Bethlehem Center marked its 90th anniversary of ministry in the Southside this week by opening an additional location across the city in Brainerd.
The Bethlehem ReSource Center, a collaboration between Bethlehem Center and Brainerd United Methodist Church, not only will be a resale store, but it also will handle consignment items and serve as a programming base for the ministry and a host for community meetings.
“We’re hoping it’s a jumping off place to work with the neighborhood,” said the Rev. Dennis Flaugher, senior pastor of Brainerd UMC, which owns the adjacent Asbury Center in which the ministry will be housed. “For us at Brainerd, it’s a win-win situation. Nothing was happening with the building. There was no movement from commercial reality. This was a chance for the church to enhance its ministry and a chance for Bethlehem to do some good stuff.”
Lurone Jennings, executive director of the United Methodist Church-related Bethlehem Center, said operations at the Southside center are well staffed and going relatively smoothly.
“This [new] concept is fitting to us,” he said. “We’re excited about the possibility and potential that is there.”
Initially, the 6,000-square-foot ReSource Center will be open Thursday through Saturday and have two employees.
Lori Carter, operations director, said the center will be different from many resale stores because it will take consignment items worth $50 or more. Whenever a consignment item is sold, the profit will be split 50/50 between the consigner and the church-ministry center collaboration.
“It keeps strangers out of people’s homes,” she said.
Carter said the center’s online sales consultant also can determine if the consignment item might return more money by being sold on Internet marketing sites such as eBay or Craigslist rather than in the store.
“It’s a neat service,” she said. “We sort of act like a broker. We understand that a lot of people in these economic times need to get a little revenue” from an item they once may have donated.
The center, according to Carter, will be a satellite of Bethlehem Center and eventually offer programs like those at the Alton Park base.
However, Jennings said there won’t be an immediate rollout.
“As time permits, we want to grow and extend some of the other programs,” he said, “but we want to do it strategically and prayerfully. If we do it wisely, God will give us the people and the resources to benefit the Brainerd area.”
Among the program options are job training, support groups, after-school tutoring, literacy classes and art classes, she said. With the church offering some of its space as well, there also may be sports programs, exercise, health and nutrition classes, cooking classes and a children’s theater.
Carter said the ReSource Center also will partner with – rather than compete against – other ministries for projects. One of those may be a pilot program with Church Koinonia to teach young people about money management and banking, she said.
“We’re excited about that,” she said.
The more volunteers and funding the ReSource Center gets, Carter said, the more it can do.
“We really are ready to do it,” she said. “We want to become a powerhouse in the area.”