millions. How
many millions does a person need? So I believe that the influence of godly people upon culture
has to be in everything… not just the traditional church outlet that we are familiar with. We
have to be salt and we have to be light, but you know, we have to get out there.
“In the world yet not of it” is a “particularism of exilic consciousness”52
expressed by the
Father’s Heart (as well as countless Evangelical churches), that they have extended to
marketplace activity. On April 17, 2005, at the Sunday morning worship service, Jesus
Martinez, Associate Pastor and General Manager of Alphabet Scoop received a “word” from the
Lord. He lifted up Jeremiah Chapter 29 – “A Letter to the Exiles” – exhorting the congregation
“to set up camp right where you feel out of place. Camp yourself right where you are and declare
God’s plans to prosper you.” He went on to remind the congregation that in the midst of exile,
God instructed the children of Israel “to build and settle down.” Jesus concluded his exhortation
with a reminder that God has not forgotten [His] people.
This “word” can be seen as a rejoinder to the grace that God had extended to the ministry
through an article heralding Alphabet Scoop that appeared in the Sunday, April 17, 2005 edition
of the New York Times (see Attachment 1 in the Appendix). An affirmation of God’s provision
and blessing on Alphabet Scoop was explicit.
The ethic to be “in the world yet not of it” can be applied to efforts to maintain a critical distance
from the capitalist structures that the ministry is now embedded vis-à-vis Alphabet Scoop. As
Pastor Carol so indisputably affirmed: “the influence of godly people upon culture has to be in
everything.” I believe that the “guiding integrative principle of love”53
that’s integral to how this
ministry has conducted its affairs and relationships, will assist it in retaining its ethical clarity
and Christian integrity. The irony of selling $3.00 ice cream cones and $4.50 pints directly
adjacent to a ministry-operated soup kitchen is not lost on them. The justification is simple: all
proceeds from the ice cream directly fund the ministry’s programs and help save young lives.
The incarnational theology and practices of this ministry ensure that love will ground them –
both ontologically and as a means to an end. “The foundation of Christian ethics in business is
not rules but the changeless character of God … and focuses on the character of love as a holistic
challenge to integration.”54
Finally, “Christ’s incarnation as a model for Christians to follow in
integrating into the marketplace…. going into the world compelled by love … identifying with
the lost and lonely in the dark marketplace, so as to lead them into the light and love of Christ …
proactively seeking out the interest of the other first”55
– is “Changing Lives One Scoop At A
Time.”
Recommendations
Although the ministry is not concerned with focusing on increasing membership numbers in the
Father’s Heart Church, at this time, they are sensitive to the need to bridge the gap between
secular volunteerism and church membership. The Father’s Heart Church involves its members
in its social activism, much like the Azusa Christian Community referenced in Streets of Glory,
52
Ibid, 61.
53
Mike McLoughlin, “Beyond Integration, Unto Incarnation: Love as the Integrative Principle for the
Marketplace Christian,” December, 1998. Accessed 13 April 2005,
http://www.scruples.org/web/articles/Beyond%20Integration.htm.
54
Ibid.
55
Ibid.

32
but there is little interplay between those that volunteer and those who attend Sunday morning
service.
The solution is two-fold: (1) Incorporate more “socializing”56
programs into the ministry, with
special interest, small group socialization activities that appeal to the volunteers; and, (2) expand
the Saturday morning platform ministry by featuring Jesus Martinez as the main preacher. This
will present a new “face” to the leadership that a younger demographic can relate to, as well as
provide a cultural touchstone for the Hispanic guests who receive services from the ministry.
This may energize congregational involvement and encourage cross-pollination between the
congregation and the volunteers who are unchurched.
Dr. A. R. Bernard, Sr. Pastor of the Christian Cultural Center (CCC), Brooklyn, NY, teaches
about the Pattern of the Harvest. This pattern, which applies to every dimension of life, specifies
the following four steps:
1. Condition the soil;
2. Sow the seed;
3. Water/nourish it;
4. Reap the harvest;
FHC&M’s primary focus of its outreach efforts is toward “Conditioning the Soil.” There is also
some “Sowing of the Seed” in the message that “the Father is not angry because He has
reconciled Himself to us through the sacrifice of His son, Jesus,” but that message may not be
having the desired effect upon some, especially the men. Allow me to recount an incident that
my husband related to me about a Men’s Prayer Meeting at CCC that is pertinent to this
argument.
During the meeting Dr. Bernard broke down it tears as he was about to make the fourth altar call.
He was deeply grieved in his spirit and did not know why, until he saw the result of the altar call
for reconciliation of men to their earthly fathers. Between 35% and 40% of the men in
attendance answered that call. There the pastor stood with about 350 men at the altar seeking
reconciliation. It was the vast number of men who needed to be reunited with their fathers that
caused such heavy grief in pastor’s spirit. More importantly, most of the men were not seeking
forgiveness from their fathers, they needed to forgive their fathers.
Thus, it’s very possible that the men who come to FHC&M programs fail to respond to the core
message because they need to forgive their own fathers. Therefore, the message doesn’t have the
intended impact.
Theoretically, the hundreds of people who come for food every Saturday are potential
congregants. However, I don’t believe that additional effort should be directed toward “sowing
seeds” to them, other then having Jesus Martinez address them and modifying or augmenting the
message slightly – to emphasize that they are feeding them bread to nourish the body, but that
they would also like to nourish their souls with the Bread of Life so that their entire existence,
mind, spirit and body could be transformed. As one of the homeless guests at the Saturday
morning feeding program, who happens to be a Buddhist remarked, “I come here for food, not
shelter.” We must remember that thousands followed Jesus to receive bread to feed their body,
yet they did not remain with Him to receive the Bread of Life (John 6:26, 35).
56
Ibid,120.

33
PART VII.
WORKS CITED
Ammerman, Nancy. “Culture and Identity in the Congregation. Studying Congregations: A New
Handbook. Edited by Nancy Ammerman, Jackson W. Carroll, Carl S. Dudley and William
McKinney. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998.
Bedford, Nancy E. “Whatever Happened to Liberation Theology,” The Christian Century, 116,
no. 28. October 20,1999.
Coleman, John “Religious Social Capital: Its Nature, Social Location, and Limits,” Religion as
Social Capital: Producing the Common Good. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2003.
Dudley, Carl S., “From Typical Church to Social Ministry: A Study of the Elements Which
Mobilize Congregations.” Review of Religious Research. Vol. 32, No. 3, 1991
Eiesland Nancy L. and Warner, R. Stephen “Ecology: Seeing the Congregation Context,”
Studying Congregations: A New Handbook. Edited by Nancy Ammerman, Jackson W.
Carroll, Carl S. Dudley and William McKinney. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998.
Ellis Island Homepage, accessed 19 April 19, 2005,
http://www.ellisisland.com/indexHistory.html
ETOV Blog. Gentrification on Avenue D: Reformation for Lower East Side or Puerto Rican
Downfall? http://www.etov.com/site2/archives/17-Gentrification-on-Avenue-
D:Reformation-for-Lower-East
Herzog, Frederick. “A New Spirituality: Shaping Doctrine at the Grassroots, The Christian
Century.(July 30- August 6, 1986). http://www.religion-
online.org/showarticle.asp?title=322 .
Homepage VolunteerNYC.org. The Father’s Heart Ministries on. accessed 14 April 2005,
http://www.volunteernyc.org/org/2337573.html
Inequality.org web page. “What a Difference a Digit Makes: A Neighborhood-by-Neighborhood
Look at Infant
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35
PART VIII. APPENDIX
APPENDIX

TFHM Congregational Study 2005

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