With barely any warning, an EF2 tornado ripped through the small city of Rome in Upstate New York, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, doing extensive damage.
Scott Crouse, a pastor and the owner of Crouse’s Cutting Tree and Landscape Service, was in his garage sharpening his saw when the sky grew dark, the winds began whipping fiercely, and the ground began to shake. He ran inside his house, and his wife told him a tornado had touched down in their city. When the storm calmed, he walked through the streets of Rome to see who he could help.
Scott was shocked at what he saw. “I had never seen anything like it! It was a total disaster,” he said. “Trees were gone or broken, wires were down, there were fires, a roof of a nursing home was ripped off, two churches were missing steeples, there were piles of bricks, buried cars, rooftops stuck in trees…”
Everyone Scott saw looked like they were walking around in a daze. He encountered a friend who had been driving with her family when the tornado hit. She pulled her car over, but so much debris fell on the car that the airbags went off. She was crying tears of joy that her family was not even hurt.
“I realized, after seeing the devastation, it was an absolute miracle of God that no one in Rome was killed or seriously injured,” Scott said. “I believe this was God’s way to turn people towards Him.”
Scott was hired to remove the downed trees that bordered Fort Stanwix Park in downtown Rome, a park that was nicknamed “Crackhead” park by the locals.
A week and a half later, when Scott and his crew were cleaning up tree debris at the park, a group of around seventy citizens who had signed up as volunteers with the city arrived to help clean up the park. People of different ages and races gathered to help one another, transforming the park into a place of hope and renewal. “It was heart-moving for me to see the city and community come together. I was almost in tears. God spoke to my spirit and said, ‘How beautiful would it be if my church could come together like this for the community!’”
As Scott began to pray and ponder this, he thought about all the people who could be reached in a park setting who would never set foot in a church. God made it clear to Scott that the church is not a building. It is the body of Christ. Inspired by the Bible verse, Luke 19:10 (ESV), “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,” Scott felt God was calling him to seek out lost people and reach them where they were, like Jesus did.
Scott and his wife spent much time in prayer about this. They needed to know for certain this was what God was leading them to do. “It took a lot of courage and faith to obey God’s calling,” Scott said. Scott, his wife, and a group of friends set a date in late September for the first service of “Church in the Park.” They purchased outdoor portable speakers and microphones, made invitations, and distributed them throughout the neighborhood near the park.
Over fifty people showed up. “It was beautiful,” Scott said. “I preached a simple message of restoration.” He talked about how, as the city of Rome is being restored, God wants to restore the people and families of Rome to Himself.
As he was preaching, someone said, “Look!” and pointed to the sky. Scott looked up and saw a cloud in the shape of an angel. “A sign that God likes what we are doing,” he thought.
The following week, “Church in the Park” met for another service. This time, they bought twenty pizzas and fed everyone who showed up. After the service, they distributed leftovers in the neighborhood. The event went so well that they purchased large quantities of food each week to give out at their services.
Many people asked Scott what they were going to do when the weather turned cold. “You can’t outdo the Lord,” Scott told them, and they prayed for God to provide an indoor location. Another ministry Scott is involved in—Celebrate Recovery, a Christ-centered recovery program that helps people through hurts, habits, and hang-ups—was meeting in a building in downtown Rome owned by the Center for Family Life and Recovery. The “Church in the Park” was invited to hold services in that building on Sunday mornings in exchange for Scott plowing their parking lot. “This was a blessing from the Lord,” Scott said. “The CFLR building was untouched by the tornado in a neighborhood that sustained heavy damage.” He also pointed out that the CFLR has several staff members who are Christians, and they have been supporting their church through prayer.
When they moved inside for the winter, they changed the name to “Saving Souls Ministries” but will continue to be called “Church in the Park” during the summer months.
The ministry has thrived and grown during the winter months. Many people followed them from the park to their indoor location. Often people come off the streets and join their services. Responding to the needs in the community, they added a children’s ministry and a prayer and worship night every second and fourth Monday at 6:30 pm.
“Much of our ministry occurs in the neighborhood with people who don’t come to our services. We are the hands and feet of Jesus: talking to people, praying with them, caring for their needs, and showing God’s love for them.”
The church takes up a donation on Sundays to help cover costs. Every dollar they bring in goes back to bless the community. Material donations come in as well. For example, a woman in the neighborhood donated twenty chairs.
To ensure no one is overlooked, the ministry set up a “needs board.” In addition to feeding many community members, they reach out to fulfill needs they hear about in the neighborhood.
Scott told me a story about a father of five young children he heard about who was battling brain cancer. They visited the family, brought them food, and spent time ministering to them. Scott observed that the children seemed calmer. The man’s wife told Scott, “My house has never felt so much peace.” This is just one example of their outreach into the community.
“Church at the Park” plans to begin services at Fort Stanwix Park again on June 1st. They are praying about expanding to other local parks as well.
Scott is so encouraged to see the work God is doing in Rome. “And this all started with a tornado,” Scott said. He hopes other churches will catch the vision and come together to reach the unchurched in the community. Scott is praying for a full-scale revival. A revival like the one that swept through Rome in the 1820s, sparked by the preaching of Charles Finney, a revivalist preacher during our nation’s Second Great Awakening.
I hope Scott’s story inspires you as much as it does me. Please join me in praying for “Saving Souls Ministries” and for revival in your neighborhood and our country. Pray that God will first work to revive your heart and then reveal how you can share the Truth and love of Jesus in your neighborhood.
More about Scott: Scott and his wife, Karen, a schoolteacher, live in Rome with their two teenagers who are actively involved in the ministry. Scott has asked us to pray for him, as he is leaving for a two-week ministry trip to India. Please pray that God will protect him and use him in a mighty way.
You can connect with Scott through Facebook, or by texting or calling 315-335-3729.
*Photos provided by Scott Crouse.