June Missions Spotlight: Honoring Rev. Jane Lippert’s Central Outreach Legacy

“My richest blessing is this: to see folks who’ve been restored through assistance, and in turn are making an effort to help others recover.”  – Jane Lippert, May 14, 2024

 Central United Methodist Church has been blessed by Jane and her multiple gifts.  Besides being an ordained Methodist pastor, spouse, and mother, she has a heart for missions and helping those in need.

 Jane wanted to find work that would bring her to kinship with folks who found the church to be foreign. Nine years ago, the position of Church Outreach Coordinator became available at Central United Methodist Church. Jane accepted the job and became the face of Church Outreach. During her tenure at Central, relationships with Outreach guests have deepened.  She has felt the pain of death, has seen the tragedies of lives marred by homelessness, addiction, disease, and brokenness. She has also realized the blessings of joy of those who were served a warm meal on a cold January morning, or when she saw smiles on faces when the group acknowledged their birthdays with a song. For a moment they felt that their lives were celebrated.

Jane retired in June.

What are the purposes of the Church Outreach Mission?

Church Outreach has become a foundational mission and part of the core identity of Central UMC. Each week this program fulfils a host of necessary needs, and routinely serves 400 to 500 meals each week at the church Fellowship Hall. This requires more than 60 volunteers each week. In the message Jane shared on June 2, she said that 21,000 meals were served in 2023.  During winter months meals are served on Saturday and Sunday at Safe Harbor. 

As Outreach coordinator, Jane routinely:

• Oversaw meals, engaged in conversation, and provided essential services to Outreach guests,
• Encouraged, trained, assigned duties, and supported Outreach volunteers, including several people not affiliated with Central UMC, 
• Planned healthy meals and coordinated food acquisitions with organizations such as Northwest Food Coalition of Northern Michigan,
• In addition to the meals, she oversaw guest services including hot showers, haircuts, mail delivery, bus passes for medical appointment and job interviews,
• Coordinated efforts with other community partners such as Goodwill Street Outreach, recovery councilors, Jubilee House, TC Street Medicine, the Thomas Judd Center, Catholic Human Services, Traverse Health Clinic, Northwest Michigan Supportive Housing, Basic Needs Coalition, Safe Harbor and Father Fred.
• Established and sustained trusting relationships with guests and volunteers.

What does the future hold for Church Outreach?

Ryan Hannon has been hired to fill the Outreach portion of Jane’s duties; the food coordination search is still in progress.

The number of individuals and families who seek basic life needs in the Grand Traverse area continue to grow. We hope to sustain the financial and volunteer base that’s necessary to sustain and grow these essential services.  

We at Central are deeply grateful for Jane’s years of tireless service. 

May God’s blessings continue to be with Jane and her family!

We are encouraging folks to leave a comment on this spotlight blog post to honor of Rev. Jane’s legacy with us here at Central Church.