My name is Lori Clark. I am the Co-Director for Agape Community Ministries. I am also a Director for Tree of Knowledge pre-school where I previously taught for 25 years.
I was raised in a small town in Northwest Missouri. My parents were converted to Christ before I was born and I grew up attending church all my life. I am the youngest of three daughters. My father was a butcher and my mother worked in the school cafeteria where I attended high school.
I met Ron, while attending college near my hometown. He was the youth minister at our congregation and we were married December 1987. Over the years we have done ministry together in small congregations, a large church, and a church plant. One area we are both passionate about is domestic violence work.
In 1996, when we were in ministry at a small town in South Missouri, we began to help at our local Abuse Shelter. We were invited by staff to volunteer, bring women and their children to church, and help the shelter staff when they needed it. Within a year the Shelter staff trained me, and a group from our church, to be victim’s advocates. I realized that domestic and sexual abuse were a needed and missing component in our churches. Rather than “reinvent the wheel” by doing our own program, I decided to have us partner with our local resource providers since they trained and supported us.
When we moved to Portland, we found a great opportunity to continue this work with our large congregation. This is where I developed classes for our members to find healing and work with local agencies. Our community indicated that there is a strong desire for faith-based services and partnerships. Jesus not only stands with those who experience abuse, but calls his disciples to support them and confront abusive and controlling behavior, as well as those who use it to oppress others.
After eight years in that congregation Ron and I planted the Agape Church of Christ in downtown Portland with the sole focus of doing abuse ministry as a component of our mission. We continued our abuse ministry while at Agape, partnered with local agencies in faith based trainings, mentored interns in abuse work, and extended this ministry to our houseless and sex trafficking areas of outreach. During this time, Ron and I authored the book, Reflections From the Marriage Table: Our Experiences of Love in Marriage, Family, and Ministry. We wrote this book as a resource for married couples, especially those in ministry.
I am excited that I can do this work full time and keep our focus on this ministry. God has blessed this work and provides support so that we can serve in a ministry that we have such a passion to do.
Please reach out if you need help developing a similar ministry in your congregation, small group, or neighborhood.
Blessings
Lori Clark