Huntsville's Interfaith Mission Service celebrating 45 years of making North Alabama a better place

Published on AL.com on May 19, 2014 at 7:22 AM, updated May 19, 2014 at 7:24 AM

How do you define success? Is it having a lot of money? You know that it's not; all of us know some miserable people with plenty of money. Is it fame? Once again you know that fame alone is not success. Justin Bieber checks both the fame and money boxes, but most of us see him as a slow train wreck, a hair style attached to a future trivia answer.

Let me offer a different definition of success. It is measured by the number of people whose lives you help make better. By that definition teachers and doctors stand side by side with the people who provide blankets to the homeless as real successes. With that definition in mind, I'd like to introduce you to a very successful organization that most of you have never heard of. It is time to say to say hello and happy 45^th birthday to Huntsville's Interfaith Mission Service, a group that has worked quietly and tirelessly to make North Alabama a better place.

IMS's mission is "to strengthen and enhance our congregations' capabilities to meet human needs, participate in the public forum, and promote religious, racial and cultural harmony". If this sounds like a bunch of folks sitting around a campfire singing Kumbayah, let me set you straight. IMS began in 1969 to help its member congregations (then exclusively Christian and Jewish) multiply their efforts to meet community needs. The organization has added congregations since then, including Hindu and Islamic and can truly say that they represent the spectrum of faiths that make up our community. Although IMS does not represent a particular political point of view, the organization has been active in advocating beliefs common to the represented faiths, including meeting the needs of the poor and elderly in the Huntsville area.

Perhaps one reason that many in Huntsville are not familiar with the IMS is that the group has a history of spinning out missions once they take root.

Perhaps one reason that many in Huntsville are not familiar with the IMS is that the group has a history of spinning out missions once they take root. Meet some of the IMS's children – groups that the IMS founded or co-founded:

• Huntsville Emergency Line Project (HELPLine) provides telephone counseling and information and referral services.
• HOPE Place is a confidential shelter and service provider for spouse abuse victims. It has merged with HELPLine to become Crisis Services of North Alabama.
• Huntsville Interfaith Volunteer Transportation Service (HIVTS) provided transportation to medical appointments to people without transport. It was a forerunner of HandiRide.
• Care Assurance Support for the Aging (CASA) formed in 1978 under contract with Top of Alabama Regional Council of Governments (TARCOG) to provide volunteer services to assist with the unmet needs of aging and homebound individuals.
• IMS First Stop, formed in 2001, provides services to homeless persons.
• Living in Family Transition (LIFT) started in 1982 to provide low cost housing for homeless persons until they can transition to more permanent housing.
• Food Bank: IMS provided initial seed money along with United Way to start the Food Bank of North Alabama in 1984.
• Agora began as a coffeehouse for young adults in 1970. Later it expanded as Community Umbrella Program (CUP) to address drug abuse and eventually operated a Youth Emergency Services (YES) clinic for drug users
• FOODLine/Food Pantry System formed in 1970 with nine congregations. Currently, 17 pantries are operating with many more congregations being "feeders" to these pantries. Volunteers operating telephones at the IMS office perform the clearinghouse functions.
• Alabama IMPACT was a statewide coalition of religious denominations formed to track and advocate for legislation promoting welfare reform and social justice. IMS staff and volunteers did research and mailings. Alabama IMPACT later merged with Alabama Arise.
• CCC (Community Counseling Center) to Family to provide individual and family counseling services. The agency later merged with the Family Counseling Agency and is now known as the Family Service Center.
• DIAL Kindergarten Screening - The purpose is to test children entering elementary school to determine school readiness skills

IMS has another mission – to promote religious, racial and cultural harmony. IMS does not gloss over our differences but through its efforts we find out how much we have in common, and learn to respect each other while acknowledging our differences. Learning opportunities include programs such as Hometown Pilgrimage, a program where different faiths open their services to members of other religions and Countering Islamophobia, where participants meet local members of the Islamic community and learn more about their faith.

Service opportunities include the Day of Service and Unity every September. This brings members of participating congregations and community spirited people not affiliated with an IMS member congregation together to perform service projects around the Huntsville area. This project started as a community unifying project after the September 11, 2001 attacks and has continued annually. Projects vary each year and have included such activities as painting at the Harris Home, gardening at area group homes, or packing food packets for the homeless.

Every major world religion has a version of the Golden Rule. Whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Baha'i, the IMS provides a place to put that rule into action, a quiet North Alabama success story for 45 years and counting.