06/23/2007

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
Volunteers from Freedom Builders move a porch into place as part of making repairs to a home in Grawn last week. Freedom Builders Ministry draws on volunteer help from area churchs and youth groups, stepping in when social service agencies can't provide support not only with home improvements, but in other ways. The ministry exists on donations, grants and sponsorships.

Man follows Jesus into carpentry

By Gretchen Murray
Local columnist
gmurray@
record-eagle.com

Read Gretchen's past columns here

People who have heard of Skip Brown might say he's a man who rebuilds houses, but those who know him and his Freedom Builders Ministry will say he rebuilds lives.

For the last seven years, the Traverse City native has offered a helping hand to those lacking the means to cope with the cost of home repairs. Blessed with an uncanny ability to see beyond leaking roofs and broken furnaces, Brown also reaches out to mend broken spirits of those living in poor conditions.

"We're building a bridge to Christ,” he says.

With some 600 projects already completed using the help of volunteers from area churches and youth groups, Brown's ministry steps in when social service agencies can't. "We're not just about fixing the house,” Brown said. "Home repair is a vehicle to demonstrate the love that God has for all of us.”

And when over 40 people showed up on June 16 to spend the day making extensive repairs to a Blair Township family's home, the effect on the whole neighborhood was powerful.

"When someone shows up with no expectations for anything in return, it impacts the whole community in a positive way. It gives them hope,” Brown said.

Prior to organizing Freedom Builders, Brown and his wife Janet volunteered in lay ministry, often taking junior high students to places like Atlantic City where their mission work involved repairing homes. Eventually, the Browns felt God telling them there were local needs.

A building products salesman for 27 years, Brown was amassing construction knowledge and making a good living when he began wrestling with the idea of beginning the northern Michigan ministry. He mused for 2½ years, weighing the facts that while he knew something about building repair, he knew nothing about partnering with government agencies — much less representing the body of Christ to serve the needs of others.

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
Ed Johnson and Pete Lhamon, volunteers with Freedom Builders, mount a new front door in place while making home repairs in Grawn recently.

For verification he called on Father Fred, the late Traverse City priest whose work with the needy is legendary and whose legacy is a dynamic community aid foundation that still bears his name.

Brown recalled the priest didn't mince words telling him to get busy.

Brown's next stop was at the Department of Human Services to tell them he was available. Before he got home, they had called with a project for him.

In the spring of 1999, More Than a Carpenter Missions was formed and eventually evolved into Freedom Builders. Currently Brown regularly gets calls from 47 government agencies in the five-county area.

The ministry exists on monetary and equipment donations, grants, sponsorships and volunteer services. A board of directors oversees fundraising and budgeting.

Brown says the biggest issue of the ministry is the belief that most people living in poverty are not working hard enough to get themselves out of it.

"The middle class believes that people in poverty should be able to pick themselves up by their bootstraps. The fact is, these people can't find their stinking boot straps anymore,” he said. It frustrates him to find that same belief shared as much among church members as the general public.

Brown said his group doesn't buy into the beliefs that, if people worked harder or didn't make dumb decisions, or repeat the same pattern of bad decisions over and over, they wouldn't be in such a situation. "If you think that an individual is mostly repeating behaviors taught over years of decision making and you don't bring other resources into their lives …. I don't believe how the church can think that things are going to be any different,” he said.

He believes that often people don't look beyond the surface of poverty and says that some of the people he has not wanted to spend time with have changed him the most.

"So often we get involved when life has become so overwhelming. It gets stifling and they just quit moving forward,” Brown said of those needing his ministry. "But we let them know they're not alone. They're not forgotten.”

He feels intensely that Christian churches who he refers to collectively as "the church” can do more, but are too hesitant to pitch in and get involved.

"As the church, there is no excuse not to go and serve if you follow the example of Christ. Instead we convey a message (to those in need) that is, if I can get my act cleaned up, I would be welcomed, but most don't ever believe they will be clean enough to sit in that pew,” Brown said.

He's adamant in his belief that Christianity is not that complicated and the life of Christ is simple to understand and emulate.

"If the church would just follow the example of Christ, this ministry wouldn't need to exist,” he said.

Freedom Builders' sixth annual golf outing is set for Sept. 12 at Kings Challenge Golf Course in Cedar. Sponsors are needed for the event. To learn more call Louise Brunelle, 256-1092. To learn more about Freedom Builders, visit www.freedombuildersministry.org.

Gretchen Murray can be reached at gmurray@record-eagle.com