Today in the Mission Yearbook - One pastor and two churches are building congregational vitality

Cameron and Calvary Presbyterian churches in North Carolina exemplify a Matthew 25 focus

March 5, 2022

For Cameron Presbyterian Church and Calvary Presbyterian Church, both in Statesville, North Carolina, accepting the Matthew 25 invitation was not a difficult decision. When presented with information about the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s invitation by Salem Presbytery, the Rev. Timothy L. Bates, pastor of the two churches, says both congregations saw it as a great opportunity to join other Presbyterian churches in the endeavor.

“But the main reason we an accepted the invitation is that we wanted to answer the call and become more intentional in lining up with the Matthew 25 mission,” he said. “As a church we are focused on all three areas, but mainly the area of building congregation vitality. When COVID-19 hit, we looked for creative ways to become a more vital church, so we decided to become strategic with our outreach ministries.”

Bates says church members were challenged to be prayerful in asking God how they could become more involved. He says they challenged each other to discern how God was speaking to them during the pandemic.

“We asked, ‘What is God calling us to do in a crisis?’” he said. “We decided that this was an opportunity to joyfully serve God and community in a different way.”

Both Cameron and Calvary have about 70 members and both congregations exemplify the importance of congregational vitality.

The two churches work in collaboration with each other and both churches work in collaboration with a prayer and street ministry that Bates started called the “Nightcrawlers.” Additional local community partnerships include their work with Fifth Street Ministries, the Statesville Police Department, Iredell-Statesville Schools and the Summit retirement village.

According to Bates, since the pandemic the congregations have continued worship in an outdoor worship service. They call the service “park and praise.”

Bates says the churches have been renewed and uplifted through service and have started new ministries during this time.

The congregations formed an elder and deacon call list where elders and deacons make weekly calls and pray with members. They have started a preschool for four children of church members, and they have established a food pantry and clothes giveaway ministry that distributes items to the community. They offer food boxes on a weekly basis and during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and they have started a ministry that shares water with all in need.

Excitement around the congregations’ newfound ministries is permeating beyond the membership. “Amens and the blowing of horns has caused the neighborhoods to join in with the praise from their homes,” said Bates. “New members have joined the church and membership has increased through social media platform. New relationships are being formed on the weekly prayer calls.”

“The spirit of both churches is at an all-time high,” Bates says. “Our choir participation has increased, the giving of tithes and offering has increased by members who didn’t give before, and more members are involved in serving communion as well as participating during the Sunday services. The members are excited to serve.”

The congregations are now providing school supplies and toiletries for children experiencing homelessness as well as teachers and other children within their communities. They provide financial assistance to families in need during the COVID crisis.

In addition to addressing the spiritual needs of their communities, Cameron’s and Calvary’s congregations are addressing justice and health needs through their advocacy efforts.

“We marched, prayed and sang in a neighborhood in which a 7-year-old was killed in a drive-by shooting,” said Bates. “We actively supply information on voting and assisting the community to get out and vote. Additionally, we share information on the importance of taking the COVID vaccine and have partnered with the North Carolina Minority Health Advisory Council to distribute information about the importance of the vaccine to underserve communities.”

In addressing the dismantling structural racism Matthew 25 focus, the congregations are participating in race relations forums and workshops to promote positive relationships.

“These are some of the ministries in which we are involved in to carry out our Matthew 25 responsibilities,” Bates said. “It is a great pleasure to be a part of the Matthew 25 community as we observe the great work that is taking place throughout our denomination.”

 Gail Strange, Director of Church and Mid Council Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Elizabeth Little, Church Consultant, Charlotte, Board of Pensions
Ann Logan, Payroll Specialist, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Dear Lord, we thank you for your church and its witness and ministry. Be with the ministers and servants who love you, carry their crosses and bear witness to your love for the world. Do not let them get discouraged in their ministry. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord of the church. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - A big mission for a tiny church

Prayer and study undergirds feeding others

August 27, 2021

The Chapel by the Sea Hunger Action Team (HAT) made and delivered Coronavirus Safety Kits with hand sanitizer, mask and information about food and emergency resources to area residents. Courtesy of Chapel by the Sea Presbyterian Church

Chapel by the Sea Presbyterian Church is where wedding dreams come true. Nestled among knotty pine trees on the rocky Washington coastline, the chapel, however, provides more than just nuptial photo ops. It provides a snapshot of hope for residents living in the hamlet of Moclips who struggle to put food on the table.

Since 2015, the “tiny, but mighty” church — as the congregants lovingly call themselves — has been focused on living out Matthew 25 by feeding the hungry. It was then that member Phyllis Shaughnessy founded The Green Lantern Lunch Program to help children have nutritious meals during the summer. The program soon expanded to provide weekend lunches during the school year.

Chapel by the Sea has also been assembling COVID-19 safety kits. When the pandemic hit a year ago, the Hunger Action Team of Chapel by the Sea — yes, the “tiny, but mighty” church even has an action team — saw a need for better safety precautions and began assembling kits with masks, hand sanitizer and information sheets with food and emergency resources listed. And when member Cindy Stearns applied for and was awarded a CARES Act Grant to help churches during the pandemic, Chapel by the Sea did what they always do. They didn’t look inward, but rather used that money to buy meals for others from local restaurants.

The pastor-in-residence, the Rev. Dr. Linda Flatley, who came to the church in 2018, has seen this commitment to helping others keep the congregation energized and vital.

She tells them that with now 22 members on the roll, up from 15, Chapel by the Sea might soon have to stop referring to itself as “tiny.” How does the congregation, though, keep its focus when many small congregations falter?

Becoming a Matthew 25 congregation has helped, Flatley says. While already doing the work of eradicating systemic poverty — one of the three focuses churches may choose to address as a Matthew 25 congregation — it was the prayer and Bible study resources that were offered by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that grounded the congregation. “We had the signed certificate showing we were a Matthew 25 congregation, but what now?” said Flatley. Rather than jumping into “doing,” the congregation spent time “being” submerged in the Matthew text, thus providing a stronger foundation for the church to build its dual mission of revitalization and feeding the hungry upon.

This focus on prayer was second nature to Chapel by the Sea’s pastor. Flatley is a native of Scotland and did her doctoral work in Celtic spirituality. Since the beginning of 2021, Flatley has offered Celtic spirituality studies via Zoom, which has garnered attention from the community. New faces have joined Flatley on the Celtic spirituality Zoom gatherings. And, even at the height of the pandemic, when sheltering in place was the norm, Flatley made sure the chapel doors remained open for prayer and that there was always a light on to shine out into the community.

“I felt the strong need to do this. We are on a state route, and it is important for those passing by to see the doors open and the lights on,” she said.

Donna Frischknecht Jackson, Editor, Presbyterians Today

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Roger Spalding, Prospect Research Analyst, Relationship & Development Operations, Mission Engagement & Support, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Frank Spencer, President, Board of Pensions

Let us pray

Lord, we thank you for loving volunteers who feel they cannot do enough to help their neighbors and serve those in need. We thank you for donors who bring their items so that they may continue to serve your children. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Why are people hungry and poor?

Matthew 25 churches are committed to eradicating systemic poverty and to building God’s beloved community together

April 15, 2021

Marifrans Estrada, Pan de Vida coordinator in the Misión Peniel farmworker ministry in Immokalee, Fla., makes dough for tortillas with help from her daughter, Maryella. Miguel Estrada

The Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, welcomed more than 230 attendees to a recent Matthew 25 online event focused on eradicating systemic poverty within the U.S.

Moffett said systemic poverty is becoming underscored in America and around the world with the wildfires on the West Coast, hurricanes, flooding, the COVID-19 pandemic and people losing their businesses and their way of life.

The Rev. Rebecca Barnes, coordinator of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, said, “Folks living in poverty do need food, but they also need access to jobs, transportation, fair wages, affordable housing, education, racial justice and more.”

In walking alongside churches and grant partners in this important Matthew 25 work, Barnes said we “encounter the living God” in those who are living with poverty. She sees it as an invitation for Presbyterians to change from being “problem solvers” with ideas to “fix things” to those who sit at the feet of people who live in poverty to listen. “People living with poverty know their situations intimately and already have solutions they want to try,” Barnes said.

Guest speaker the Rev. Phil Tom serves on the Development Committee of The Riverside Church in New York City, and as director of the International Council of Community Churches. He provides leadership to ensure the church and the broader community work in tandem on issues such as hunger and homelessness. He sees Jesus’ Matthew 25 teaching about serving the “least of these” as a call to think long-term, “get out of the pews” and listen to people in the community.

Tom said that his friend and colleague the Rev. Patrick Hugh O’Connor, lead pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens, New York, is working collaboratively within its community to eradicate systemic poverty through affordable housing.

First Presbyterian–Jamaica is building an apartment building next door to the church.

“The Tree of Life,” a 12-story, mixed-use apartment building of 174 units, 53 of which will be permanently affordable, is the first project of First Presbyterian–Jamaica and the nonprofit First Jamaica Community and Urban Development Corp.

The Tree of Life project, expected to open in 2021, will include a feeding program, a literacy program and a job training program to enrich and empower the lives of the residents in Jamaica, Queens. Phase 2 of the project will launch an on-site health center partnership with Cornell University.

Turning a parking lot next door to the church into an apartment building has been nearly a decade in the making. First Presbyterian–Jamaica, which has about 150 congregants from more than 35 birth nations, has taken time to learn firsthand what residents of Southeast Queens believe to be their most urgent needs: housing, health care and child care.

The Rev. Dr. Laurie Kraus, director of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and associate director of Compassion, Peace & Justice, reflected on how much vulnerability is made worse during disaster, like COVID-19.

“Disaster gives us a chance to uncover poverty that most of us won’t look at the rest of the time,” Kraus said. “It gives us the responsibility to look at that straightforwardly and to engage in it, not just because giving to disaster makes us feel good, but because engaging in disaster helps us to see those who are already living on the margin and the work that needs to be done in development.”

The Rev. Miguel Estrada, presbytery evangelist with Misión Peniel (which means “The Face of God”), a farmworker ministry among the migrant workers in Immokalee, Florida, part of the Peace River Presbytery, provided an update on the issue of COVID-19 among farmworkers.

“Although a hot spot for COVID, Immokalee workers in Florida did not receive testing until Doctors Without Borders showed up,” Estrada said.

“Once you become a certain age in the farmworker community, or too sick to be picked by the contractors, you are basically living on the streets,” Estrada said. “We have a good number of workers who are homeless or under really difficult conditions because they are not able to work anymore, but obviously still have basic needs.”

Through the Pan de Vida (Bread of Life) program, Misión Peniel is providing meals for homebound farmworkers.

Tammy Warren, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Courtney Hemmelgarn, Office of the General Assembly
Jean Hemphill, Board of Pensions

Let us pray:

Gracious God, we give thanks for moments when we can see the work we do in your name. We are grateful that new life can arise from loss and possibility from disaster. We give thanks for those who give of themselves so that others might have hope. Amen.