The honey starts with a hum.
On Sept. 18-20, five beehives at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Indianapolis will be at the center of a weekend inviting neighbors to come see the bees, taste the honey and spend time on the church grounds.
When the Honey Festival arrives, Gethsemane’s grounds will be buzzing with activity. The hives, gardens, food and walking paths will all become part of a weekend designed to welcome the neighborhood.
That welcome is at the heart of Gethsemane’s Neighborhood Connection ministry, which grew out of the congregation’s participation in the Connect Process in 2016. Although the small Eastside congregation does not have children of its own, the church building sits next to an apartment complex where many children live.
Gethsemane began looking for ways to build relationships with those neighbors. The result was Neighborhood Connection, a ministry that offers free activities for the surrounding community throughout the year.
Every July, that includes a Back-to-School Backpack Giveaway. For nine years, Gethsemane has provided 120 backpacks filled with school supplies each year to students in Warren Township schools.
The Honey Festival offers another way to open the church grounds to the neighborhood.
Gethsemane currently has five beehives, tended by congregation members Gary and Cynthia Deeter, who are certified beekeepers. The church’s gardens provide space for bees to forage, while also creating a place for neighbors to explore and enjoy.
The idea for the Honey Festival came from Linda Welker, pastor’s wife and an avid gardener who is one of the congregation’s primary gardeners. Welker is a friend of Dr. Dave Burk, who will perform during the festival and is known for his dramatized solo work based on Scripture.
The festival will begin Friday evening with Burk’s performance based on Revelation 10.
Saturday’s activities will bring the bees and honey into focus. Visitors can watch a bee puppet show, sample foods made with honey, see an active beehive demonstration and walk through the church’s gardens, including its native Wildflower Garden and walking paths.
There is no complicated invitation attached to any of it. Come see the bees. Taste the honey. Walk the garden. Stay for a while. In the process, Gethsemane hopes neighbors will begin to see the church as a place where they belong.
The congregation also shares what grows on its grounds. Garden produce is given to congregation members and to the Downey Avenue Christian Church Food Pantry in Irvington. Gethsemane is also part of ICAN, the Irvington Community Advocacy Network, which operates a food bank and clothing closet and helps people in need.
The church grounds themselves are part of that neighborhood welcome. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful has designated the property a Community Greenspace, and Gethsemane works with the organization to maintain the grounds as a place where people in the community feel comfortable spending time.
The Honey Festival is one of many ways the congregation makes that space available.
So is its annual yard sale, which raises money for Neighborhood Connection’s monthly activities. This year’s August sale raised more than $2,200 from donated items sold at bargain prices. Many items sold for 25 cents, with most averaging between 50 cents and $1.
The community has come to look forward to the sale each year.
For Gethsemane, those moments of connection are the point. The congregation is small, and its members fill multiple roles, but they continue to find ways to invite people from the surrounding neighborhood into the life of the church.
The Honey Festival simply gives them another reason to open the gates.
And if the food disappears, the firepit fills and visitors linger into Saturday evening, Gethsemane will count that as success.
There may even be a chance to greet some of those neighbors again Sunday morning.
