Immigration Ministry for the Whole Body of Christ
The following has been written by guest author, Steve Trost.
Dave asked me to write the message and I’m pleased to be able to report some incredible displays of unity that I have recently witnessed and hope you find encouraging.
I first met Dave in 2011 as he was transitioning from the role of lead pastor to Church Domain Director for 4Tucson, and I was in my new role of pastoring a church plant in the Miracle Manor Neighborhood known as the Good News Community Church. 4Tucson’s encouragement regarding church school partnerships was the first time that I became aware of the incredible impact that the visual unity of the city church could have on a community and the cause of advancing the Kingdom on earth. Dave frequently quotes John 17 as the plan Jesus has for evangelizing the world and my subsequent experience lends credence to that belief.
In 2015 my wife and I moved back to Salt Lake City for family reasons, and I sought guidance from the Spirit while becoming involved once again with the Christian community in Salt Lake. Phenomenally, the Christian Church was exploding in the Salt Lake metro area (also known as the Wasatch Front) with new plants in every community, due in large part to the migration of California folks to the area as well as immigrants primarily from Mexico and Central America. Unfortunately, there also was a clear separation in the various communities of faith as evidenced by three pastoral networks: one for mainline denominations, another for the Pentecostal and nondenominational communities, and a third for the Hispanic communities of faith. I frequently returned to Tucson during this period and Dave and I remained close. After sharing my experience of the fractured church along the Wasatch Front, Dave asked if I had ever thought of launching a J17 ministry here. After much prayer and encouragement from Dave I formed a nonprofit called J17 of the Wasatch Front.
Following the road that Dave paved in Tucson, God once again demonstrated His faithfulness and goodness by the three pastoral networks moving much closer together by uniting for various visible acts of unity. The most profound and recent act of unity was based upon the recognition during the protracted presidential campaign that many folks in this country were disgruntled about continuing the status quo regarding immigration. The election of President Trump led to more profound division in the church and near panic in the Hispanic community. There was no denying that the new administration had the legal and scriptural authority (see for example 1 Peter 2:11-25, Rom. 13:1-7) to promulgate legislation, issue executive orders and appoint department heads to reform the status quo. However the church is called to love our neighbor.
In my experience (as both a lawyer and a pastor) of handling immigration cases upon our return to SLC in 2015 and again most recently in rebooting the Good News Legal Clinic, I was constantly troubled and saddened by the fact that only about 50% of the folks that I saw in this immigrant community actually had legal remedies available to establish citizenship – and the rest simply had no viable options. I was constantly in prayer about this when one night the Spirit clearly told me that the church should be mobilized in a network not to resist but to minister to 1) the estimated 11 – 20 million undocumented residents subject to deportation, and 2) the remaining documented members of families when the undocumented member was deported. Communities of faith working together can shine the light of Jesus in several ways:
Visiting deportees while in detention centers;
Providing assurances that the church will care for their loved ones left behind;
Providing backpacks with essentials for survival in a new country;
Using their immigrant members to provide connections to churches from their native countries in order to greet and welcome the newly arriving deportee;
And generally assisting in their transitioning from survival to thriving.
For those left behind in this country, a network of churches can provide counseling (for grief, anxiety, depression, etc.), spiritual counseling for those feeling abandoned by the Lord, assistance with housing issues now that a breadwinner has been removed, work on developing a budget, assistance with employment, legal assistance (guardianships for minor children, powers of attorney for financial access and continuity), assistance in childcare, and generally helping the children cope with the loss of their loved one, transportation assistance, food bank access, etc. Yes, it’s a huge undertaking but we dare not limit our God.
Most encouragingly, as of this writing, the Christian Migrant Network, a dba of J17 of the Wasatch Front, already has about thirty churches committed along the Wasatch Front, and twenty more in Mexico and Latin America. God is being glorified through this and the community is witnessing a visible display of unity providing an invaluable service without a dime of taxpayer funds. Of course, other communities can replicate this visible act of unity, and as John 17:21 states, “so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”
Grace and Peace to all my friends and colleagues in Tucson (and elsewhere).
Steve Trost
To further connect, you may contact Steve (stephen.trost@j17ministries.org), or Executive Director Pete Seiferth of Tucson Refugee Ministry (520-222-7116, www.TucsonRefugeeMinistry.com).