(Air1 Closer Look) -- One at a time. That’s the way The Hope Detroit, Powered by K-LOVE is serving Metro Detroit residents.
Founded in 2014 as the K-LOVE Detroit Hope Center, the organization has fed more than 10,000 people, distributed more than 25,000 articles of clothing and household items, and more importantly, has led more than 200 people to make decisions to follow Jesus.
The center operates in a city where the needs are many.
In a report commissioned by the city of Detroit’s Housing and Revitalization Department, in 2022, the most recent year for which statistics were available, more than 8,500 people were identified as homeless in shelters, transitional or permanent supportive housing. And, on any given night, there are more than 1,500 homeless residents on the streets and in shelters.
Undeterred by the enormity of the mission, Pastor Jerel Bland sees his Michigan mission field as fertile ground.
With the support of K-LOVE and its listeners, the ministry provided literacy and afterschool programs, jobs and resume help, gave away clothes and food and looked for other ways to meet individual needs as they arose. That meant everything from giving away stoves and fridges to meeting people at laundromats to give them quarters to clean their clothes.
“We had all types of things to help the family as a whole,” Bland said. “And that went on for a decade in two different locations where we were able to meet the needs in those specific communities that we were serving. And God did an amazing work.”
But as the ministry has grown and evolved, leaders recognized a need to adapt from what they call a “facility era” to a “people era."
“We just realized that the world had changed… the city had changed,” Bland said. Recent world events have spurred greater skepticism of Christians and church.
"People are still far away from the Lord and the needs of food, clothing, housing were still present. And so how do we do that with this new world that doesn't necessarily want to go into a church? They don't want to go into your Hope Center, necessarily. There's been a bigger defense system put up in people's hearts and mind, their emotions."
So the ministry now takes services directly to the community rather than asking them to come to a ministry building. With that came the rebranding to The Hope Detroit, Powered by K-LOVE.
Without facilities to maintain and utility payments to keep up with, the ministry can be nimble in serving Detroit.
“We've already seen great things happen, even over this past holiday season, to go from what we would usually do: serve a couple hundred people in one community to being able to serve the west side of Detroit, northwest, the east side, the southwest parts of the city, and not just serve our hundred people or whatever, but to serve 500 people because we're no longer using these resources for the facility,” Bland added. “And now we get to do that throughout the year. It's just an exciting, exciting time.”
The Hope Detroit’s impact statement is simple but powerful: Faith for today. Hope for tomorrow. Love for eternity.
“It helps us to serve people in whatever stage they're in in life,” Bland said. “Does everybody need a savior? Yes, absolutely. But if they don't receive the message of the Gospel, it shouldn't keep us from being the church. It shouldn't keep us from loving people the way that we should."
To learn more about The Hope Detroit, Powered by K-LOVE, visit thehopedetroit.com.
