CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — University Baptist Church, like many American congregations, has a Super Bowl tradition, but for the Charlottesville, Va., church there’s a twist — the viewing audience is homeless men seeking shelter from the sub-freezing temperatures typical during February in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
For nine years University Baptist has participated with about 60 area congregations in PACEM, a shelter ministry which moves from church to church every week or two. People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry — the acronym is the Latin word for peace — provides cots and meals at the churches for dozens of homeless men and women from late fall to early spring.
This year’s Super Bowl matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers was a close game. (Photo courtesy of University Baptist Church)
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Seven years ago University’s assigned two-week period fell during the Super Bowl and a viewing party seemed natural. Since then the church has specifically requested a time span that includes the national sporting event.
Last Sunday, almost 40 men watched the Baltimore Ravens pull off a close 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers.
“This is something the men look forward to,” said Lynn Martin, who coordinates University’s PACEM weeks. “They start asking in the fall about the Super Bowl at University.”
Martin said church members have increased their participation — setting up cots, cooking and serving meals, and offering friendship — in the ministry, which Martin herself joined only reluctantly eight years ago.
When the project was initially proposed to the congregation, “I saw it as a frightening, unpleasant, perhaps dangerous program for this church to undertake,” she said in a testimony during a worship service a few Sundays ago. “I spoke out against it during that presentation. I could not make myself vote ‘yes’ for it, but some little kernel of mercy in me wouldn’t let me vote ‘no.’ So I took the honorable cowardly way out — I just didn’t vote. “
Lynn Martin gives a quick orientation about PACEM to three Albemarle High School student volunteers. (Photo courtesy of University Baptist Church)
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Slowly, she said, her resistance disappeared — first, in preparing a casserole, then in agreeing to serve the meals, eventually in engaging in conversation with the homeless visitors, and finally in volunteering to coordinate the ministry.
“These homeless men are the ones Jesus was talking about in Matthew 22 when he said ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’” she said. “These men are our neighbors; they are brothers of Christ and therefore our brothers.”
Others in Charlottesville agree. While the majority of University’s volunteers are church members, typically some are not, said Martin. Often, she said, they’re students at the University of Virginia — whose campus is just across the street. “Last Sunday three high school students unaffiliated with the church wanted to be a part of it,” she added.
Pastor Michael Cheuk said he’s proud of his congregation’s involvement.
“It warms a pastor’s heart to see so many folks involved in this ministry,” he said in an email. “Some cook and serve food; others spend time with our guests. And many others work in the background to set up, to clean up, to wash and transport laundry, to collect toiletry kits, etc. Our church is energized by our participation. This is a picture of the body of Christ at work for the mutual blessing and benefit for both host and guests.”
PACEM’s collaborative approach is a healthy one, Cheuk added.
“I love the fact that we don’t ‘own’ this ministry,” he said. “To me, this an example of how many congregations can work together with local agencies to address a significant need in our city.”
And was this year’s group mostly Ravens fans or were there some 49ers loyalists among them?
“They were pretty evenly split,” said Martin. “Last year the fans of each team sat on different sides of the room, but I didn’t see that this time.
“They’re very vocal about who they root for.”
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.