10 worshiping communities awarded Mission Program Grants

Funding supports diverse range of ‘1001’ communities and helps start new ones

October 26, 2018

The Presbyterian Mission Agency recently approved Mission Program Grants to 10 new worshiping communities. The Mission Development Resources Committee announced the following recipients:

Growth Grants ($25,000)
are given to worshiping communities that have the goal of growing a viable, sustainable Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-related community.

Davis & Elkins College Chapel, West Virginia Presbytery, Synod of the Trinity

Robbins Memorial Chapel, which is home to a new worshiping community at Davis & Elkins College, is the architectural and spiritual focal point on campus.
Photo credit: The Rev. Laura Brekke Wagoner

Davis Memorial Presbyterian Church in Elkins, West Virginia, is located at the entrance to Davis & Elkins College. When Davis & Elkins hired a full-time chaplain to guide the student chapel leadership team and oversee a new worshiping community (NWC), the church upgraded Robbins Memorial Chapel with audio-visual technology. Under the Rev. Laura Brekke Wagoner’s leadership, the chapel has become a learning lab for millennials.

NorthWest Denver Missional Community, Denver Presbytery, Synod of the Rocky Mountains

The Rev. Joel Adams and his wife, Juli, began forming their “micro-church” in their home by building relationships with people in their neighborhood. Now 30 adults and 20 children meet weekly to focus on the Word and share a meal and the Lord’s table. They seek to develop leaders to form disciples so that additional “micro-churches” may be created in people’s homes.

NorthWest Denver Missional Community is discerning how they might multiply their community by developing leaders to create additional “micro-churches” in people’s homes.
Photo credit: Juli Adams

Investment Grants ($25,000)
are given to worshiping communities that are making progress at living into their mission and ministry.

Glenwood Table, Long Island Presbytery, Synod of the Northeast

In October 2015, Glenwood Presbyterian Church in Landing, New York, closed. The Presbytery of Long Island, which owned the property, formed partnerships with the Glenwood Administrative Commission and the United Adult Ministries to create the Glenwood Life Center. Now this old church building is once again a communal place for spirituality, the arts and wellness. It is also home to Glenwood Table, which is led by the Rev. Kally Elliott, who engages people in faith conversations while leading a community of about 20 people in worship.

Sanctuary Missional Fellowship, Pittsburgh Presbytery, Synod of the Trinity

Led by the Rev. Laura Bentley, Sanctuary is a church for skeptical and exhausted people. They meet weekly for worship in Bentley’s home, gathering around a meal, Scripture and the Lord’s Supper and monthly for Pub Talks at a local bar in Pittsburgh. People who are on the margins of church, or completely outside it, attend the gatherings. Sanctuary has developed partnerships with two established PC(USA) churches — The Open Door, a 12-year-old church plant, and Oakmont Presbyterian Church, a traditional church about 15 minutes from Sanctuary’s Lawrenceville neighborhood.

Triangle Grace Korean Church, New Hope Presbytery, Synod of the Mid-Atlantic

Triangle Grace’s goal is to equip everyone who comes to their church in Durham, North Carolina, to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Through Bible studies, small groups and an ongoing discipleship training program, they are developing future leaders for the church.

 Seed Grants ($7,500)
are given to help new worshiping communities get started.

All Saints Church, San Fernando Presbytery, Synod of Southern California

All Saints is in Glendale, California — where 70 percent of residents identify as non-Christian. Thousands of young professionals, artists and families have moved into the city in the past five years, and All Saints believes Glendale needs churches to reach its rapidly changing population.

Beloved Everybody Church, San Fernando Presbytery, Synod of Southern California

This new worshiping community seeks to create space where people with and without intellectual disabilities can be discipled and use their gifts to teach, lead and encourage others in the greater San Fernando area.

JustChurch, John Knox Presbytery, Synod of Lakes & Prairies

In Dubuque, Iowa, JustChurch is reaching those who are hungry to worship God and enact justice in the public square. Those making initial commitments include non-practicing Roman Catholic people, the LGBTQ+ community, and people 40 and younger.

Oikos 4:45, San Fernando Presbytery, Synod of Southern California

With no Christian activities in homeless camps, nor in the apartment complexes in the North Hills neighborhood, this NWC began worshiping together before taking food to people in those camps. They began to create “safe and sacred spaces” in the camps — and then on the street and in people’s living rooms.

Wild Village, Denver Presbytery, Synod of the Rocky Mountains

This NWC seeks to connect spiritual-but-not-religious people to Christ through nature-based immersions in the Rockies.

Paul Seebeck, Mission Communications Strategist and Video and Digital Asset Management, Communications

Today’s Focus:  Mission Program Grant Awards

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Raymond Bonwell, BOP
Margaret Boone, PMA

Let us pray:

Loving God, be present with your people who are working with passion and creativity for the mission of your church. Give them the grace to continue in their course in such a way that others will see your love at work. Amen.

Daily Readings

Morning Psalms 88; 148
First Reading Micah 6:1-8
Second Reading Revelation 9:13-21
Gospel Reading Luke 10:38-42
Evening Psalms 6; 20