An Ohio church will continue its commitment to providing necessary services for its community by creating the Hope for Health Counseling and Clinic in Marion, Ohio. The mission of Hope for Health is to provide holistic health services in a Christ-centered environment to the underserved population of Marion and surrounding communities.
Marion First Church of the Nazarene has long been committed to creating programs that serve the greater Marion County area. The church’s Celebrate Recovery group is the largest in the state of Ohio, and the congregation is also in the process of opening a daycare that will serve over 200 children in the area.

In 2021, Lead Pastor Steve Estep approached the congregation of Marion First with the idea of a counseling center, something he felt God was placing on his heart after a community health assessment in 2020 revealed the need for more mental health services that providers were lacking. 

“I just felt like God spoke pretty clearly that the church is positioned to help meet this need, so do it,” Estep said. “I’ve never done a counseling center before, but I’ve seen God respond. Whenever He says to do something and you step out in obedience, He makes a way.”

The greater Marion County area is a blue-collar working town with significant generational poverty. In addition, the county is at the center of the heroin epidemic.

Now open to the public, Hope for Health has multiple counselors with varying areas of expertise, including one counselor who is certified in substance abuse counseling. Also, there are weekly support groups for parents of addicts and grief support gathering for people who have experienced a traumatic loss are in place. Hope for Health is also creating a support group for foster parents and a counseling group for children who have experienced trauma. 

Along with to $15,000 in grants from the Marion Community Foundation and the United Way of North Central Ohio, the church raised $10,000 from members. 

Estep believes focusing on community support programs is what it means to be a Nazarene.

“It’s who we are,” Estep said. 

He recalled the origins of the Church of the Nazarene and its focus on ministries to the marginalized. Estep believes his church is living out that focus through compassion and the offering of hope.

"We do it because it needs to be done," Estep said. "That's as simple as it gets."

When he shared about the idea for a counseling center with his church, multiple volunteers stepped up, including several who were willing to help immediately after the service. Estep realizes how God had prepared the way in the forms of support and assistance from the congregation.
“The church really was prepared to be hospitable, non-judgmental, and to be a healing presence in a community that needs a whole lot of that to happen,” Estep said.