Our History

The Lazarus Center's began as a ministry to connect hurting people with Christ-centered resources for growth and healing, but has grown into much more. Continuing to build on that base, we have added resources to help equip churches to both minister to their own hurting members and also to equip people to better serve in their churches and communities, bringing the Gospel to a lost world.

The Lazarus Center is a faith-based, community service organization, founded in 1988 and incorporated in 1990 as a 501( C)(3) non-profit, interdenominational agency. The Lazarus Center offices are located in the former steel town of Ambridge, situated on the eastern bank of the Ohio River in southwestern Pennsylvania, about 15 miles from downtown Pittsburgh. The Lazarus Center's mission to "teach, support and equip people to experience the joy and wholeness that God intends for all" is well-suited to this distressed region. Steel mill closings in the late 1970s caused the number of jobs in the area to plummet from 15,000 to 1,500, with 20 percent of the current residents of the borough of Ambridge living below the poverty level (US EPA Brownfields Assessment report, May 2002). Restoring lives and disrupted families is critical.

The beginnings of The Lazarus Center were two-fold. First were Joe and Cindy Vitunic's own struggles for wholeness and growth in the Lord. In struggles to deal with depression for Joe and with alcoholism in Cindy's family, there was the realization that healing was about body, soul, and spirit, and resources for all these areas combined together. Second, in caring about and for members of the congregation of Church of the Savior, Ambridge, Cindy realized that along with good evangelism and discipleship, there was also a great need for many resources for pastoral care in order for people to experience the "abundant life" and wholeness spoken of in the scriptures. After many years of praying for such resources, Cindy was led to "birth" The Lazarus Center to bring together resources of healing for body, soul, and spirit.

The name came about when Cindy was at a training event for children's ministry, studying the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Reflecting on that story, one realizes that only Jesus can call a person into "life." However, Jesus told the crowd to first roll away the stone in front of the tomb. Many of us also have "stones" keeping us from hearing, seeing, or knowing Jesus. Many past hurts, abuses, false concepts of God, prevent us from experiencing new life. Those stones need to be removed. Jesus also said to the crowd after Lazarus came forth, "Unbind him." Lazarus needed help from others to fully step out of the grave clothes and into new life. Such is true for many a Christian. Old beliefs, old needs, old hurts, still have us "bound." We need others to help remove the wrappings of death. We need resources to help free us from our "old self." In keeping with the call to "remove stones" and "unbind" people, The Lazarus Center has found, connected with, or developed a host of resources to help in this process.

After three years of intercessory prayer and initial groundwork, in the fall of 1988 a Board of Directors formed and began meeting regularly. The local Episcopal Church Women donated $800 in start-up funds and Cindy Vitunic became the center's director. Spring 1989, the first emotional and spiritual support course, Being Set Free, was developed and offered. That course is now entitled Freedom in Christ and is a three-day weekend retreat, has spread to other areas, and is till a major feature at The Lazarus Center. Also during the spring of 1989, the first offices of the center opened two days per week for telephone and face-to-face lay support services. Approximately 80-90 people received prayer, attended class, or obtained lay emotional and spiritual support during the first two years of operation.

Training additional lay staff volunteers, in addition to serving people with emotional and spiritual needs, came next in 1990. Communications skills courses, The Place of Feelings, Listening for Heaven's Sake, Speaking the Truth in Love, and Renewing the Mind (adapted from and using materials published by Equipping Ministries International, Cincinnati, Ohio) were taught to both people in emotional need and people desiring to become lay volunteers and teachers in The Lazarus Center's support ministries and classes.

Gradually, The Lazarus Center staff developed and added more courses and support groups. New offerings were the classes/sharing groups Search for Significance (based on classic personal growth issues book Search for Significance by Christian counselor Robert McGee, 1998), Adult Children of the Almighty (focusing upon dysfunctional issues such as addiction, mental illness, and absent members in families of origin), and support groups for those suffering from depression or anxiety.

In the five years between 1992 and 1997, The Lazarus Center moved to new, expanded offices, hired a part-time assistant director and an administrator, and began thinking about a day center (Restoration Journey) to serve people in recovery from addictions, depression, or general life traumas. In 1992-1997, approximately 715 people received support through prayer, the Listening Ministry, support groups and classes - with scholarship fund money available to those in need.

Of special note, the Reflective pastoral Training and Care (RPT&C) course was developed, and offered for the first time in November 1997. This is an 18-month in-depth seminar and small group series for Christian leaders and others who wish to delve more deeply into emotional and spiritual healing. Students learn new pastoral skills with which to care for others and attain growth by receiving care themselves. Many of the previously developed communications and specialty area courses are included in this seminar series, but there are also opportunities for long-term skills practice, access to additional outside resources, reflection questions for deeper learning and intentional development and practice of leadership skills. In November 2001, Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, Ambridge, approved the RPT&C course for pastoral care credit to its seminary students. Since its inception, 69 people have graduated from the RPT&C course.

By the year 2000, The Lazarus Center had branched out to teaching classes at other area settings and was regularly drawing students and retreat participants from many southwestern Pennsylvania communities and churches. People say they are eager to develop their own church's pastoral care resources and/or to learn from the center's faith-based perspective on dealing with the many difficult issues in people's lives today. The basic communications course, Listening for Heaven's Sake, the Freedom in Christ Retreat, and Emotionally Free, a seminar on inner healing prayer, are most requested.

During 2000 and 2001, approximately 1,200 people participated in The Lazarus Center's programs. The center continues to grow, serve community residents, train new lay volunteers and seminary students, and plan new programs. Private counselors meet their clients at the center with an agreement with The Lazarus Center. Early in 2006, Drug and Alcohol Services of Beaver Valley placed a counselor at the center to provide services to local individuals. Fall 2006, The Lazarus Center was contacted by the Beaver County Jail Chaplain to begin a pastoral care program for the women in jail. Currently, it is strengthening its bonds with other area human service organizations, professional counselors, and the addiction-fighting support community. The Lazarus Center has began Restoration Journey to offer support and healing through after-care for those in recovery from addictions, mental illness, and those released from jail.