NEWS FEATURE: `World’s Biggest Church Door’ Opens to Homeless

c. 2003 Religion News Service BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ Jesus said the meek would inherit the earth and the poor would get the kingdom of heaven. On a recent Sunday morning at the Church of the Reconciler, the homeless of Birmingham were willing to settle for salad and spaghetti. “They have good food here,” said Howard […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ Jesus said the meek would inherit the earth and the poor would get the kingdom of heaven. On a recent Sunday morning at the Church of the Reconciler, the homeless of Birmingham were willing to settle for salad and spaghetti.

“They have good food here,” said Howard Shaw, an elderly man who shuffled slowly, with a slight limp, in and out of the church’s massive warehouse door, wearing a blue jacket and gray wool cap. He couldn’t have told you what the sermon was about, but he could smell the food cooking in the kitchen.


He was one of many men who wandered in off the street to sit in the church for a consecration service at the warehouse building which opened earlier this year. They came to hear some gospel music and have a meal prepared by volunteers.

The loading-dock door, 300 feet wide, opens up to ramps that lead into the building, which long ago served as a Hormel meat-processing warehouse.

“We have the world’s largest church door,” said Pastor Lawton Higgs Sr. “That’s symbolic. We have a wide open door and practice radical hospitality.”

Just two blocks from an old firehouse converted into a shelter for the homeless, the Church of the Reconciler offers a sanctuary for men on the street.

Terry Jones, formerly homeless, found refuge with the congregation several years ago.

“I started out on the streets,” Jones said. “They were in a storefront. I saw the doors open, walked in, met the pastor. There was nowhere else to go.”

The church grew out of meetings that started 11 years ago in the home of Mildred Taylor, who had been a missionary to Africa for 39 years.

Taylor said she still considers herself a missionary. Higgs has turned around many lives, she said. “He does a good work with the hungry, addicted and homeless.”


Higgs said the congregation includes some people who used to be homeless, some who still are, and some who just want to help the needy.

“The vast majority of people in Birmingham are not aware of the large numbers of homeless,” Higgs said. “A large percentage are mentally ill, or addicted to crack cocaine, or unemployed.”

He is convinced that the practice of Christianity includes helping the downtrodden, regardless of their circumstances. “A lot of people have the false idea that Jesus cared only for the holy poor,” Higgs said. “But he also cared for the unholy poor.”

The North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church assigned Higgs in 1993 to work full time with his mission to the homeless, which still receives financial support from the denomination.

The congregation began worshipping in 1994 in a storefront that was formerly the city headquarters of Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign. It was chartered as a United Methodist congregation in 1996. The church expanded its space in 1998 after a hardware store closed down next door. It stayed there until moving to the former warehouse this year.

The church has 200 members on its rolls and average Sunday attendance of about 75, Higgs said. About a third of the members are homeless; 70 percent are black. “Our primary vision is to build a racially inclusive congregation,” Higgs said.


The music is a mix of gospel, contemporary and traditional Methodist hymns.

The church may not support itself financially, but the homeless members have a lot to offer, Higgs said.

“We don’t have a janitorial staff,” Higgs said. “We have volunteers from the homeless community. It takes a lot of checks in the offering plate to pay for a janitor.”

Many of them also contribute their skills as plumbers, sheetrock hangers or painters, he said.

Methodist, Catholic, Episcopal, Baptist and Pentecostal congregations have supplied the weekly volunteers who donate and prepare food for the Sunday lunches.

The church serves about 700 meals a week, including breakfast Tuesday through Friday and Sunday. The homeless are also given donated clothes.

“When I first walked in, I felt welcome,” said James Boyd, who was homeless several years ago. “As the Bible says, it takes you as you are. You may be dirty, you may be smelly, but you’re welcome here.”


Jones said that if more churches took Jesus’ teachings on caring for the poor seriously, the homeless would be swarmed with Christian compassion.

“This church is about the Sermon on the Mount and the beatitudes,” Jones said. “It’s biblical. You can come here and feel accepted. This church offers acceptance in a world full of rejection.”

KRE END GARRISON

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