In ministries stretching from Philadelphia to Concrete, Washington, faith communities are thriving through innovation
by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
The New River Presbyterian Church Choir led worshipers on Easter morning, March 31, 2024. (Photo by Rich Copley)
STORM LAKE, Iowa — Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall, the convocation speaker during Synod School this week, used a pair of videos to help demonstrate some of what God is up to in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Watch the videos Schlosser-Hall showed to the 540 or so people attending Synod School here and here.
The first tells the story of New River Presbyterian Church, which with help from the Presbytery of Philadelphia joined three struggling churches into one powerhouse ministry under the leadership of the Rev. Eustacia Moffett-Marshall.
“They used the language of partnership, focusing on coming together,” Schlosser-Hall pointed out. Each church considered itself a stream coming together to form New River.
“I wanted us to see that sense of holding space to recognize what has been blessed by God,” he said, “and allow the possibility of growing together.”
Kevin Riley (photo by Mike Fitzer/Film 180)
The second video tells the story of Concrete, Washington’s Mount Baker Presbyterian Church, where Kevin and Danielle Riley provide leadership following years of addiction and incarceration. “If anybody is stuck in its ways, it should be a place like Concrete,” Schlosser-Hall said with a grin.
The Rileys’ ministry began with a five-minute sermon. “It was one of the most mortifying experiences I’ve ever experienced,” Kevin Riley said. But for Anne Bussiere, who helped Mount Baker become a Matthew 25 church, Kevin’s heart and the message he brought in left the congregation feeling that he was “really moving with the Spirit.” So, leaders at the church kept inviting him back to preach.
Danielle Riley (photo by Mike Fitzer/Film 180)
Schlosser-Hall noted the church had income of $26,000 in 2017. “They had a standalone church model when [the Rileys] started,” he said. All the income came from congregational giving.
Then Mount Baker became a cold weather shelter and landed a federal grant to do ministry for people addicted to drugs.
By 2023, the church’s income had jumped dramatically, to $831,000, “through the proliferation of partnerships for poverty alleviation and addiction recovery God had called them to,” Schlosser-Hall said.
Schlosser-Hall also touched briefly on another church participating in the mixed economy: Broadway Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. (Learn more here and here.). The 80-member congregation includes a preschool and extensive ministry to people experiencing hunger. Next door to the church, which is across the street from Columbia University, is space the church leased to a coffee shop and hair salon.
“If we partner with others, it’s a supplement to that standalone church,” Schlosser-Hall said. “The standalone church model says we are a discrete congregation that has an ordained pastoral leader, a fully constituted session, and members who support the church fully. If they don’t, we encourage them to give more.”
There are numerous pathways to living our faithful ministry in the community, including the PC(USA)’s 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Schlosser-Hall said, adding, “Thanks be to God for how the Spirit moves to transform in new ways.”
Synod School continues at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa, through Friday.
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