Cultural differences often barricade inner-city churches from the communities around them. How can those divides ever be leveled? Missionaries John and Katheryn Heinz help downtown congregations remodel their thinking so they can better reach into the communities in their backyards.

While many cities do not live up to the beauty, history, and attractions touted in tourist brochures, Lexington, Kentucky is definitely an exception. The rolling hills of vibrant bluegrass, lined with pristine white fences and speckled with regal horses serve as a landscape anyone would enjoy viewing on vacation, or on their daily commute to work. Lexington is known for many things, including its title as “The Horse Capital of the World.” The city of nearly 500,000 contains a multitude of diversity among its population.

You may not see Lexington’s diversity at first, but it is there – tucked away in the center of downtown, several streets behind the lofty office buildings and trendy boutiques. It is amid this backdrop that John and Katheryn Heinzes’ ministry, “Downtown Pulse,” was formed.

Called to the city
Katheryn lived in Nebraska, Los Angeles, and Nashville before moving to Wilmore, Kentucky to pursue a Master of Divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary. She also spent a month in south Chicago in a men’s rehabilitation facility which had a profound impact on her life and ministry. She has always loved cities and the diversity and complexity present within them. Her plans were to pursue a Ph.D. in anthropology after graduation from Asbury, but God directed her to instead consider urban ministry. With that in mind, she planned to return to Los Angeles and work in an urban context in the south central part of the city.

John grew up in suburban New Jersey and moved to Wilmore in 2001 to pursue a Master of Arts in World Mission and Evangelism. It was while he was studying at Asbury that he felt called to urban ministry in North America. In response, John moved to downtown Lexington and worked with the Lexington Rescue Mission. For six months he lived with men who were homeless and addicted to drugs and alcohol. John then moved in with a group of Christians and lived in community in a house in downtown Lexington. These Christians opened their home to addicts, homeless, refugees, and single moms struggling to care for their children. They provided food, help looking for jobs, rides to medical clinics and relief agencies, and offered Christ.

While Katheryn was making plans to return to Los Angeles, John was planning to move to Philadelphia. It was around that time that they began dating. Their common call to urban ministry was one of the things that drew them together, even if they planned to live out that ministry on opposite sides of the country. Several months after they married, John and Katheryn traveled to dozens of cities across the United States. They prayed about where God may be calling them and finally decided that they had already found their home in Lexington.

Break it down
The Heinzes’ goal, through “Downtown Pulse,” is to help downtown congregations see the cultural boundaries that exist, and then equip these church people to reach out to the different cultures with the love of Christ. Many of the Heinzes’ daily and weekly activities are designed to create space for various cultures to interact.

For some downtown churches, the differences between the population directly surrounding the church property and the people within its walls can be daunting. Usually neither group engages in much contact with the other, and barriers are intentionally or unintentionally formed. As many cities go through the process of urban gentrification, downtown churches are often located in prime areas. Urban gentrification is the shift that occurs in an area when middle- and upper-class individuals move into lower-income areas. One of the results of this shift is the formation of a multicultural community. Getting those various cultures to interact and learn from one another can be a challenge. The Heinzes’ ministry role is to serve as a bridge between the church and the city.

Several of the minority groups in downtown Lexington include African- Americans, Latinos, students, refugees, artists, and homosexuals. These groups each have cultures of their own and have created a culture in downtown Lexington that is very different from the culture of the nearby churches.

John and Katheryn felt led to collaborate with First United Methodist Church (FUMC) in downtown Lexington in its urban ministry initiative. To the Heinzes’ surprise, the people of FUMC had also been praying about reaching out to the community surrounding them and asking God for people to help lead the ministry. FUMC had adopted the motto “downtown for good” to symbolize their commitment to stay in the downtown area instead of relocating to the suburbs, as well as to be the light of Christ in their community. The Heinzes and FUMC began to work together on a plan that would further connect the church and its members to the people outside its walls.

Cut it down
One of the first things that John and Katheryn decided to do when they formed “Downtown Pulse” was to buy a house in a low-income neighborhood. A guiding principle of their ministry is to live “incarnationally” – in other words, to live in a way that closely identifies with the people among whom they serve. So, for the Heinzes, being incarnational meant living in the same downtown neighborhood and becoming involved in the daily lives of the people around them.

John and Katheryn said that their new neighbors tried to peg them into certain categories when they first moved to the area. People assumed they were drug dealers, undercover police, or “religious people.” Some even insisted that they must be from another country, because, according to their neighbors, John and Katheryn are “weird.” As Katheryn explains, “We aren’t from another country, but we are from another culture. Some of our cultural habits are weird, simply because the Christian life looks different.” And that is part of the goal – looking noticeably “different.” The Heinzes’ desire is that their neighbors see the love of Christ in their words and actions.

When they first purchased their house, which had been left vacant for decades, renovating it was necessary before they could move in. One of the first improvements they made was to chop down 10-foot tall bushes that had grown in front of their house and blocked their view of the neighborhood. They noticed that many houses had these same bushes, designed to serve as a shield from the unsightly activities that often go on across the street, and to block the view of anyone trying to see in. The Heinzes wanted make a statement by tearing down the bushes. Their openness was appreciated by other neighbors, who even commented about John and Katheryn’s willingness to remove what was a literal and figurative barrier.

Much of what John and Katheryn do are simple acts of reaching out and forming relationships, acts that the Heinzes are convinced any downtown church at-large could imitate in their own communities. The goal of the Heinzes’ ministry is not community development or social work – it is real transformation. John and Katheryn desire to live, worship, and serve together with their neighbors. As they walk with people in their journey of faith, they hope to see their neighbors made into disciples that love Christ.

Build relationships
How do downtown churches get “engaged” in the lives of the people around them? One of the primary ways the Heinzes’ are training and equipping church members to serve as crosscultural “missionaries” is through the “Mission Bootcamp” course (see related article). The Heinzes’ weekly ministries also include a Saturday morning pancake breakfast and neighborhood Bible study. The breakfast crowd can range from five to 50 people, including both members of FUMC and residents in the community. The Heinzes are clear that it is not a soup kitchen; they do not hand out food to whoever shows up. The Saturday breakfast is about creating community and sharing a meal together with neighbors. During this time, relationships are built and stereotypes are broken down as people learn more about one another. The same rule applies in their Bible study group. People are asked to come together to grow in relationship and learn more about the Word of God.

Their labors have not been in vain. John and Katheryn have built many relationships with the residents of their neighborhood. Their house is known as a place of refuge. Several neighbors have come by to ask for prayer, for healing, and for an escape from their life of addiction. Their Mission Bootcamp course has emboldened average suburbanites to find their role in ministry in the inner-city. Most importantly, downtown churches are learning to communicate the love of Christ across cultural boundaries and reach out to their community.

Reed Hoppe, a deacon in the Alabama- West Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church, is the associate director of communications of The Mission Society.