God calls church in New York City to care about HIV
By Manda Gibson

When Aaron Coe was studying church growth strategies in seminary, no one ever mentioned HIV ministry. And when he planted The Gallery Church, a New York City congregation, he never thought of afddressing HIV in his church-planting plan. But soon God changed his direction.

Coe and his wife started the process of planting The Gallery Church in 2005, and they officially launched in September 2006. When the church began looking around New York for ministry needs, they learned that HIV was a significant issue.

“HIV has been a huge buzzword, especially in activist communities like New York,” Coe said. “But most people talk about it in terms of what’s going on in other countries around the world. As we started investigating, we found there’s a huge need in our own backyard.”

In Chelsea, a New York neighborhood where one service of The Gallery Church meets, the health department says that one in four men has HIV.

Coe says it was as if God was saying to him: “This is something you need to care about.”

Still, Coe was cautious as the church explored how they could get involved.

“We knew there were some stigmas related to it,” he said. “As a theologically conservative church, we wanted to make sure we knew all the facts.”

What he learned at the summit

So Coe went with another man from The Gallery Church to the 2006 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church at Saddleback Church.

There he met John Forbes, who is HIV-positive. Forbes told Coe his story of learning he was HIV positive and telling his pastor, who offered to pray for him and then sent him on his way.

Coe wanted his church to offer more support to people living with HIV in New York. He had his own ideas for ministry – like selling water bottles to raise money for local HIV service providers.

“I’m a take-the-bull-by-the-horns kind of leader,” Coe said. “I was pushing the water bottle thing pretty hard.”

Forbes encouraged him to go directly to the HIV community and ask what it needed instead.

Starting the ministry

So church leaders approached a local HIV clinic and asked how they could help. They learned that one of the clinic’s biggest challenges was offering testing for New York City residents. The clinic estimates that around 40,000 people in the city have HIV but don’t know it.

Though clinic staff had the expertise to do the testing, they didn’t have the manpower to offer and advertise testing events. The Gallery Church was happy to offer the manpower.

As church leaders were investigating how they could get involved in addressing HIV ministry, Coe was preparing the congregation’s heart. He preached on how people can find their roles in the community and also preached on how to S.T.O.P. AIDS, rather than just slowing it.

To help reduce stigma in his own church, Coe was tested for HIV. The testing was recorded on video and shown to the church. The testing also helped Coe earn credibility with the HIV clinic; they had never before met a pastor who was willing to get tested.

Then the church, in partnership with the clinic, held an HIV testing day for the community. The church advertised ahead of time by designing and distributing posters.

While clinic staff administered a rapid saliva test for HIV, The Gallery Church members greeted people at the door, helped with registration, talked to people waiting in line, and provided refreshments.

The clinic said they would be happy if one person came to be tested, and that 15 people would be a landside. “At the end of the day we had to shut it down after 59 people came through. There just wasn’t enough time left in the day,” Coe said. “It was just a huge, huge thing for our church and a huge thing for our community.

“Most people who live in the Chelsea community don’t see the church as caring for the same things they care about – but needs were legitimately met that day.”

Now The Gallery Church is working with the clinic to plan a major testing day in March 2008. The goal is to have 10 testing sites and to test as many as 200 people per site. The clinic hopes that it might be the largest HIV testing day in New York City history.

The testing sites will be manned by The Gallery Church volunteers and participants in City Uprising, an event The Gallery Church is hosting for young adults. Some volunteers will be trained to administer the tests, and church members will be available for spiritual counseling before and after people are tested.

Spiritual fruit

Though Coe doesn’t know of anyone who already has become a Christian through the HIV ministry, he can point to specific ways God is using it.

Several people who went to the testing day have consistently visited the church since then.

“They know what our motivation is and what is required of being a Christ-follower,” he said. “And they know there’s something about our church that is different.”

After the testing day, Coe visited with a doctor at the clinic. He shared with her the idea of how to S.T.O.P. AIDS, instead of just working to S.L.O.W. it. She took him around the clinic, from doctor to doctor, explaining S.L.O.W. vs. S.T.O.P. It was an open door to share about God’s plans for sexuality and for the church.

The ministry has also opened the doors for individuals to share Christ with their friends and coworkers – many of whom see the church as irrelevant.

“This has given our people a point of conversation to let people see that our people care about the needs of this city,” Coe said.

Coe believes The Gallery Church’s HIV ministry is just beginning, and he plans to continue responding to the needs of the local HIV community.

“I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of the ministry we can do,” he said. “The ball’s rolling and we’re standing ready and our people are firmly behind it.”