Belonging leads to believing at Sydney Congress Hall
Belonging leads to believing at Sydney Congress Hall
25 October 2018
Danny is a regular volunteer and part-time community worker at Sydney Congress Hall’s Thursday morning drop-in centre, where a pantry operates for people in need of groceries.
It’s a wintry Thursday morning in Sydney. Up on level four of Sydney Congress Hall it’s warm and the smell of toast is in the air.
A TV is playing the news and several tables are full of people having breakfast, their mobile phones charging on nearby power outlets. Some are experiencing homelessness, some are lonely, others are simply hungry – their Centrelink payment not enough to get them through the week. All of them are welcome and comfortable.
“Right, we’re off,” a tall, thin man stands up from his table, with two others in tow. He shouts a ‘thank you’to community worker Danny for the breakfast and free groceries they’re taking with them and says, “I’ve been awake for three days on ‘ice’, I gotta go sleep.”
“OK, mate, take care of yourself, OK? We’ll see you soon,” Danny replies, without blinking an eyelid. Having experienced homelessness and drug addiction himself, he’s in a unique position to offer non-judgemental love and support, revealing Jesus to others the way that he first saw Jesus. “I’m a big believer that God works through people,” he says.
Danny works as a dedicated volunteer, as well as a part-time paid worker at Sydney Congress Hall, helping with its Wednesday night outreach to people experiencing homelessness, and its new Thursday morning drop-in centre.
“I can sort of understand what these people are going through to a certain degree,”he says. “Here we have coffee, tea, hot chocolate, we give people cakes, and we have a pantry with donated food. We have our regulars that pop in that just like to sit down and watch a bit of television, charge their phones, have a bit of breakfast ... you can sit down and have a connection with people and they tell you what’s going on. Some people, I don’t know if they have anybody to talk to, so we lend them an ear and we can work with them to find out their needs and refer them to places or help them ourselves with what they need.”
Vital lifeline
Thursday mornings are about connecting on a deeper level with the people they meet and deliver meals to the night before. It’s a warm, safe space for people to relax and take time off the streets, where a person’s alert levels are constantly high. 
It’s also a place where friendships are formed. For Joan* (pictured right with Danny), homelessness is not an immediate issue, yet Sydney Congress Hall’s Wednesday Night Hope Chapel and Thursday morning drop-in centre are a vital lifeline for her.
“Last year, I popped into the reception downstairs just asking if I could get some help with some food assistance,” she says. “I live in a housing commission accommodation and I’m on Newstart (income support allowance). It’s very difficult. Once my payment for child support is taken out plus fines that I’ve got, then my rent, water bill, electricity bill, gas ... there’s not much left.”
Joan has already accessed the free pantry service, which offers non-perishable food items and bread to anybody who needs it. She sits down at a table with her bags of groceries and morning tea and starts a word search. Not long afterwards, Danny sits down to have a chat.
They know each other fairly well – it wasn’t long after Joan started attending the drop-in centre that she asked if she could become involved and volunteer. Now, she’s part of the team. At the drop-in centre, there is very little distinction between the “helper” and the “helped”. Jesus didn’t put people into categories, so neither do they.
“It used to be that uniformed Salvationists or officers were the only missioners engaging in our public facing services,” says Sydney Congress Hall Corps Officer, Major Bruce Harmer.
“That’s no longer the case, which adds a local perspective, I guess, to the current conversation around soldiership. Today many of our missioners are not Salvationists but are energetic and very committed either employees or volunteers. They are Salvos in my book, and they are engaged often in front line mission expressions, serving like there's no tomorrow!”
Major Harmer cites William Booth’s original vision for The Salvation Army being a movement of people on the margins, revolutionising the world through transformed lives. Those who converted were immediately given encouragement to be a disciple of Jesus, on mission for Christ in their local area.
“They were just people who had maybe given up an addiction or been helped in some way and they said, ‘I want to be part of what you’re doing’and that was it, they were in! And then they grew,” says Major Harmer.
“I think God is reacquainting the Army with a model of Christian discipleship where, with due diligence, people do not have to jump through too many hoops before becoming one of our number, and once you are part of us you can grow and develop as we are all doing on our journey through life! So you can grow inside the organisation rather than having to meet too many requirements before you make that step into membership within our movement.”
Inner-city ministries
Majors Bruce and Carolyn Harmer say when they were first appointed as Corps Officers at Sydney Congress Hall they could see clearly that there was tremendous opportunity in further developing the inner-city ministries that had already commenced.
“The weekday ministries and service expressions were in real need of nurturing if Congress Hall was to continue to be a corps that had an outward-facing view of ministry to a community desperately in need of genuine love and care,” says Major Harmer. “We have a corps that has been in a strong position for more than 136 years and we’re keen to see that strength continue into the future as we serve our inner-city community.” 
Establishing and growing Kingdom ministries through the week is a high priority. The corps now has a thriving weekly Playgroup (“You can hardly move in the pram-parking area up here!”) and a volunteer-led Family Store, as well as the Wednesday night Hope Community Dinner and Chapel, then street outreach, and Thursday morning drop-in centre and pantry.
These run alongside pre-existing ministries like Home League, OPALS, Youth and Young Adults activities and other regular corps activities. Major Harmer says the beautiful thing about being the church in the everyday has been seeing faith pathways open up for people, with Alpha (introduction to christianity course) an avenue for people who are already connected, to learn more about Jesus.
Joan is one of those who have made a commitment to do the Alpha Course. She’s excited. “I’m starting the Alpha course tonight!” she says. “I just love it here ... the team is great.”
“I have a really firm belief that it has to start with relationship,” says Major Harmer. “We have to lead with genuine friendship before folk will open up to accepting Jesus also as their friend and so much more. We have to be his messengers of love, acceptance and grace then people will say, ‘Wow this is great! I want to learn more about this Jesus.”
Joan’s name was changed to protect her privacy.
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