Hungry No More (HNM) began in February 2000 as a free, weekly community meal aimed at building Christian community among people who didn’t usually attend church. We had become aware of people who were homeless, some who had just come out of prison, people who struggled with addictions - often with associated mental health problems; many of whom came from fractured family situations. We wanted to provide a place for all of them to come.

In hindsight, the seed for this ministry was sown when a member of our congregation, the late Eric Paschke started visiting Mobilong Prison on a weekly basis in his retirement. Eric was concerned that there was nowhere for these men to go when they came out of prison and that they needed support from a Christian community. Eric had enlisted the help of some from the congregation in visiting prisoners’ families so relationships were already being made.

At the same time the leadership team at Mt Barker Uniting decided we would like to start a coffee morning for parents of children who had recently been baptised in our church. We made arrangements for an Alpha course to start with a crèche, but the planned participants didn’t turn up: the prisoners’ families and friends we had been visiting came instead.

In the past year we have started ‘Alive@5’ church, whilst still continuing our ministry of hospitality, T@6. We have also formed a music group using three guitarists from HNM people, along with a drummer. That has been important too, to find the gifts we have present in our group and to provide opportunities to use them.

Recently we have been challenged on our model of leadership. We know we must be prepared to have our lives and attitudes transformed as much as we hope the people we are serving will. This can be confronting but is particularly important if we are ministering to people with many needs: we must watch that our attitudes always remain humble and respectful, whilst still being wise in making decisions. 

Over the years many have joined the HNM team. This is essential if a fresh expression is to go the distance. We have also sought to bring people from the HNM ‘clients’ onto the leadership team as soon as possible.

Being able to release control a little is important, as is the ability to risk things not always going as planned!

Rev Juleen Villis, Mt Barker Uniting Church

PIC: Hungry No More encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to come and explore community. Pictured are three youth girls lighting candles for our Alive@5 church service.

There are important lessons for any considering starting a Fresh Expression that can be learned from our beginnings:

1. Look for the relationships the church might already have through member/members that represent a group that is unchurched. When relationships already exist there can be a natural progression to ministry. God could also be nudging you to minister to a group you wouldn’t otherwise consider. We tend to set our sights on that which is safe, and non-scary!
2. Look at what God may be already doing, and be humble enough to give up your own plans in favour of God’s! If we had abandoned our coffee morning because the ‘right’ people didn’t turn up, HNM may never have started, because it was from that group that HNM was birthed: a gift of hospitality to people ‘just like us’.