For more than 52 years the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) has helped communities recover from the legacy of racism and structural inequality infecting every nation around the world. The focus on community comes into focus when our story is shared in Spanish, El Comité Presbiteriano del Autodesarrollo de los Pueblos.
Measuring congregational and mid council work to end systemic poverty was the topic of the second in a series of Matthew 25 online workshops offered to help local communities create empowerment, health and wholeness. About 70 people attended.
In locations across the country, PC(USA) churches and mid councils are finding ways to transform otherwise humble church kitchens into spaces of ministry, mission and community engagement.
The Rev. Carlton Johnson believes God is calling church leaders in the city to do a special work — “especially in light of the Matthew 25 vision God has given to the PC(USA),” he says.
Following the just-completed 2022 College Conference at Montreat Conference Center in Montreat, North Carolina, Anisha Hackney said she learned as much, if not more, than the young adults attending her “Minding the Gap: Living and Working with Different Cultures” workshop.
Middleburg Presbyterian Church, a small community church southwest of Jacksonville in Clay County, Florida, participates in a feeding program called Operation Backpack. The outreach program works with the guidance counselor at a nearby elementary school. The counselor identifies the children and families who will receive a backpack filled with healthy child-friendly food.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exploited wounds we never healed.
Once who knows that truth all too well is the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, president of the group Repairers of the Breach, co-chair (with Presbyterian pastor the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis) of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in North Carolina, where he preached a sermon as part of the Festival of Homiletics.
As churches, worshiping communities and their leaders continue to grapple with the spread of COVID-19, some are finding ways to live into their commitment to the Matthew 25 invitation.
New Castle Presbytery’s mission statement condenses the Matthew 25 invitation into 13 words: “Sparked by grace to transform the church for the good of the world.”
I participated in a World Mission global partner consultation this past winter in Nairobi, Kenya. The gathering was attended by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-workers serving in Africa and leaders and members of the various African churches and organizations with whom we partner in God’s mission. The purpose of the consultation was to hear about the work and witness of ministry on the African continent, and to gain insight for the development of the future strategy of World Mission.
