Good News Report: Bethany Covenant Church, DuBois, PA

Please join us in celebrating a Good News Report on Outreach at Bethany Covenant Church in DuBois, PA.

Reflecting upon this year’s Annual Celebration and the decision to feature Good News Reports in our E-Newsletter gathering, I am in awe of the way the Lord has continued to bring these stories to life in and amongst shutdowns, limited resources and endless challenges.

I had the opportunity to connect with two Bethany Covenant leaders: Pastor Jesse Slimak and Mr. Scott DeCarlo. Both shared rich perspectives on how the Spirit of God is working in and through their congregation to move believers from an inward-looking mentality to a more outward-focused view. Naturally, this shift has exploded their Outreach.

Bethany Covenant has always been a close-knit church, vividly depicting the Christian community in the Book of Acts. Believers took care of one another, and they did it selflessly and beautifully. However, through the Vitality Process and some hard work, it was discerned that Outreach was an area in which they could strengthen. This meant taking that wonderful, inward care for those within the church and expanding it to people in the community — those who had no real investment in Bethany Covenant, per se, but were children of God who deserved to experience the same kind of love and care.

Something unique to Bethany is its proximity to the downtown area. Though DuBois isn’t huge, the population in that specific area is fairly dense. The church building is located  across the street from subsidized housing, near an apartment building, next to a tattoo shop, down the street from a well-trafficked coffee house, behind the public library, and next to a bustling community bus stop. Because of this prime location for traffic, Bethany identified two innovative ways to regularly offer service to the community — two of which we want to highlight.

Thanks to a very generous donation, the church was able to renovate their basement. With highly relational intentionality, the basement was remodeled for the purpose of being used by the DuBois community. When asked to share their basement with an outside group who wanted to serve community meals, they said yes. In doing so, Bethany Covenant  was able to provide volunteers and reach a number of folks who they normally would not have encountered. Throughout the pandemic, they have been able to package meals-to-go, infusing outreach principles like inserting invitations to online worship, giving out masks, and offering prayer. Over the summer, they saw an increase in people served each week from approximately 25 to 100 — good news, indeed!

As the world experienced pandemic life into the summer, Bethany Covenant refocused their mindset from “How is COVID-19 limiting us?” to “What kind of unique opportunities is COVID-19 presenting?” Instead of worshiping inside of the building, they were able to open up with outdoor gatherings, which contributed to more of a community presence. People could see, hear and join them in a season of uncertainty and loneliness. Individuals were joining worship from their balconies across the street. Workers were taking extra long breaks outside of the tattoo parlor, watching at first and eventually, worshipping. Wherein outdoor services might have been a loud and forceful morning nuisance to people’s weekends, it had become a valuable dose of goodness, distraction, and sense of community.

Bethany Covenant’s Bus Stop Ministry has been able to make a great impact by serving warm soup in the winter and cold water in the summer. They recognized that benches were needed, and instead of providing permanent fixtures, they’ve opted to continue physically setting up chairs as a way to continually engage with people. It has provided additional opportunities for people to serve inside of their unique gift sets and funnel them toward outreach. For example, one person is great at making soup while another person who might normally not have the time to go on an “outreach trip” can swing by the bus stop on their way home from work and pray with a few riders. Pastor Jesse passionately pointed out that when you are in front of a church and someone gives you a glass of cold water on a hot day, you “usually feel safe and are pretty open to talking about Jesus.”

Church members have always had big hearts and have been willing to serve — they just needed a little bit of direction, a whole lot of encouragement, and a push to operate in their unique gift sets. Pastor Jesse believes Outreach is a spiritual discipline that one needs to practice. “I relate it to intercessory prayer. Some are naturally gifted in that, but it doesn’t mean that other people don’t pray,” he explained. “You don’t have to be an experienced evangelist to evangelize.” Jesse teaches that making disciples is not for the elite. It simply, should be a normative part of the life of a Christian.

As longtime member Scott DeCarlo explained: “I’m super thrilled that the church is in an outward-thinking mode. For some 20+ years, we’ve cared for and loved one another well. To have the mentality of the church redirect that inwardly love outwardly [to strangers in the community] has been a joy to see!” He explained that it is a blessing to give unchurched people their first taste of the church, and it is beautiful to help people realize that serving is simply what Jesus calls us to do. By doing the work of Jesus and serving, people are visiting, returning, and joining the church.

“To use a biblical illustration,” Scott continued, “It’s like the scales have fallen from our eyes as a church community, and we can really see what Jesus meant by going out and making disciples of all nations.”