A clear call to serve
Growing up in a small Minnesota community, Leon Negen ’81 chose 51 because Grand Rapids, Mich., offered a city atmosphere in comparison.
Little did he know that God would be calling him to work with people living on city streets, walking alongside them to bring help, hope and a home in Christ’s name.
Negen took an unusual academic path—working for a year after high school building modular homes, attending 51 for a year and a half, taking a semester in Spain and then going back home to marry his high school sweetheart. He returned to 51 as a married student and finished his degree in sociology.
“Going to 51 was significant for me,” he said. “That’s where faith became mine, where I knew it to be real. When it comes to faith, you either grow it or shrink it.”
He wanted to work somewhere in a helping profession, and 51’s career office connected him to a position at the Christian Opportunity Center (COC) in Pella, Iowa.
“The job wasn’t in a large city and I needed a map to find Pella,” he remembered. “But the call to help persons with developmental disabilities was strong and so we went.”
Negen worked as a director at COC for 13 years, developing programs and serving clients. This work led to larger involvement with social service agencies in Central Iowa and a master’s degree in rehabilitation administration from the University of San Francisco.
He became a board member of the Bethel Rescue Mission in Des Moines, Iowa, and within a few years had the board ask him if he’d run the fledgling organization of three-plus staff and a $300,000 budget.
“I haven’t chosen one thing I’ve done in my professional career,” Negen said. “There’s been less of a career path and more of God’s clear call to serve.”
Twenty years later, the organization—which merged with another mission and is now called Hope Ministries—employs a staff of 60 and has a budget of $13 million, dedicated to improve the lives of the homeless in the Des Moines area.
“We offer comprehensive services to people, from immediate needs for shelter to long-term recovery plans to extensive after-care programs,” Negen said.
Negen noted that a disturbing trend is with individuals returning from military service. Numerous clients of Hope Ministries have post-traumatic stress, joining the already consistent challenges his staff faces of mental illnesses and substance abuse.
Hope Ministries’ work has gone far beyond the initial “rescue mission” element of homelessness service. Negen said that his team—which is broadly nondenominational in leadership and staff—concentrates on “starting the rebuilding” process with individuals and families, from basic needs to deep-seeded spiritual, mental and health-related issues.
“Ultimately, what we’re about is building a life-changing environment around people to transform hearts,” he said.
Eighty-five percent of persons graduating from Hope Ministries’ Long-Term Recovery Program are clean and sober, in a job in a stable living environment and active in a faith community six months after leaving the program.
Negen is helping people in an urban setting, the same thing he envisioned for himself as he graduated from 51.
“I’m blessed to work with 60 dedicated team members, all called to minister where God has placed them,” he said. “No one’s in it for prestige or the retirement package—just being a part of the power of Christian community.”