Churches unified in outreach efforts
Unity is a concept so important to the Petroleum Valley Ministerium that the word appears twice in the association's brief mission statement.
"The purpose of the Petroleum Valley Ministerium," the statement reads, "is to demonstrate unity and to continue to build unity among the congregations in the Petroleum Valley."
The ministerium's members are a loosely organized group representing about 17 churches of multiple denominations in northeast Butler County.
"We come from a lot of various traditions," said the Rev. James Higgins, pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chicora. "But when we get together, there is more that binds us than separates us."
The group has memorialized in writing four important elements to its mission:
• Pray with and for each other.
• Encourage, be supportive and be accountable to one another as pastors.
• Explore and implement ministries that we can do better together than alone.
• Network with each other to meet the community's needs.
"It is going to take more than one church to reach this valley for Christ," explained pastor Joe Olkowski of Zion of Petroleum Valley in Fairview Township. "We must work together."
The ministerium represents residents in Fairview, Donegal and Parker townships, as well as the boroughs of Chicora, Karns City, Petrolia, Fairview and Bruin.
Welcome in the ministerium are church leaders, as well as those who provide spiritual guidance at service-driven agencies.
"No one has ever been turned away," said the Rev. Wade Berkey, pastor at the United Methodist churches in Fairview, Bruin and at Ridgeville United.
The Fairview United Methodist Church on Chestnut Street in Fairview serves as home to one of the ministerium's more visible efforts, the Petroleum Valley Food Cupboard.In existence for more than two decades, the cupboard program serves about 70 families on a monthly basis.The amount of food items each recipient gets is determined by state guidelines. Each recipient selects from a variety of goods under categories like pasta, soups or canned vegetables.Those items come from Butler County Community Action, the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, and donations from school and church food drives as well as cash donations.The food cupboard runs on an annual budget of about $15,000.Recently, the Redevelopment Authority of Butler County allocated a portion of a federal grant to buy a building in that region of the county to house the cupboard.The new building, once acquired, would allow for more freezers and cold storage of meat and dairy products.Officials are hopeful the additional space in the new building also will provide a place for other service agencies to provide services at the same site."We are developing a plan to use the building to the community's best interest," Higgins said.He said officials are considering a location in the Bruin area for the new facility, but they have no deadline to move the cupboard.Summer lunchIn addition to the monthly cupboard, food also gets top billing in the ministerium's summer lunch program.But the ministerium leadership said camaraderie is the greatest offering at those events, which are offered twice weekly for eight weeks."That is what our boss did," said Pastor John Pistorius of St. John's Reformed Church in Chicora. "He fed people and got them together."The ministerium, which provides the staffing, cooperates with the Karns City School District to provide free lunches to children up to age 18.Last summer, the program served 1,080 meals during the summerAnecdotally, Higgins said he knows at least one mother who brought her son to the lunches more for the social side than the meal. The boy, Higgins said, bloomed among his new friends.The program operates at five sites: community parks in Bruin, Fairview and Chicora; the East Brady Community Center and the Petroleum Valley Youth Center at 251 Magnolia Road, which is soon to be changed to Youth Center Drive.
Located on a 130-acre campus, the Petroleum Valley Youth Center gives children "someplace to be during the summertime," said the Rev. Mark Wallace, pastor at Chicora Alliance Church in Chicora.The center is run by a separate board of directors, but receives guidance from the ministerium and its members.The youth center, which is open June through August, annually draws involvement of up to 50 children, mainly teens, during that time.Paid counselors lead an exercise regimen that includes crafts, basketball, volleyball, dek hockey, fishing, kickball and a rope course.The programs are free and open to all children regardless of their affiliation with any church. But still, the programs are faith-based, and the teens are encouraged to nurture their spiritual needs."We are unabashedly Christian," Higgins said.The youth center also runs on an annual allotment of about $15,000, of which all is donated.The land the center is on, once a park for the employees of Pennreco, was donated. Although naturally beautiful, the topography prevents much use in winter months.Wallace said in the future the youth programmers have designs on expanding locations and times activities are offered.He said a second site, perhaps in Chicora, would allow the group to offer programs during the winter.
Additional unified programming is offered by the ministerium with every change of the season.To name just a couple, there is a Good Friday service and the baccalaureate for Karns City School District.Once a year for the past decade, the group has hosted a "lock in" event at the Butler County Family YMCA in Butler. The program offers faith-based activities to teens who spend the night. There also was a combined service to mark the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.The ministerium members gather once a month for prayer and once a month for business.No one can say for sure when the ministerium formed or how it started. They simply did not keep records then."We have never been self-promoting," Pistorius said. "This has never been 'Let's keep a record and tell the world.' thing. The community knows what we do."However, the members say the need for unity has been no greater than now in the Petroleum Valley."We are very concerned regarding the decisions the youth have been making and how they are harming themselves ... drugs, teen pregnancy," Olkowski said. "We are a small community getting big city problems."
