Becky St. Clair – Lincoln, Nebraska … If you ask Cathy Kissner, department director for Rocky Mountain Conference Adventist Community Services (ACS), for an elevator pitch for ACS, she has it ready: Members of the Seventh-day Adventist church showing the love of the Father to those who are in need.
Indeed, ACS centers in Kissner’s territory are thriving, providing clothing, food and household items such as blankets and dishes, and offering Bibles and Bible studies. Run almost entirely by volunteers, Rocky Mountain Conference ACS centers do what they can to be available for their communities several times per month.
“The Grand Valley center is considering opening two Sundays a month to serve what we call the working poor,” Kissner says. “We want to make sure as many people as possible are able to get to our facility, even those who work during the week.”
Though these ACS centers have been operating for years, much of what they are accomplishing today is a direct result of Seed grants from the North American Division (NAD). This grant, funded through freewill offerings specifically for community service across the NAD, provides up to $10K for capital improvements at community service centers by purchasing “items which will be used repeatedly to serve multiple clients” (communityservices.org).
When this grant became available several years ago, Kissner began applying, procuring funds for several of the centers in her territory, with three additional centers currently working on the application. “If your facility is not inviting, it makes a difference in the experience for those who come in,” Kissner says. Their center in Grand Junction, Colorado, desperately needed new flooring to replace the 30-year-old carpet,” she shares. “With the Seed grant, they were able to lay an entirely new laminate floor and paint the walls. It’s a place you’re happy to invite people into.”
After the elementary school in Alamosa, Colorado, closed, the church wanted to turn it into a community service center, but it needed a bit of work to serve that purpose. Kissner asked church leaders if $10K would help. “The looks on their faces were priceless,” she says with a grin. “Now that they will be applying for the seed grant, they have the joy of deciding how they will spend that money to best serve the community. What a wonderful ‘problem’ to have!”
Acting like a Christian
With funding to cover bigger projects, ACS centers are able to focus more on the services they provide. The center in Pueblo, Colorado, is providing services unique to traditional ACS centers. Rather than food and clothing, the Pueblo center offers outreach education: tutoring, mentoring, diabetes reversal classes, and grief recovery seminars. They also have a group called the Feeding Angels which distributes food once per week to those experiencing houselessness in their community. Their work has garnered attention from government officials and the public school system.
“When the Marshall Fire ravaged Boulder County, ACS ran a fire recovery center,” Kissner says. “The head of FEMA walked through our facility and then commented, ‘Oh, you’re Adventists? We didn’t know you cared about us.’ That was painful.”
Kissner adds that getting to know one’s community and providing for its needs helps dispel the belief that Adventists don’t care. “Because of what Pueblo is doing through their center, the local school system is saying, ‘Wow! What’s going on? Our kids are reading better!’ They see test scores going up and they want to know why and how, and that leads them to us.”
Book of Isaiah chapter 58 says, Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them… (v. 6-7, NIV).
“Christ wants us to loose the bonds of those who are held captive,” Kissner states. “The woman in domestic violence, the child who cannot read, the individual trapped in addiction, those in poverty. If we don’t do everything we can to help release those in our communities from their bondage, we aren’t doing what Christ called us to do.”
It doesn’t have to be an Adventist program, either, Kissner adds. Every local Department of Human Services has a list of service agencies working in the community, and, Kissner says, none of them have enough volunteers.
“Find out what the needs are in your community and fill them,” Kissner says. “Volunteering shows people they are valued enough that you will give your time and energy to support them, and that speaks volumes. If we don’t reach into our communities and allow them to get to know us, they will never trust us enough to ask about our Jesus. It’s not about religion, it’s about living Christ’s love. Just act like a Christian. It’s really that simple.”
—Becky St. Clair is a freelance writer for OUTLOOK magazine. Republished with permission from OUTLOOK Adventist News June 9, 2025, article. Photo supplied.
