The peanut butter jar tumbled off the overflowing grocery bag, flipped on to the floor and bounced past Pastor Brown. With a duck and a scoop, he snagged it and returned it to the man holding the bag. The man acknowledged its return with a nod and a hearty “thank you.”
Tabernacle Baptist Church, located in the Fox Ridge Historic District not far from the Broad Street Market, has been serving the hungry in Harrisburg for 40 years. Each Thursday, the church helps feed about 70 people through its food pantry.
The congregation has a mission—to serve the community.
“God has called all of us to be servants, and we have a mission to serve others,” said Rev. Arthur Brown, church pastor for 10 years. “That is what I live and breathe for.”
Brown added that the church sees itself as a “community of servants, not just a community of church-goers.”
The food pantry distributes typical foodstuffs: canned goods, peanut butter and fresh produce. During distribution, volunteers help participants find low-cost health insurance, nursing students from HACC take blood pressures, and folks assist guests in finding heating cost assistance and affordable cell phones.
Along with these services, Tabernacle dishes out a healthy serving of love.
James, a pantry visitor, said that Tabernacle was “just so friendly, nice and helpful… they are open to everybody.” His partner nodded in agreement.
Pantry regulars who don’t show up for a while can expect a phone call, and anyone in the hospital can expect a visit.
“It turned more into a holistic ministry, more than providing very basic essentials,” said Brown, who refers to those who come to the food pantry as the “Thursday family.”
Fostering Relationships
Tabernacle doesn’t just distribute food, but cooks it.
For 12 years, congregation members have served about 300 home-cooked, traditional Thanksgiving meals to folks in the community, which they will do again this month.
Many of the meals are eaten at the church, but volunteers also deliver meals to people who are ill or shut in and to first responders, who must work on Thanksgiving. Deacon Gonzales Washington described the day like this: “Come in just like at home, enjoy yourself!” He said that guests can watch football on the television, eat and chat, just like in a family atmosphere.
Tabernacle leaders believe in fostering relationships among both worshippers and those within the community. The Fishers of Men Ministry works to connect men on a deeper level.
“Men have very superficial relationships, and men are hurting, suffering in silence,” said Brown.
Here, the men share what’s going on in their lives in a place of non-judgment. The group recently donated more than $1,000 to Bethesda Mission.
Past & Present
All of these services and all of this love happen in Tabernacle’s 1886 church building and attached 1897 parsonage, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
A German Lutheran congregation built the original 1863 frame church. In 1967, a group of 89 people bought the building from the German congregation, forming the Tabernacle Baptist Mission, then the church.
The modified, Gothic-style brick building holds a three-story square bell tower, stone tracery arches and large, pointed arch windows.
Inside, the sanctuary contains an elaborately carved wooden altar, with a wooden screen, inside a shallow chancel arch. Ornamental gold imposts support the arch. The altar is flanked by lit stained glass windows depicting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus knocking at the door, a biblical reference to Revelation 3:20. The German inscription under this window says, “Gestiftet von ibren kindern,” which translates to “Donated by the children.” The heavy, dark, wooden pulpit sits centrally in front of the altar, because the word of God is central, explains Brown.
More evidence of the church’s German history exists in the original exterior stained glass windows, which contain German inscriptions acknowledging family sponsorships. Those families included the Henry Neideich Family, the Schaeffer family and Mr. & Mrs. Jacob Kehr. Some members of the former German congregation joined Tabernacle for worship when it celebrated its 150th anniversary two years ago.
The congregation appreciates the history and architecture of the church, but, in some ways, the building limits its ministries. The fellowship hall, where the food pantry is located, is small with low ceilings; the parsonage rooms used for Sunday school and Vacation Bible School are tiny; staircases to the upstairs are steep and narrow. A chair lift provides the only access to the second-story sanctuary for physically challenged parishioners. This layout makes providing programs challenging. Brown said that the congregation finds itself “dialing back [its programs] to meet the space.”
The church recently received a grant to evaluate how it could update the building to better suit the needs of the community, while still maintaining the church’s historic nature. The plan, created by Harrisburg-based McKissick Associates, involves keeping the present building but reconfiguring and opening up the space.
Pastor Brown said a renovation would allow the church to “dream bigger because we have a bigger space.” It could develop new programs, expand programs and make existing programs more efficient, he said. And renovating, rather than moving, would allow the church to maintain its commitment to stay in the city. For now, the renovation plans in Brown’s office remain only a dream because the congregation lacks the funds to make it happen.
Renovation or not, Tabernacle will continue to do what it does. This congregation worships within a historic structure but lives very much in the present. Church members use an old building to feed, guide and comfort—compelled to serve—and endeavor to make a more positive present and future for those they encounter.
Tabernacle Baptist Church is located at 1106 Capital St., Harrisburg. To learn more, visit www.tabernaclebaptist.net.
