If you’ve ever had your car fixed at The Garage, you may have wondered about it while you waited. Why would a church fix cars for free? What’s the catch?
It’s a fair question. Most of us learned a long time ago that nothing is really free. So let me give you the honest answer about why The Garage at Living Faith, a church free car repair ministry in Fombell, Pennsylvania, exists at all.
There’s no catch. There is a reason, though.
It isn’t mainly about the cars
Plenty of shops fix cars. We’re not trying to compete with them, and fixing cars isn’t the main reason we’re here.
We want to be helpful, sure, but that’s not mainly it either. And we’re not running some strategy to make the church look good in the community, though we do hope we’re a good neighbor.
In Under the Hood I put it as plainly as I can: “The Garage exists because of the Gospel.”
That word “gospel” means good news. God loved us when we were broken, paid a debt we couldn’t pay, and offered us a fresh start we didn’t earn. The people who volunteer here have experienced that for themselves, and when you’ve been handed something that big, it’s hard to sit still.
It started in a driveway
The Garage didn’t start with a plan. It started with a man named Michael.
Michael fixed cars in his own driveway, and on the side of the road, and wherever else someone needed help. For years he did it a few cars at a time, without any fuss, because he believed that loving people in practical ways is one of the most honest ways to love them at all. He wasn’t trying to build an organization. He was just trying to follow Jesus.
Over time others caught the vision. Living Faith Church started investing time, money, and volunteers, and eventually a permanent facility. Today we have thirty to forty volunteers and serve several hundred customers a year. We’ve added bays and tools, and we’ve partnered with other organizations to reach people who need us.
The reason hasn’t changed since Michael’s driveway, though. He had been loved by God, and that love had to go somewhere.
Love that goes somewhere
The Bible sums up the whole thing in one short line: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
That’s pretty much the entire theology of The Garage. We serve because somebody served us first, and we give because we were given to.
Some people think of faith as something private, a set of beliefs you keep in your head. The Bible doesn’t see it that way. “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). Real faith shows up somewhere, usually with grease on its hands.
I want to be careful here, because this is easy to get backwards. Our volunteers aren’t fixing your car to earn their way into heaven. You can’t earn what’s already been given as a gift. The work is the result of grace, not the payment for it. It’s evidence that something changed in them.
Why we don’t charge you
The simple version goes like this. If the love of God came to us free, it would feel strange to put a price tag on passing it along.
Of course, the repair still costs something. Parts cost money, donors give, and volunteers give up their evenings and Saturdays. Somebody always pays the bill. It just doesn’t land on you. That’s a small, imperfect picture of what God did for all of us at the cross.
There’s one more reason. Jesus said that when we serve people who are struggling, we’re serving him: “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). So when a volunteer leans under the hood of your car, they’re doing more than a repair. They’re doing something Jesus takes personally.
So what’s the catch?
There isn’t one. The repair isn’t a trade. You don’t have to agree with us, and nobody’s going to preach at you while you wait for your brakes.
We do hope you’ll notice something, though. When a room full of people you’ve never met actually cares whether you get to work on Monday, that might be worth thinking about. It’s a small echo of a much bigger love, and we’d be glad to talk about it if you ever want to.
If you want to do something like this
If you’re part of a church and this has you wondering what your own congregation could do, here are a few questions to start with:
- Who in your church already has a skill they use every day that could serve a neighbor?
- Where are people in your community getting stuck? Transportation, home repair, childcare, something else?
- Who is your Michael? A lot of ministries start with one person who’s already doing the work without telling anybody. Find that person and back them up.
You don’t need a facility to begin. Michael didn’t have one. He had a driveway, some tools, and a conviction that people were worth it.
If you want to understand the heart behind all this, Under the Hood is the book we hand to customers who ask why we do it. And if you’re a pastor or ministry leader thinking about starting something in your own town, Turn the Key was written for you.
Either way, the door is open, and you’re welcome to come through it.
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