{"id":20607,"date":"2016-04-20T11:06:14","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T16:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mbcpathway.local\/?p=20607"},"modified":"2016-04-20T11:06:14","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T16:06:14","slug":"church-makes-its-home-among-the-homeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2016\/04\/20\/church-makes-its-home-among-the-homeless\/","title":{"rendered":"Church makes its home among the homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"

CONROE, Texas (BP) \u2013 Jeff Foshee was at the end of his rope. Haunted by depression, fear, and his own misfortunes, he felt he could not hold on any longer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to a friend\u2019s guidance, Foshee\u2019s next step landed him at the Houston-area Under Over Fellowship in Conroe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first came to a Sunday service with Under Over, something clicked. It just felt like home,\u201d Foshee says. \u201cI have been here ever since.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jerry Vineyard, meanwhile, also found himself at the end of his rope. After nearly a decade of bivocational ministry, he had been on staff at two different churches and struggled with limitations of whom, inside the church, they were ministering to \u2013 both socioeconomically and racially.<\/span><\/p>\n

When he became a lead pastor, thinking that position might offer more flexibility, he found himself stuck again. A nearly empty building was draining financial resources for outreach, yet members were not prepared to sell their assets, clinging to tradition and personal connections.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again I found myself in a similar situation. I said, \u2018Jesus, if this is really what pastoring is, then I don\u2019t want anything to do with it,\u2019\u201d Vineyard recounts. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do. All of my problems seemed to be coming from owning a building.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Then he began to realize that \u201cmaybe I could start a church without a building.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnother pastor in Conroe decided to sponsor me. They said they had never really heard of anything like this, but they would support me regardless. In 2011, we had our first service with 65 people [in Heritage Place Park downtown Conroe]. Today we have a membership of around 75. Half of those are either in transition or homeless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Plenty of issues came with launching a church under a park pavilion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have had to learn a lot about drugs and prison life,\u201d Vineyard says. \u201cMany of them can\u2019t get jobs or apartments because of previous felonies, so we decided we would make jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Using simple skill sets combined with discipleship, Under Over Fellowship is creating opportunities for the homeless, formerly homeless and down and out in metro Houston. The cross woodcut is one of the products created by members of the community, which are sold through LifeWay Christian Stores.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was an art teacher before this, so I used my artistic abilities and we decided we would create shabby-chic furniture to sell. We just started fixing stuff up and put these guys to work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom there we started making crosses because some people didn\u2019t have all the woodworking skills to make the furniture. We designed a simple cross they could make, paint and sell. LifeWay liked them so much, actually, they decided to sell them,\u201d Vineyard says of LifeWay Christian Resources\u2019 retail division.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under Over has now expanded into two transitional houses with programs to assist men and women to re-enter society in positive fashion after a history of homelessness or drug addiction. The ministry seeks to aid all of its participants by providing everything from parenting courses to financial instruction and job training. Bible study and discipleship are also woven into every aspect of the outreach.\u2002<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOnce again I found myself in a similar situation. I said, \u2018Jesus, if this is really what pastoring is, then I don\u2019t want anything to do with it,\u2019\u201d Vineyard recounts. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do. All of my problems seemed to be coming from owning a building.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":20608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_selected_social_profile":[]},"categories":[177,42,40,8,15,19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nChurch makes its home among the homeless<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Under Over seeks to aid its participants by providing everything from parenting courses to financial instruction and job training.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2016\/04\/20\/church-makes-its-home-among-the-homeless\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church makes its home among the homeless\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Under Over seeks to aid its participants by providing everything from parenting courses to financial instruction and job training.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2016\/04\/20\/church-makes-its-home-among-the-homeless\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pathway\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/mbcpathway\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-20T16:06:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/homeless-church-2-e1460578358284.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"NAMB\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mbcpathway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mbcpathway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"NAMB\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2016\/04\/20\/church-makes-its-home-among-the-homeless\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2016\/04\/20\/church-makes-its-home-among-the-homeless\/\",\"name\":\"Church makes its home among the homeless\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2016\/04\/20\/church-makes-its-home-among-the-homeless\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2016\/04\/20\/church-makes-its-home-among-the-homeless\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/homeless-church-2-e1460578358284.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-20T16:06:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-20T16:06:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a3725387a5dab387b15063bc5fefb0ee\"},\"description\":\"Under Over seeks to aid its participants by providing everything from parenting courses to financial instruction and job training.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2016\/04\/20\/church-makes-its-home-among-the-homeless\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2016\/04\/20\/church-makes-its-home-among-the-homeless\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/2016\/04\/20\/church-makes-its-home-among-the-homeless\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/homeless-church-2-e1460578358284.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mbcpathway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/homeless-church-2-e1460578358284.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667,\"caption\":\"Mens Director Jeff Foshee leads a Sunday School lesson at Heritage Place Park as part of The Over Under Ministry in downtown Conroe, Texas on Sunday, August 9, 2015. 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