Ephesians 2:19 (NIV)
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and
strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his
household,
The church is compared to a city, and every converted
sinner is free of it. It is also compared to a house, and every converted
sinner is one of the domestics, one of the family, a servant and a child in
God's house. [Matthew Henry]
A church in Buffalo, New York has found a unique way to
bless its local community—open a Subway franchise in its building. In a riff
off the popular TV show, Undercover Boss, in which business leaders from large
corporations spend several days working alongside lower-level employees, Don
Fertman, Subway's Chief Development Officer, goes undercover at several
locations across the United States. Most of the episode includes your typical
Undercover Boss fare—bumbling executive, dedicated workers, tear-jerker
employee recognitions—but Fertman also visited a restaurant in Buffalo, New
York located in the same building as True Bethel Baptist Church. The church
owns and operates the franchise.
The reason? To provide employment and job training to the
surrounding neighborhood. On the episode Senior Pastor Reverend Darius Pridgen
explains the origins and aim of the idea:
The reason we actually put it in the church was because
there weren't a lot of opportunities in this neighborhood when I got here. We
had a high murder rate, and a lot of people not working. So, a lot of people
always talk about, "Just give people jobs." Well, that's not the key,
if they haven't been trained. So we started collecting an offering. We called
it a "franchise offering"—literally called it a "franchise
offering." But we've got to do more than build a business. We've got to
train people. We try to push people into the next level of life.
The episode concludes with Fertman waiving the franchise
fee for the church to open another similarly suited store in a nearby
neighborhood. In addition, he encourages a room of Subway executives to
consider it as a model for the future.
[Adapted from Joseph Sunde, "Church Opens Subway
Franchise to Bring Jobs to Community," Acton blog (2-19-14)]
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