Mission Waco demonstrates transformational ministry

Jimmy Dorrell

image_pdfimage_print

WACO—Most people knew better than to venture into the blighted area around Waco's North 15th Street in the late 1970s, but Jimmy and Janet Dorrell purposefully moved into the neighborhood with their young children.

Relationships are the key to Mission Waco's approach to ministry. Dorrell is known as "Jimmy" and refuses titles like "Reverend" and "Doctor" and calls those he works with "friends" instead of "clients." (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Mission Waco/Mission World)

"It's what Christians do," Dorrell said. "We invade the darkness."

Their experience in incarnational living—entering into the lives of people in need, just as Jesus did—gave birth to Mission Waco/Mission World, a ministry that transformed the neighborhood and now reaches out to the poor in Haiti, Mexico and India.

At one time, North Waco had been home to many of the community's leading families, but by 1977, it had become one of the poorest parts of the nation's 19th poorest city—an area known for its crack dealers, prostitutes, a porno theater and bars on nearly every corner.

"We bought a 4,000-square-foot house there for $12,000. Location, location, location—it goes both ways," Dorrell quipped.

The Dorrells built a basketball court next to their home and invited neighborhood children and youth to play there. Janet Dorrell began offering King's Club activities at her home for the children, and that led to ever-deepening relationships with their parents as the Dorrells heard their stories and shared their lives.

Last Easter, 27 new Christians from Church Under the Bridge were baptized in a nearby river where the church meets annually for worship and a picnic. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Mission Waco/Mission World)

"That's what compassion means—to enter the pain," Dorrell explained. "We just became friends with the people."


Sign up for our weekly edition and get all our headlines in your inbox on Thursdays


As the Dorrells learned from the poor, they wanted to share their understanding with young people. To help students—at Baylor University and elsewhere—understand the life of the marginalized, the Dorrells organized Cross-Cultural Experiences to provide poverty simulations.

Twenty years ago, with the help of a grant from Christian Mission Concerns, the varied ministries that had grown out of relationships the Dorrells established with the poor took shape as Mission Waco.

In the last two decades, Mission Waco has made its mark on its neighborhood and the surrounding community. After the city condemned six buildings in a decaying shopping center—including the Capri porno theater—Mission Waco took possession of the property and bought a building next door where a bar had operated.

Mission Waco's after-school tutoring program consistently has helped low-income children increase their school performance in academics and behavior. Working closely with teachers and administrators at Mission Waco's nearby "adopted partner school," West Ave Elementary, the afternoon program identifies need. It also has a "Kid's Cafe" component to be sure children get to eat before going home. Numerous Baylor students work in this program.

After extensive renovation, the Capri took on new life as the Jubilee Theater, a showcase for community theater, cultural dance programs, children's performances and poetry readings.

Next door, Mission Waco opened the World Cup Café and Fair Trade Market, providing community residents a wholesome gathering place, workers a place to learn skills in the food-service industry and artisans in the developing world a place to sell their crafts.

A few blocks away, men who are seeking to recover from substance abuse find Christ-centered residential treatment at Manna House. Graduates of the four- to six-month program can move into The Lighthouse, a transitional safe-house, for six to 12 months.

In 20 years, Mission Waco has grown into a $2.5 million organization with nine buildings, including the Meyer Center—a "one-stop-shop" for people who need a mental-health assessment, a voucher for an overnight stay in a homeless shelter, application for a substance-abuse program, medical attention or enrollment in a high school-equivalency program.

Internationally, Mission Waco works with an orphanage that provides care for 250 mentally and developmentally challenged children in Mexico City; helps to supply clean water, medical care and micro-enterprise support for villagers in Haiti; and works with poor and nomadic people in India. In the last few months, the ministry's board approved a name change—to Mission Waco/Mission World—to reflect that expanded vision.

Mission Waco's full name is "Mission Waco/Mission World." The ministry also works in Haiti, India and Mexico City on Christian community development and work among unreached people. Christians in Texas sponsored more than 200 poor children, providing each $195 so they could go to school and get a daily meal. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Mission Waco/Mission World)

At a recent 20th anniversary celebration, Scott Todd, senior ministry advisor for Compassion International, pointed to Mission Waco/Mission World as an example of what Christians can do to bring about transformation on both a local and global scale and put an end to extreme poverty. The percentage of the world's population living in extreme poverty has been cut in half in the last 30 years, he noted.

"We can bring an end to extreme global poverty in our lifetime," he insisted. The kind of change Mission Waco caused in its immediate neighborhood and now is seeking to bring about in Mexico, Haiti and India can be replicated around the world, he said.

While Mission Waco provides food for the hungry and overnight lodging at My Brother's Keeper homeless shelter, its programs focus on empowerment rather than relief.

"The people with the problem must be part of the solution to the problem," Dorrell said.

That includes not only their own problems—poverty, substance abuse and lack of education—but also global problems. For instance, homeless people in Waco who attend the Church Under the Bridge support two children in Haiti.

Mission Waco remodeled an old porno theater into a community theater which is directed by a young man who grew up in Mission Waco's children and youth programs. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Mission Waco/Mission World)

Dorrell founded the Church Under the Bridge as a Bible study for homeless people who gathered beneath the overpass where Interstate 35 crosses South 5th Street in Waco.

While Church Under the Bridge and Mission Waco operate as separate entities, Dorrell leads both—and both ministries rely heavily on the volunteer support of Baylor University students.

"Baylor kids are pivotal to what we do," he said. "They have a strong Christian faith, but often their world view may be small."

Working and worshipping with the poor and marginalized provides a valuable education for the students, he noted. And Dorrell counts himself as a lifelong learner.

"We learn from the poor," he said. "We learn the poor are not to be feared. They are to be loved."


We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.

Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.

More from Baptist Standard