Church on the Street

Orchard Church of Chico, Sunday Night Barbecue in Downtown City Plaza

               
You could smell the coals two blocks away. I wasn't even sure anyone was going to be there after what happened at the last City Council meeting. But once the smell of charcoal hit my nose through the cool evening air, I knew it was on.

When I got there it looked like it was over. There were no barbecues in sight, and no one was eating, but people were still milling around.

I saw a man that I had met the night before at the meeting. His name was John and he was homeless. John had worked as a welder for 30 years until he got hurt.

I asked John if he Knew Pastor Jim Culp. He said yes and introduced me to him.

Orchard Church of Chico has been putting on weekly        

Pastor Jim Culp of Orchard Church

barbecues to feed the homeless for the past five years.

Recently, they were asked to obtain a permit to continue with the event. After the permit was approved, certain members of the City Council weren't sure if letting them continue was such a good idea due to all of the issues downtown Chico has been dealing with over the last few years due to homelessness.

I asked Culp what he thought about the City putting the future of their permit and their event on the agenda for discussion at the next City Council meeting.

"I think a lot of it is just a misconception of what's going on down here," Culp said.

"The misconception is that we are drawing homelessness into downtown. Instead, we're bringing people to meet it head on.

"Our goal is to be able to work with the City to find the right solution. And yet, we're very certain that this is within our constitutional right to be able to do: to be able to be here, to be able to assemble freely as a religious organization. And really, it is not within the City's purview of who we choose to gather as our congregants. And so, we don't want to fight that fight, we're willing to jump through the hoops, but we will fight that fight."

Kevin Dougherty

                                                                   
Kevin Dougherty is an Orchard Church success story.
After being asked to leave The Well, a home for homeless men who are struggling with alcohol addiction, and spending five and a half months at the Torres Shelter, Dougherty said that someone from Orchard Church stopped him from doing something stupid.

Soon after that, someone else from Orchard asked him if he had ever gone to college.

"No!" Dougherty said, "and I'm not going."

Within a week, Dougherty had filled out his application for financial aid. This Spring he will be graduating from Butte College with two associate degrees and has just applied to Chico State where he will continue to study social work and behavioral health.

As I was leaving the Plaza, a came across a park ranger named Eric. I asked Ranger Eric what he thought about the whole thing:

"This event has been going on for a while. We reached out to them to get everyone in compliance. Not to shut people down, to get people in compliance, because there's insurance involved. There's just a whole event process, and that's where we left off."