By Ray Marcano

In Sunday church traditionally involves prayer, sermons, and fellowship.

In Gary, Indiana, it might also include shopping in a flea market. And picking up trash.

The Flourish Hub is transforming its neighborhood with both conventional and non-traditional programs.

“When we step outside of the box, we follow God into the unknown,” Lead Pastor Rev. Dexter Harris said.

In 2022, Grace Baptist Church, which had fallen on hard times, dissolved and donated its building, land and remaining funds to Rev. Harris. He opened Flourish Church a year later and began building it into a community centerpiece.

“I was determined to be a church that lived outside of these four walls,” Rev. Harris said. “It was important for me to say, ‘What does it look like for our church to help Gary flourish?’”

That’s an ambitious effort in a city where one in three residents live below the poverty level, the second poorest city in the country. The industrial and manufacturing decline that hurt so many Midwestern cities scarred Gary, too. About 67,000 residents, 76% of which are African American, live in the community about 30 miles southeast of Chicago.

Against this backdrop, Rev. Harris and his congregation canvassed the community and asked how the church could best support it. One answer was most prevalent. Residents were tired of the trash piling up in and near their neighborhoods.

So Rev. Harris worked with area churches to organize a cleanup day. More than 400 volunteers cut down weeds and bushes, removed old tires, and picked up trash.

“We had people coming out of their houses asking, ‘What are you doing? We can’t believe this. It’s been a long time since somebody has cleaned this.’ It may feel small, but it was the momentum we needed because people started to take notice of who we were.”

During the canvassing, he also found that several local organizations were already working to improve the community. He told his leadership, “I don’t think the Lord wants us to create anything new. I think he wants us to become a convener, a hub that brings these resources and community partners together to pool resources.”

Rev. Harris turned Flourish Church into a community space called the Flourish Hub. He now has 25 partners who provide services including a daycare focused on children with autism, a GED program, a resource closet with food and clothing, and much more.

Then there are events that show the church has skin in the game. One Sunday, Rev. Harris told the congregation that the church wouldn’t accept tithes or offerings. Instead, he encouraged congregants to go out and invest in the community by patronizing local businesses. And they did.

“We’re always trying to find ways to be generous because without that the community would have no reason to believe this is real,” Rev. Harris said.

His leadership committee quickly saw the promise of Flourish Hub, so they took far less convincing than the community. Church initiatives can be met with skepticism as residents wonder whether there’s an ulterior motive for kindness.

“It took some time to get people to understand that the gospel is both proclamation and demonstration,” Rev. Harris said.

He has more plans. He’s currently raising money to buy a 36,000-square-foot warehouse adjacent to the hub that would become a community center with an indoor playground, workout facility, and restaurant, all designed to support local businesses.

This ambitious project started by asking the community what it wanted, studying how other organizations provided assistance, and figuring out how to support programs and fill gaps. Asking instead of telling made the project a success in a relatively short period of time.

Rev. Harris suggests “finding out who your community is. Discover what they’re doing and then go actually do something.” Even the smallest effort can make a big difference. “It really begins to snowball from there.”

The church tagline, “Where God Shines, People Flourish,” is much more than a pithy, aspirational statement for this 250-member congregation. And it all started by picking up trash.