For Immediate Release Contact: Phil Rydman
816-471-8020 (office)
816-519-0009 (cell)

HALF CENTURY OF SERVICE COMES TO AN END

Rescue Mission Leader Retires After 47 Years of Helping Homeless

Kansas City, MO – March 23, 2007 – For nearly fifty years, Rev. Stephen E. Burger has been caring for people in need. As executive director of the Association of Gospel Rescue Mission (AGRM) for the past 18 years, Burger has been at the forefront of ministry to people who are homeless, poor, rejected and alone. He will be retiring from full-time ministry in June of this year.

Under his leadership, the Association has grown into one of the nation’s leaders in service to the homeless and poor. Working with nationally known fund raising expert Russ Reid, Burger helped design and orchestrate a program that used mail and media to attract and educate donors. “When we started,” says Burger, “Rescue Missions, combined, raised about $35 million annually. Now that figure is closer to $600 million, and our missions are recognized as community leaders in aiding people in need.” In 2006, the 300 member ministries of the Association provided more than 40 million meals and 15 million nights lodging to the needy.

One of the AGRM’s primary goals is training. With Burger’s guidance, the group’s annual convention is full of practical seminars on a variety of subjects. Seven in-depth training tracks are now in place. Rescue College, an on-line under graduate program, is flourishing.

Burger’s mission career began in 1959 at the Arthur H. Savage Boys' Club, operated by the Union Gospel Mission of St. Paul, Minnesota. George Verley, director of the Boys’ Club at that time recalls, “Steve was always looking for more people to help. One year, he was in charge of the Day Camp. We normally had about 200 campers, but Steve rounded up 800 kids and brought them to camp. It put a strain on the staff and transportation, but he touched the community.”

Burger was director of the York Rescue Mission in York, Pennsylvania in the late 1960’s when race riots broke out in the city. “We started the first integrated youth program in the community,” Burger said. “We brought together kids from various backgrounds. When the shooting started all around the mission, those kids drew together, instead of being separated by their differences.”

In 1972, northeastern Pennsylvania was devastated by the floodwaters of Hurricane Agnes. Burger was a county coordinator for the governmental response to the disaster. “I knew more people and had more connections than anyone else. I was concerned for the rich and the poor; they were both under water.”

When Burger moved to Seattle in 1974 to direct the Union Gospel Mission, he learned to deal with community opposition. “Some leading businesses in the Pioneer Square area, where we were located, were banding together to try and move the mission out of the community,” Burger said. “I went to the meeting to protect the interests of the mission. Because I spoke up at the meeting, they made me second vice-president of the Pioneer Square Association. Within several months of that initial meeting, the president and first vice-president got in an argument and both resigned from the association. All of the sudden, I was president of the group which wanted to run us out of town.” In part due to his efforts, the Pioneer Square district was revitalized and, thirty years later, is still a vital commercial center in Seattle.

His leadership skills also were evident at the Seattle mission. Under his direction, the mission went from an annual budget of $240,000 in 1974 to $3.5 million in 1989.

Steve was elected president of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions (then International Union of Gospel Missions) in 1984. His leadership role grew five years later when he was named executive director of the AGRM.

When he arrived on the scene, Burger was determined to develop stronger services for the membership, increase the training function of the Association, help start new Rescue Missions and tell the world about RESCUE. He has met with President George W. Bush twice relating to faith-based initiatives. “We’ve come a long way,” Burger says. “Our conventions are much better and our training tracks and Rescue College are expanding. We are seeing new missions built all over. And when the President of the United States knows who you are and what your organization does, that is an important step.”

Burger also has a passion for starting new ministries in areas where none exist. “We targeted 150 cities across North America,” said Burger, “that had populations of 50,000 or greater, but no evangelical ministry to the poor. Today, about half of those communities have a Rescue Mission.”

Through Burger’s efforts, international ministry to the poor and needy has been enhanced by the establishment of the City Mission World Association. Rescue Missions in North America, Australia and Europe are in partnership with ministries in third-world nations. People all around the globe are better served because he cared enough to build international relationships.

Always at his side has been his wife, Delores, the AGRM historian. Her book “Women Who Changed the Heart of the City,” has led to a better understanding of the history of the movement and the link between Rescue Missions and the City Missions of the world.

During his 18 years in the Association office, the longest tenure of an executive director in the group’s 95-year history, Burger has been surprised by a few things. “There have been overwhelming changes in the demographics of whom we serve,” he said, “and challenges that none of us anticipated. I’m surprised by the growth of homeless women and children and how the drug culture has changed mission work. And now we’re seeing intact families, men with children and immigrants families coming to the mission for help. That was rarely the case when I was running a mission.”

When he looks to the future, Burger sees more challenges. “We must keep track of demographics, because they are the window to ministry. We need to put more effort into prevention of homelessness and aftercare for those who come through our programs. We’ve got to develop volunteers to help with ministry; it’s not possible to hire enough staff to care for the numbers of people we will serve. We certainly must cooperate with government, but be diligent to struggle with government over licensure and church/state issues. We need to build our training elements to create more professionalism among our staff members and call more people into ministry. Above all, we must never forget that our first responsibility is to share God’s love and the new life in Christ that the Bible presents.”

Founded in 1913, the Kansas City-based Association of Gospel Rescue Missions represents 300 Rescue Missions in communities across North America that provide emergency food and shelter, youth and family services, rehabilitation programs for the addicted, and assistance to the elderly, poor and at-risk youth. Last year, AGRM missions served more than 40 million meals, provided 16 million nights of lodging, distributed more than 21 million pieces of clothing and graduated 17,700 homeless men and women into productive living.

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Rev. Burger is available for interviews in Kansas City, MO. To book an interview please contact Phil Rydman at the numbers above.

For more information contact the AGRM website at www.rescuemissions.org or call 1-800-4RESCUE.

See also, John Ashmen is Appointed New Executive Director, July 1, 2007.