By Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Jim McFarland is a little like Old Testament Jonah, except it didn’t take a ride in the belly of a fish for him to do what God wanted him to do.
The Vestavia Hills resident was hesitant but ultimately stepped away from the contracting company he had formed to accept the mission to which he was being called – to “love on” persons living on the street.
“I think it was the Lord leading me down a path and I’m a little stubborn,” the 61-year-old said. “I kind of was in this battle with the Lord for 2½, three months. My wife (Karen) was praying for me. She and I were the only ones that knew about it.
“Finally, I said I’m just gonna do it. I’m gonna give it my all. I’m gonna do the best I can and that’s what I did,” McFarland said.
Then he created Urban Purpose, a Christ-centered ministry whose aim is to empower homeless and hurting individuals to reach their full potential by offering life-changing relationships and services.
“I can’t take credit. It’s not me,” the executive director said. “It’s what the Lord’s doing through me and through our volunteers and through relationships.”
McFarland began his mission journey by venturing to the Interstate 65 overpass at First Avenue in downtown Birmingham.
“I would just do simple things for the guys,” he said. “It was very obvious. They are sleeping outside and they have nowhere to sleep. They needed a source of wood so they could have a fire. We did that as long as we could, until the police came under there.”
Since then, McFarland and his crew of volunteers have done other things for homeless persons, including passing out coats, sleeping bags, hand warmers and blankets, as McFarland largely operated Urban Purpose out of his Vestavia Hills home.
“We kept going back to provide firewood, meet basic physical needs, and even share meals with the folks we’d met,” the Urban Purpose website reads. “In the midst of laughing over jokes and swapping stories about hard stuff, we saw that all the resources in the world are meaningless if they aren’t offered alongside true friendship. As these relationships deepened, we also became increasingly aware of the complexity of what our friends on the streets struggled to overcome.”
Those struggles included abuses of drugs and alcohol and issues with mental health.
So, Urban Purpose established The Compound, a center on Second Avenue North near 14th Street. The Compound is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 3 p.m. The aim is to add Wednesdays.
McFarland said the facility serves 40 to 50 people a day. Nearly 100 persons attended the 2023 Christmas dinner and 75 to 80 were at the recent Thanksgiving dinner.
Urban Purpose hosted a Seat At The Table event in October. Homeless persons shared sponsored meals with other individuals at Birmingham’s Railroad Park. The organization recently hosted a Boston Butt fundraising event in the pavilion at Shades Mountain Baptist Church, where the McFarlands are members.
“Our goal is to get them in transitional homes so they have a roof over their head,” the executive director said. “That’s what we try to get them into.”
Following in the Footsteps
McFarland has been married to his second wife for 28 years, living nearly all of that in Vestavia Hills. He has two sons from his first marriage and five grandchildren – four boys and a girl.
Inspired by his grandfather Virgil Handy, a CEO at Hoar Construction, he studied building science at Auburn University. He worked for years with Hoar Construction before founding Vestavia Builders Inc., which he shut down to create Urban Purpose.
“You can’t serve two masters,” McFarland said. “I just walked away and I went full bore into working with the guys on the streets.”
The former contractor has transitioned from constructing buildings to rebuilding the lives of homeless persons. Which task is tougher?
“I think people are definitely harder, without question, but I love the people part of it,” he said. “If you had talked to me when I was coming out of college, I might not have said that because you’re focused on your career and you’re doing this … making money … providing for my family.”
McFarland sometimes wonders why the Lord put him in construction. He realizes now that was part of his preparation for the task at hand, allowing him to engage with people of all sorts.
“I wonder why I was in construction, typically a little rougher, a little harder (environment) versus being an accountant or attorney,” he said. “You do what the Lord leads you to do.”
