In a recent Banner story about ongoing pastor training and support in Sierra Leone, a Resonate Global Mission leader was quoted: “Effective ministry … requires reliable transportation.” That’s also the understanding of a Worthington, Minn., aviation company whose purpose is “supplying people and resources to support ministry beyond where the roads end.” Proclaim Aviation manages the municipal airport in Worthington, with a business of repairing and maintaining privately owned airplanes, and provides FAA mechanics certification training to young aviators preparing for missionary service.
“Our congregation has been actively supporting Proclaim now for five or six years,” said Worthington CRC pastor Chad Werkhoven. “One of the ways we do that is by renting our parsonage to them at a below-market rate. The Proclaim families come in for a two-year rotation, and in that time we get to know them very well. Oftentimes they attend our church, but other times they go to some of the other great churches we have in town. But either way, they become a big part of our congregational life … they all have a burning desire to take the gospel to the farthest reaches, and it's fun to play just a tiny role in their journey.”
Former Worthington CRC pastor Lee Christoffels, who still attends the church when he’s not preaching somewhere else, said the situation is an ideal way to make use of the former parsonage, which, as for many CRC congregations that still have one, had ceased to be a home for the church’s clergy.
“During the time my wife and I served Worthington CRC, we at first lived in the parsonage, but after three years purchased our own home,” Christoffels said. “Subsequent ministers have preferred to own their own homes as well, and this means the parsonage is available.” Christoffels said other plans for the property, such as selling it or renting it on the market, were short-lived because of complications of the home’s systems (water and sewer, etc.) being connected with the church building, and that having the position of a landlord could jeopardize nonprofit standing as a church. “Various arrangements were made over the years, including use by a women’s shelter, but this did not work out well partly due to the confidential nature of such organizations and the ‘public’ nature of a parsonage next to a church building,” Christoffels said. “The ideal solution is the present one.”
Past Banner stories on new uses for old parsonages: Colorado Church Expands College Ministry Space (2018), Church Parsonage Repurposed for Ministry (2017), Parsonage Repurposed for International Students (2014)
Werkhoven said, “So far we've gotten to know families from as close as northwest Iowa to as far away as France. We even had one pilot who needed training hours in a helicopter, so he landed it on the church lawn and gave rides to kids after an evening service.”
Christoffels said the partnership “injects into our congregation an interest in missionary aviation work and a renewed zeal for missions. … We are excited to have ties with people all over the world through this ministry, and we praise God for the passion for the gospel that we witness in these dear people.”