Mission Yearbook: Atlanta minister connects faith, law and advocacy

The Rev. Rebekah LeMon never abandoned her legal training when she entered ministry. Instead, she discovered that advocacy — the core skill of any lawyer — is also a fundamental calling for people of faith.

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The Rev. Rebekah LeMon (contributed photo)

“Advocacy is not a tricky word for lawyers. It is the job, right?” LeMon recently told host the Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime on Day1’s podcast. LeMon explained how vox, the root for “voice,” is in the word “advocate.” “You are literally ‘voicing,’” she said, adding that as a lawyer, “you are speaking for someone, and that is what you’re preparing to do.”

LeMon, senior pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, brought her legal background into conversation with her pastoral vocation during the episode, which featured her sermon “Be Humble Walking,” based on Micah 6:1–8.

The attorney-turned-minister acknowledged that while advocacy comes naturally in legal settings, it often creates discomfort in congregations. “Advocacy becomes a little trickier for church people sometimes,” she said, attributing this hesitation partly to “the deep rootedness of partisanship in our world right now that people associate advocacy with taking a partisan position.”

Over seven years ago, her call led LeMon to join the board of Presbyterians for a Better Georgia, an organization designed to give people of faith practical tools for civic engagement while breaking down partisan walls. “The goal of our systems and the goal of our legislative process are for the good of all, right? It is not meant to create benefit for some and lack or punishment for others,” she said.

LeMon identified a troubling disconnect in how Christians approach need. “So many people of faith would feel totally comfortable helping a person, right? We’ve read Matthew 25, we understand that people need — if they are hungry, we’re to feed them; if they are thirsty, we’re to give them drink; if they’re estranged, we’re to welcome them,” she said. “Somehow that feels comfortable if there’s a person in front of you and a material thing you can give them. But the systemic expression of that, which is let us change the system that is keeping people from having access to housing, or that is preserving food deserts, or that is alienating people from their home spaces, which are exactly the same things listed in Matthew 25, somehow the system level really scares people or makes them think they’re going to offend somebody.”

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Volunteers of Presbyterians for a Better Georgia on Lobby Day 2024. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Advocacy, she argued, simply extends individual acts of mercy to address root causes. “We’re doing it in these really beautiful and important ways for humans we know. And the logical step is, let’s do it for humans we don’t know yet, and let’s change the system so our expression of fulfilling the command of Matthew 25 is not limited to one person at a time,” LeMon said. “That's what advocacy is really — you're trying to change the thing that causes the need to begin with.”

Presbyterians for a Better Georgia facilitates this work by taking positions on legislation and partnering with other nonprofits to amplify collective voices, particularly around housing, homelessness, and health care for all Georgians, LeMon said. 

The organization provides what LeMon called “a fertile training ground for breaking down some of this partisanship stuff that's overlaying all of our lives right now.” 

“I’ve never heard advocacy described quite that way,” Kime responded, “and to hear it in a moment now when there’s such muddle about what it means to be faithful and to act in the civic sphere, right? In a moment when, like, oh, that’s so dangerous.”

In her sermon “Be Humble Walking,” Lemon reflected on Micah’s call to “do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.” She emphasized that humility is not humiliation but rather “a way of being as you stick with God for the journey of a lifetime.” Noting that “our Lord was a walker,” moving from town to town throughout his ministry, Lemon framed Christian discipleship as walking alongside God rather than positioning ourselves defensively with “arms crossed, ready to self-defend.”

Addressing contemporary challenges to truth and humility, LeMon said, “In a world that settles for truthiness ... let us acknowledge we have so much to learn ... so much to change.”

Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Molly Atkinson, Senior Administrative Assistant, Financial Aid Service, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Yesenia Ayala,  Associate, Financial Aid for Service, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

God of all generations, open us to your call to love you and our neighbor no matter what our age, no matter what our talent, no matter what else we may have to do. May those who serve and those who are served feel like partner in your church, which hopes for the shelter, nurture and spiritual fellowship of the children of God. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Georgia churches advocate for housing and health care

Presbyterians for a Better Georgia addresses systemic poverty with state legislators

July 9, 2024

“I always see people in our congregations eager to do some kind of service with our neighbors. Their first thought is often that that’s meeting a basic need, some sort of hands-on giving someone food or drink or clothing or shelter,” said the Rev. Rebekah LeMon, senior pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. “But we have to ask ourselves, as people of faith, why our systems don’t allow everyone to have food, clothing, shelter and welcome.” For the past six years, LeMon has served on the board of Presbyterians for a Better Georgia (PBG). “Advocacy is the way we try to create systemic change that would better support all of our neighbors.”

Members of PC(USA) churches met with Georgia state 

legislators at Presbyterians for a Better Georgia’s Lobby 

Day on March 5. (Contributed photo)

PBG is a partnership of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta and one way that the presbytery lives out its Matthew 25 mission to address systemic poverty, structural racism and congregational vitality. For almost 30 years, PBG has been bringing churches together to determine a faithful response to state legislation and to advocate on behalf of the vulnerable in Georgia. As an organization, PBG operates year-round, gathering to discuss issues and potential legislation with lawmakers in the fall, conducting online advocacy trainings at the opening of the legislative session in January, and meeting for the annual PBG Lobby Day in March to speak in person with lawmakers at the Capitol in Atlanta when important votes are being cast.

For the past seven years, PBG has raised funds through partner churches to hire a part-time public policy advocate, which gives Presbyterians more access to lawmakers at crucial moments, such as during committee sessions when essential decisions are made. PBG’s leadership can then respond with social media and email campaigns to its members to contact their legislators as certain bills come up for discussion.

“Our member congregations are not homogeneous. They’re different sizes. They’re located in different communities. And they’re not all theologically or politically homogeneous either,” said the Rev. David Lewicki, pastor of North Decatur Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia, and member of the PBG board. PBG engages in non-partisan public policy advocacy and currently centers its work around housing and health care as these issues align closest to the concerns of their member congregations and the needs of the neighbors they serve whether they be in densely populated urban areas like downtown Atlanta or further out in smaller communities like Duluth, Stone Mountain or Stockbridge, Georgia.

At right, Nikki Turner of Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church, 

Bill Humphries of Morningside Presbyterian Church and the 

Rev. David Lewicki of North Decatur Presbyterian Church 

meet with Georgia House Rep. Dewey McClain. (Contributed 

photo)

“All of our congregations that are participating joined voluntarily. All of our members contribute financially to our work. They help to contribute money that supports our lobbying. And they also contribute in terms of their volunteer support and their leadership gifts,” said Lewicki, who explained that the organization would like to grow beyond the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta to strengthen connections to other presbyteries and their voice at the Capitol. “We hope to grow as an organization; the larger we are, the more congregations that are connected and affiliated, the stronger we are as a presence at the state Capitol,” said Lewicki, who looks forward to the day the PBG advocate can go to the Capitol and say, “I represent 50 congregations across the state.”

In addition to reaching out to other churches and presbyteries in Georgia, the board members of PBG want to encourage presbyteries across the nation with their model of collaboration, training and advocacy and hope others will reach out to learn more about their model as they consider how to address structural and systemic issues on the state and local level.

“Presbyterians for a Better Georgia is getting right at the heart of the issues around poverty by seeing those who don’t have what they need when it comes to housing and health care,” said the Rev. Aisha Brooks-Johnson, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, who attended PBG’s Lobby Day on March 5 and was encouraged by all the people who showed up. “Even if your church isn’t a part of it, you know that this exists within your presbytery,” said Brooks-Johnson, who noted that when the word went out about Lobby Day, “folks came far and wide.”

Video and photography by Rich Copley, Alex Simon, Beth Waltemath and Mark Maguire. Story editor, Beth Waltemath. Video editor, Alex Simon. 

Today’s Focus: Presbyterians for a Better Georgia

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Samantha Lund, Legal Office Administrator, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) 
Erika Lundbom, Electronic Resources Associate, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation 

Let us pray

Redeeming and restoring God, we give thanks for the varied ministries of your church. Help us to make good use of the skills and talents as we share in the building and rebuilding of Christ’s church. Amen.