Family Dispatch Church Ministers To Police Officers And First Responders
By Tim Boyd
September 2008
What does a police chaplain do when he decides to retire? For Lee Martin, the answer was obvious. He decided to start a church aimed at police officers and other first responders. Thus, Family Dispatch Church was born. The church meets at White Lakes Mall in Topeka, Kansas. Services are held on Tuesday evenings. The services are informal and built around short clips from the Andy Griffith Show. Sermons are often done in a dialogue format.
According to Martin, “I was a chaplain for the police department for fifteen years. . . . I wondered if it were possible to take an ‘interest’ group and start a church. When I retired, I decided to try it and see.” The church began meeting in September 2007. The highest attendance has been thirty-nine with an average attendance in the mid-twenties.
One of the other ministries of Family Dispatch is to make the meeting space in the mall available to mall walkers. According to Martin, “I have always thought that the most wasteful thing that a church can do is to have a facility and only have it open for three hours a week. I realized that there were mall walkers coming by constantly.” Martin provides free coffee and pastries as a ministry to those who come in to cool down and rest after they walk.
Family Dispatch Church is not a fully-constituted church yet. But that step is coming. There have been those who have inquired about membership and that process will require constituting. Currently the church is not able to be financially self-sufficient. North American Mission Board church planting funds administered through the Kaw Valley Association provide enough money to pay the rent on their space in the mall. Martin said that the space has been very affordable and hopes that it will continue to be so.
Family Dispatch is sponsored by Shawnee Heights Baptist Church and Covenant Baptist Church in Topeka. Their sponsorship is primarily in the form of prayer and manpower. The church has also benefited from various individuals and companies who have helped Family Dispatch acquire furnishings. Two volunteers, one a retired police officer and the other a college student at Shawnee Heights Baptist Church, act as worship leaders for the group.
Not all of those who attend are police officers or firefighters. Two of the couples who are interest in joining are visitors who learned about Family Dispatch while visiting Shawnee Heights. The main emphasis, however, remains targeting police officers and other first responders with the message of the gospel. For Martin, retirement is a lot of fun and full of ministry.
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