Trusted ABHMS partner Lifeway Community Church tackles rural poverty with Pierce Memorial Grant support
VALLEY FORGE, PA (11/12/2024)—Poverty in many rural areas of the Northeast United States is a significant yet often overlooked issue. While the region is commonly associated with urban centers like New York City and Boston, rural communities, especially in states like Maine, Vermont, and parts of New York and Pennsylvania, face persistent poverty.
The hamlet of North Bangor in upstate New York, where Lifeway Community Church is located, is much closer to the Canadian capital, Ottawa, than to New York City. The industries that have provided jobs in the region in the past—forestry, agriculture, and manufacturing—have seen a steep decline, limiting career opportunities. This translates into limited access to critical services, such as healthcare, education, and transportation, as well as broadband. The population is aging, as younger residents leave the region for better economic opportunities elsewhere. As a result, Franklin County, which includes North Bangor, is among New York’s poorest counties, with a poverty rate of approximately 15.7% percent.
Lifeway Community Church in rural North Bangor, New York, benefits from Pierce Grant funding to provide a lifeline to impoverished residents.
Economic support programs, managed chiefly by local community action agencies, provide food assistance, housing aid, and job training opportunities to help alleviate these issues. Lifeway Community Church, led by Pastor Joe Selenski, addresses issues of concern throughout this rural North Country area with established programs for providing food, shelter, and health services. These programs include the neighborhood food pantry, 24/7 emergency food packages, the bag lunch program, food assistance to local homeless shelters, as well as the emergency overnight shelter, meals served in the church building, transitional housing for individuals with severe need, and in-house mental health/crisis intervention resource sharing.
Selenski explained that this wide variety of programs allows the church to reach distinct groups in need of help. For example, the 24/7 emergency food packages are welcomed by those who find it difficult to use the food pantry as they fear stigma attached to poverty and receiving assistance. “They come sometime between 10 at night and two in the morning to avoid that stigma that they believe is placed upon them,” said Selenski. They often need the food to complement resources they receive through SNAP.
The bag lunch program that the church runs in Malone, the Franklin County seat located approximately four miles away from North Bangor, supports many individuals living with substance use and mental health problems. Another program provides specialized food for those who have allergies and medically required diets. Yet another supplies both regular and holiday meals to two homeless shelters in Malone. The ministry also has a licensed clinical therapist who provides walk-in and appointed mental health services for those not connected to the local mental health system. The faith-based approach to mental health that it offers adds an extra resource for people to investigate the Christian perspective on their needs. In 2013, the church teamed up with a local Methodist church to provide free bag lunches to residents three times a week after a local soup kitchen in town closed.
The Pierce Memorial Grant which they received in 2023 has allowed the church to continue its important work. “There are still some gaps not yet filled regarding severe needs in our rural agricultural communities,” said Selenski, noting in particular elderly individuals and those with lIFEdisabilities. “We have started to reach them with mobile services, but our current budget allows us to only scratch the surface; our helping ministries could achieve so much more. We certainly can increase our outreach in this area.”
Lifeway Community Church has supported the community for years and is a trusted ABHMS partner in fighting poverty. With partners like this, “the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.” (Psalm 140:12 NIV) Through your support of ABHMS, we can assist Lifeway Community Church and numerous other organizations in doing their vital, desperately needed work in communities across the United States and Puerto Rico.
ABHMS administers Louise Burchard Pierce memorial grants for congregational renewal to enhance the ministry and outreach of American Baptist Churches USA congregations located in New York State, with priority given to those in rural areas. For more information or to give, visit abhms.org.
By Rev. Dr. Anna Piela, senior writer for ABHMS and associate editor of The Christian Citizen
