Greater Than Outreach

by Samara Smyer

Isaac Olivarez, a U.S. missionary with Intercultural Ministries, and his wife, Jaime, have developed a different way of thinking about ministry since entering the field. “It’s all about integration, not just outreach,” they say.

Isaac and Jaime felt the call of God to inner-city ministry over a decade ago and have been serving in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood since 2012. “Originally, we wanted to start a church for the marginalized,” Isaac says. “The plan all along was to build a church that met on Sundays and did weekly outreach among the homeless.”

To invite the community to their church, Isaac and Jaime began weekly community-wide meals. Every Thursday, they would invite anyone who would come to dinner, including the homeless, sex workers and gang members. They provided worship, a short sermon and, of course, plenty of food. “We became known for having the best food in town,” Isaac says. The dinners were a hit and soon the couple was feeding people by the droves every week.  

Then they launched the church. After two years of attempting to grow their Sunday morning ministry, Isaac and Jaime realized that something needed to change. They weren’t seeing the same growth on Sundays that they were on Thursdays. After some research, they heard about a congregation in Seattle that had launched what was called a “dinner church” that was extremely like what Isaac and Jaime were doing. “It was then that we realized we had already been doing church on Thursdays,” Isaac says. They decided to forego Sunday services, fully develop the dinner church and engrain themselves in their community through building personal relationships. 

Isaac and Jaime say that their main goal is to remain a steady presence in the Five Points area, Denver’s most violent neighborhood. They explain how changing the way they viewed ministry was essential. To them, church became more than community outreach and Sunday morning services, more than telling people about Jesus for an hour and then going home. Church became living among the hurting in their community, listening to their struggles, and truly loving them in any way possible.

No longer was outreach their goal, it was integration. “Hurting people deserve more than to be recipients of our outreaches, they deserve inclusion in the body of Christ,” Isaac says. “If our intent is simply to outreach to the marginalized, then that’s all we will do. They will remain separate. However, if our goal is to actively integrate and build relationships, then our strategies will be different.”

It was through such relational integration that Isaac and Jaime gained their daughter. Toward the beginning of their ministry, Isaac and Jaime met a woman who struggled with drug addiction. “She’s just a beautiful personality; we formed a great friendship with her,” Jaime says. Unexpectedly, the woman became pregnant and gave birth to her child prematurely.

After losing custody of the baby days after giving birth, the woman told authorities, “My pastors will take my baby!” The state did indeed recognize the Olivarezes as her closest next of kin. They were able to take the child into their custody, and eight months later, adopt their baby girl. 

Moving forward, Isaac and Jaime plan to continue to integrate with their community on a deeper level. One way they hope to accomplish this is by partnering with the city of Denver to better aid the city’s homeless population. “We need to show our cities how valuable a resource the church truly is,” Isaac says. Living in a neighborhood with a crime rate 173% greater than Denver’s average, the two understand that ministering to the marginalized may raise safety concerns. “Our unease does not allow us to separate from our community,” he says. “Christ’s calling transcends our concerns.”

When it comes to ministry, the couple says there is not one specific way to integrate with your community; however, integration with those around us is not optional. “If we want to see Jesus transform our communities, we must go where they are,” Isaac says. “Jesus came to be with the marginalized and outcasts, and we are called to do the same.”

“Every community has hurting people and we have the answer to their pain,” Isaac says. “The answer is simple. It’s Jesus Christ.”

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Samara Smyer

Samara Smyer works as communications and content strategist for Assemblies of God U.S. Missions. She graduated from College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.