THE CHURCH
Harvest Springs Community Church in Great Falls, Montana
THE CHALLENGE
Many Native American communities face social, economic and spiritual poverty.
ONE BIG IDEA
Launch a ministry to meet the needs of the local Indigenous peoples.
Harvest Springs Community Church in Great Falls, Montana, sits surrounded by several Native American reservations. Being from the local Fort Belknap Indian Reservation himself, Joe Addy understands the communities’ struggles.
“There is a lot of poverty within [Native American] country, and that has led to things like broken homes. There are a lot of suicides, a lot of single mother households and single grandmother households,” he explains.
Addy, who serves as Harvest Springs’ pastoral care and Native outreach pastor, and his wife wanted to do more to help, so they approached Harvest Springs’ board with the idea of starting a ministry program to the local Native American communities. The board approved, and in 2019, the church launched Native American Ministry Outreach.
Addy and his team started by visiting people in their homes and delivering food and supplies monthly. Today, the ministry takes a holistic approach to serving Native American communities. While they still deliver food each month, Addy says, “We also deliver anything from freezers [to] beds to couches, and we pray with folks.”
Additionally, the church offers these communities counseling and Bible studies. Harvest Springs also conducts church services every month at Fort Belknap. Addy recalls one man, a former addict, to whom he ministered.
“I prayed for him for quite a while, and a year ago he got radically saved,” he testifies.
For youth, Harvest Springs operates basketball, soccer and boxing camps. “We also have a horse camp that gets the kids back to their Native roots,” Addy adds.
Besides taking part in those activities, teens interested in selling their artwork or putting on Native American dance and musical performances can take business and marketing courses offered through the ministry. And to address an ongoing epidemic of violence against Native American women, the outreach runs a women’s self-defense and fitness class.
According to Addy, it is important to meet people where they are. “Missions are a major part of what we do to reach outside the four walls of the church.
