Casey Cleveland, lead pastor of the Avenue Church, cuts the ribbon during the grand
opening for City House in Delray Beach.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
INSET BELOW: David Franklin
By Tim Pallesen
The challenge to save local children with no fathers is daunting.
In Delray Beach, 33 percent of the children live in fatherless homes, according to the U.S. Census. National studies show children raised without a father account for 63 percent of youth suicides, 71 percent of high school dropouts, 75 percent of those in drug treatment centers, 85 percent of those with behavioral disorders and 85 percent of those in prison.
Families from the Avenue Church first opened their homes to care for small children as their mothers struggled to get their lives together.
“We have come to realize that it’s the mother who needs the real help in situations like these,” the Rev. Casey Cleveland now says as City House, an alternative approach, opened last month.
Five mothers and their children will live in an apartment building with houseparents in a two-year program where the mothers will receive job training, career coaching and Christian mentors to help to get their lives under control.
“Yes, the child needs a safe place,” Cleveland said. “But if the mother is not given consistent mentoring, the child will be returned to a very similar at-risk situation.”
Each mother will have two to four members of the Avenue Church in Delray or Spanish River Church in Boca Raton on her mentoring team.
Mothers and children receive points for acts of kindness, Bible study and attending Sunday worship. The points earn toys, clothing, car seats and strollers donated by church members.
“Our main goal is to allow Christ and his spirit do redemption in their lives,” City House executive director Lisa Wanamaker said.
Housing is expensive in Boca Raton, and talented youth pastors are difficult to keep. So Advent Lutheran Church has purchased a single-family home next to the church for its youth pastor, David Franklin.
Franklin, 40, who grew up in Boca Raton, has been active in youth ministry since he was 19. He spent five years at Spanish River Church in Boca Raton and was on the staff at Journey Church in Boynton Beach when Advent Lutheran senior pastor Andrew Hagen called him for advice two years ago.
The average stay for a youth minister in all churches is six months. “It takes 18 months to two years to build any kind of traction at all,” Franklin advised Hagen. Advent then surprised Franklin by asking him to be youth minister 18 months ago, when only 10 to 15 teenagers attended its weekly youth program. Youth attendance under his guidance has grown to 40 to 50 teens each week.
Advent obviously wanted to keep Franklin when members voted his summer to purchase the house next to Advent’s church and school.
“We’re very excited about having a place for our youth pastor and his family,” Hagen said. “Housing is a key issue for people in ministry in Boca Raton. Houses are expensive and the ministry doesn’t pay much.”
The vision statement for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach says to love thy neighbor.
But information to candidates for the new rector’s job cautions that the church neighborhood along Swinton Avenue south of Atlantic Avenue is changing.
“The church could see dramatic gentrification of its historic low-income minority neighborhood as investors look for places to build both residential and commercial buildings close to downtown,” the search committee advised. “St. Paul’s is looking for a new rector who will help us define our strategic mission and our role as a church in our future landscape.”
The neighborhood now is low-income Haitian immigrants. Church volunteers mentor Haitian children after school at Paul’s Place.
The search for a new rector began after former rector Chip Stokes was chosen to be the bishop of New Jersey in May 2013. A developer recently purchased the nearby Sundy House for a seven-acre project that will include luxury townhouses and shops.
“Delray Beach is a ‘Village by the Sea’ growing rapidly and in transition,” candidates are advised. “That transition is going to affect the neighborhood surrounding St. Paul’s.”
Job applications are still coming in. Search committee chairman Mike Armstrong said three or four finalists will be invited to St. Paul’s for interviews this fall.
“We hope to have the whole thing wrapped up by the end of the year,” Armstrong said.
Jews might finally have a synagogue in east Delray.
“There’s no Jewish synagogue in that part of town. People on the coast need a place to pray,” Rabbi Shmuli Biston said in launching the Chabad of East Delray and the Beaches during the Jewish high holidays.
Free Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services were offered at the Residence Inn by Marriott on East Atlantic Avenue.
Geared for Jews of all backgrounds, the “user-friendly” services for both beginners and the advanced will continue at the hotel during Jewish holidays as Biston searches coastal Delray for a permanent location.
Contact him at chabadofeastdelray@gmail.com or (954) 796-7330.
Don’t forget the 20th annual End Hunger Walk on Oct. 12 to benefit the Caring Kitchen in Delray Beach and other ministries of Christians Reaching Out to Society.
Organizers hope 400 walkers will gather on the West Palm Beach waterfront at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church to raise $50,000 in pledges this year. Teams will represent 25 churches that support CROS Ministries.
Contact Gibbie Nauman at 233-9009, Ext. 106, or gnauman@crosministries.org to sign up as a walker or to make a pledge.
Let there be music at the 325-student school that South County Episcopalians support financially in Haiti.
The national Episcopal Church Women have announced a $30,750 grant to purchase musical instruments and hire a music teacher at the school in Bondeau, Haiti.
“Music is a great way to stimulate not just the arts but overall education,” said the Rev. Andrew Sherman of St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton, which submitted the grant request after Sherman first heard the school band in March.
“After hearing them play, I was inspired to say ‘Let’s get them more instruments,’ ” Sherman said.
St. Gregory’s and St. Paul’s in Delray pay for teachers and food to nourish the students at the Pre-K- to eighth-grade school that St. Gregory’s started 10 years ago.
Tim Pallesen writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Email him at tcpallesen@aol.com.
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