Today in the Mission Yearbook - $50 and a challenge

A reverse offering is given to bless others

May 27, 2022

Worshipers at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lincoln,Neb., were treated to a reverse offering and challenged to use the money to reach out to others. Courtesy of Westminster Presbyterian Church

Since the coronavirus pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, many churches’ weekly offering figures are still not matching what they were two years ago. This shortfall has caused congregations to scale back many of their programs and, even worse, forced them to lay off staff. Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, though, is not one of those congregations. It has been experiencing sustained giving since the pandemic hit, so much so that it has been able to give back to its worshipers so that they can in turn also give back to the people and organizations in their community that need financial assistance.

During its fall kickoff this past September, Westminster Presbyterian held a “reverse offering” on consecutive Sundays in which it gave every household represented in worship an envelope with $50 in it to share with their neighbors. A few envelopes were also delivered to church members who were worshiping online so they could participate in the outreach as well. An estimated 100 total envelopes were distributed on those two Sundays, enabling $5,000 to go directly back into the Lincoln community and support other worthy causes. “For me, the hope was to give a sense of agency to people to give back as a way of saying not only thank you for your sustained giving and generosity, but also here’s what we want to be about,” said the Rev. Chris Peters. “We want to be a church that reaches out to people and a church that cares for people.”

The targets of the giving have stretched from an agency that assists individuals with car repairs to providing gloves and mittens for students at a nearby elementary school, to scholarship assistance at a presbytery camp to support Women Are Sacred, which provides mental health services to Native American women. One person donated their $50 to the Presbyterian Giving Catalog, and that idea expanded to others when they heard about this opportunity that they had not been aware of before. Peters, who has only been serving the church a little over a year, said that the goal of the reverse offering was to empower and encourage people to give in a way that spoke to what their own interests were.

“God’s grace has been working through this moment in the life of our congregation, and we hope to be stewards of that goodness that has been in our midst so that we can help others,” said Peters.

Peters didn’t rule out the possibility that someone in the congregation kept it for themselves. “If somebody had a need and kept it, that would be very reasonable,” he said. “We do have members who have had such needs, and that certainly would have been fine.”

The fact that Westminster has a surplus in funding certainly puts this congregation in the minority across the United States. But that’s a credit to the worshipers and their dedication to continue to support their church and its missions.

“The reason we were able to have a surplus primarily was due to lower costs overall throughout the year in 2020,” Peters said. “We just weren’t spending in program areas the way we would have otherwise. We continue to find ways to give to mission- and outreach-oriented things, but generally our members sustained the giving that they pledged to do.”

Peters and the session at Westminster Presbyterian had teased the reverse offering during the weeks prior to the envelopes being handed out, simply saying there was a surprise scheduled for worship on the second Sunday in September.

“We’ve received nothing but enthusiasm and gratitude from the congregation,” Peters said. “Since we started worshiping again in person, we’ve been emphasizing the concept of gratitude within our faith. Every week we have a moment of gratitude in our worship service where we name something that we are thankful for in the life of the church. In the response to the reverse offering, there has been a bit of gratitude. People are thankful for the opportunity.”

Mike Givler, Communications Coordinator, Synod of the Trinity in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Shelvis and Nancy Smith-Mather, Mission co-workers serving in South Sudan, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Becca Snipp, Administrative Project Manager, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Lord, we lift up those in our communities who are struggling and dealing with terrible stress, abuse, depression or even thoughts of suicide. We pray for those ministering to them and that the vital ministry would continue. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Three churches work together

Blessings abound when supporting one another

February 2, 2022

Youth from Clifton Presbyterian Church, Maxwelton, W.Va., help clean up the community. Courtesy of Clifton Presbyterian Church

The First Presbyterian Church of Dunbar, West Virginia, was the first church in the Presbytery of West Virginia to answer the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s call in 2019 to become a Matthew 25 church, focusing on ministries that dismantle structural racism, eradicate systemic poverty and build congregational vitality.

“It was such a great fit with so much of what we were already doing at the church,” said Terri McDougal, an elder at First Dunbar. But with the COVID-19 pandemic that followed a year later, many churches like First Dunbar felt the brunt of it, having to halt missions due to limited gathering protocols, curbing momentum for programs in a time when they were needed most. The church, though, continued to do the best it could with the limitations it had.

A year later, First Dunbar’s Matthew 25 committee was asked to lead a workshop at a presbytery meeting. There, other congregations reached out to First Dunbar for additional details. Among them were Bream Memorial Presbyterian and Clifton Presbyterian. The friendship among the three churches that soon formed, no one saw coming.

“We had started considering about whether or not to become a Matthew 25 congregation,” said the Rev. Dawn Adamy, the pastor at Bream Memorial. “We thought it would be a great thing to learn from them (First Dunbar) and their experience. We talked about the things we could do together to be faithful to our Matthew 25 commitments.”

Bream Memorial and First Dunbar are five miles apart, but Clifton Presbyterian is more than 100 miles away in Maxwelton, West Virginia. In spite of the distance, Clifton Presbyterian, which calls itself the “country cousins” in the group, has stayed connected with Bream Memorial and First Dunbar via Zoom. As pandemic restrictions lifted, it held a potluck gathering on its church property, giving everyone a chance to finally meet face-to-face. “At first, it was a meeting, but now, it’s like a gathering of friends,” said Suzy Meadows, an elder at Clifton Presbyterian. “This bond probably would not have formed had it not been for the pandemic.”

The churches meet at least monthly by video conferencing on Zoom to discuss ideas and share stories about their own individual Matthew 25 ministries. One story from First Dunbar is its clothing ministry. During the winter, there were nearly 300 coats on outdoor racks taken by the community. At Bream Memorial, the Matthew 25 invitation has given the congregation — which did a family movie night with a neighboring, predominantly Black congregation — a renewed calling to be part of dismantling racism, participating in rallies and reading books such as “Waking Up White.”

Clifton Presbyterian is instrumental in food distribution for its area, helping with a food bank and being part of a rotating meal preparation program where it prepares 60 meals that are delivered to shut-ins on a regular basis. “Our church is aging, and we wanted to find something to bring spirit back into the congregation. Matthew 25 made the things we were already doing make sense. It helped bring some life back into our congregation,” said Meadows.

The newly formed relationship among the congregations has given them all a renewed enthusiasm to be the church. “We draw a lot of energy from each other,” said Adamy.

Meadows hopes the trio of churches continues even after things return closer to pre-pandemic times. “It’s like a track meet. You run faster and do better when you have someone with you, inspiring you. It’s been a blessing from God,” she said.

McDougal agrees. “We look at our three-church collaboration from Matthew 25 as a silver lining of the pandemic.”

Mike Givler, Communications Coordinator, Synod of the Trinity in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Linda Jacobsen, Executive Vice President, Church Engagement, Board of Pensions
Lisa Jacobson, Senior Reference Archivist, Presbyterian Historical Society

Let us pray

Lord, strengthen, guide and bless us as we labor together to bring your love to those who need it most. We thank you for those who serve. May their obedient efforts continue to bear fruit in the lives of many. In your name we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Church exhibit reveals America’s racist past and present

Proves to be an effective conversation starter

May 28, 2020

Lake Burien Presbyterian Church has become known as the church in the Burien, Wash., community that is not afraid to tackle — and talk about — racism. Last fall, the church held an exhibit, “In Our Shoes,” which traced slavery and racism in America. The exhibit attracted local organizations and schools. Courtesy of Lake Burien Presbyterian Church

Jackie Muchiri and her son Jordan, members of Lake Burien Presbyterian Church in Burien, Washington, were facing an uncertain future after receiving an eviction notice due to the sale of her apartment building. For the church’s leadership, Muchiri’s situation was one more reminder that the congregation needed to be at the forefront for a change in policies in its community.

The epiphany has resulted in Lake Burien Presbyterian becoming known as a place where conversations surrounding injustices like rental housing abuses can happen. It is also becoming known as the church in the greater Seattle area where tackling larger issues, such as unfair practices, injustices and racism, is encouraged.

The Rev. Tali Hairston, one of the worshiping pastors at Lake Burien, credits senior pastor the Rev. Lina Thompson for the direction the church has taken.

“We’ve had real hard conversations. We’ve developed a Justice League group, which is a group of folks who are white, black, Asian, Pacific Islander and Hispanic who just want to understand how God sees the world outside of racism and white supremacy,” Hairston said. “It’s a big step for many in the congregation, but we are continuing to learn how to live the gospel faithfully.”

Part of that education included 35 people from the congregation and Lake Burien community participating last year in anti-racism training led by “Pivot” — the church’s young adult ministry.

The training, held over the course of six months, built awareness about historic racism. It culminated in a trip last summer that included stops in Montgomery, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; and Ferguson, Missouri — and focused on the civil rights movement and the voices of African American women.

Hairston said that there were “messy, hard, ugly, beautiful, anointed and holy” moments for everyone on the trip.

Upon returning to Lake Burien, the group knew it needed to unpack what it had experienced. It did so by creating an exhibit called “In Our Shoes.”

Located in the entryway of the church, the exhibit ran from September to October and traced the history of African American life in America from the middle passage and enslavement till today. It is estimated that more than 800 people, including people from the neighborhood, community organizations and schools, have experienced “In Our Shoes.”

“We did it as a part of our own journey to continue our own healing as a congregation, both individually and corporately, and to bring those from our community into the conversation,” Hairston said, adding that Seattle and its neighboring communities are a lot like other regions in the United States in that the condition of African American communities, graduation rates, housing and wealth disparity are everyday problems that many times go unnoticed.

These injustices have not gone unnoticed by the Seattle Presbytery, Hairston says, and the presbytery is taking steps to address these situations.

A study is underway that focuses on the communities that surround churches and the health of those churches. The data is being compared to that of other Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations as well as other denominations.

“Some of the things we’re finding is that both the shifts in demographics and shifts in culture are particularly acute for Presbyterian congregations,” Hairston, who doubles as the presbytery’s director of community organizing, advocacy and development, said of the preliminary findings. “And we need to find out why that is. A place like Seattle is technologically innovative but yet the church itself is struggling to innovate with changes in demographics and culture.”

Seattle Presbytery is also doing an assessment of its congregations so a strategy can be put in place to combat issues of equity and inclusion that are affecting the churches.

As for Lake Burien Presbyterian, Hairston said the congregation will continue being a place where tough conversations can take place.

“The door is open for us to continue to be the kind of congregation that just doesn’t meet on Sunday,” he said. “We’ve seen people who didn’t want to talk about issues of race, who didn’t know how to talk about issues of race, become involved deeply in conversations, in relationships, in small groups and prayer circles with people they know they would never be in conversations with anyplace else around these issues.”

 Mike Givler, Communications Coordinator for the Synod of the Trinity in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Jeff Dorris, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Amy Driscoll, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we give you thanks today for opportunities you give us to build better relationships, do justice and be witnesses of the reconciling love we have known through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.