A Place of Rest

Take a housing shortage, add the high cost of existing housing, and it is no surprise that the number of homeless people in San Diego County is on the rise. Meridian Baptist Church, however, came up with a creative solution to offer homeless women a respite.

Located in El Cajon, California, Meridian Baptist had some land they weren’t using, so Senior Pastor Rolland Slade suggested building “sleeping cabins,” 96 square feet of livable space that doesn’t have a permanent foundation or running water but does have electricity. The idea was to provide a place of solace for women with children so that they can rest and refocus before transitioning to permanent supportive housing or long-term transitional housing.

Slade reached out to city officials, navigating the proper channels to handle zoning issues and other details. Thankfully, all parties involved embraced his vision. In April 2019, the church partnered with builder Amikas and social services provider Home Start to build six emergency sleeping cabins for women with young children. 

“We want them to come here to rest for a bit before they have to start making decisions that will impact their lives,” says Slade, who hopes that other area churches will follow suit.

“If 100 of the 1,700 faith community properties in San Diego County would build six emergency sleeping cabins, that would provide 600 cabins,” he says. “That would impact the homeless population in the county.”

Meridian Baptist’s six-cabin village, which features calming landscaping, has a raised garden bed to grow vegetables. Residents have access to the church’s kitchen in the fellowship hall as well as a shower trailer. 

Slade thinks of the homelessness issue through the lens of the four men who brought the paralytic to Jesus in Mark 3:11 by lowering him through the roof.

“We don’t know their names. We just know that what was most important to them was getting their friend in front of Jesus,” says Slade. “I think that’s what we’re doing.” 

Christy Heitger-Ewing
Christy Heitger-Ewinghttp://christyheitger-ewing.com/

Christy Heitger-Ewing is a contributing writer for Outreach magazine. In addition, Christy pens the “Now & Then” column in Cabin Life magazine. She also writes regularly for Christian publications such as Encounter, Insight, and the Lookout. She is the author of Cabin Glory: Amusing Tales of Time Spent at the Family Retreat.

Ohio Church Makeover

This move would not only give them room to grow, but also would enable them to do a lot more to fulfill their mission of being a church focused on “building the kingdom, one life at a time.”

How Much Tech Do You Actually Need?

Because you cannot do this alone, you are going to have to trust the right individuals who know more about tech than you do. Your calling is to shepherd. Do that.

Gene Appel: Do Less Ministry; Reach More People

None of the programs at our church were bad in and of themselves. The volume of it just prevented us from being focused on building relationships with those who are far from God. So, we had to do less ministry to reach more people. It sounds funny, but people had to be trained in how to do life with nonbelievers or people spiritually disinterested.