Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘As the body of Christ, we have unique resources and connections that we can share’

Synod of the Covenant webinar gives insight to community partnerships churches can form

October 19, 2024

Photo by Chad Kirchoff via Unsplash

Tim Pollock, commissioned ruling elders and commissioned pastors coordinator for the Synod of the Covenant, recently offered a webinar full of ideas on extending ministry networks to municipal and nonprofit agencies. Watch the hourlong broadcast here.

People on the call shared innovative ideas for how their churches are partnering with schools, local government, food pantries, service organizations and other entities to better serve their communities.

Commissioned Ruling Elder Roger Sibert said Central Presbyterian Church in Massillon, Ohio, partners with the Rotary Club to help provide groceries, household items and food and gas cards to people who need them. Central also counsels and prays with people “if they like,” Sibert said.

“We have developed good relationships through the ministry,” Sibert said, including a partnership with the mayor and other city officials to open a warming or cooling station when they’re needed. “We have made a commitment to use our building in support of the community in general,” Sibert said, including a theater group that rehearses in the basement.

Judith Bender, a CRE at Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, Ohio, said the church is next door to a summer concert series, which asked church members to make and sell hot dogs to music-goers and use the proceeds for mission. “We don’t make a huge amount of money, but some, and we have gotten our name out there and our witness,” Bender said. “There are opportunities out there. Part of it is being present, being known, being available and wanting to be part of the community.”

Tim Pollock

In recent years, Vienna Home Day, an annual gathering of current and former residents, was “struggling to find a grand marshal,” Bender said.

“A guy in our church — that was his pipe dream, to be grand marshal,” Bender said. The man’s daughter had a classic convertible, “and so he had the whole nine yards. I suggested him to organizers, and they said, ‘That’s a great idea.’”

“As the body of Christ, we have unique resources and connections that we can share,” said Pollock, who identified himself as the “proud owner of a pretty decent Santa Claus suit.”

“I have done Santa Claus at the library, and most people don’t know it’s me,” Pollock said. “I will walk around the elementary school as Santa Claus, and I never thought it was a thing I could do to serve the community. It was just something I had.”

“I know you all have folks in your congregations who have these unique qualities,” Pollock said. “There is a unique ministry of the people who are gathered [as the church], but each of those people might have their own ministries that they should pursue. What if the church became a hub where members could learn how to connect their own unique ministry outside the church, or adjacent to the church?”

Bender said the local chapter of the National Honor Society was “looking for places where kids could serve.”

What aging church members needed most, she said, was help setting up the Christmas tree each Advent season. “Some of the upper-level decorating was getting to be more of a challenge,” Bender told the teacher, who responded, “Our kids would love to do that.”

The next Sunday, a half-dozen or so students showed up and stayed for the entire worship service, remaining afterward to help set up the tree and decorate it. Church members provided pizza to share.

“It became an ongoing thing,” Bender said. “We are now a service area for the National Honor Society,” which provides the church with services including yardwork. “It’s been a great interchange between our older congregation and the kids,” Bender said.

One person on the call said two offenders assigned by the court to do community service “do yardwork and help out with the thrift store. They are the hardest workers we have.”

Another said his church provides respite care for parents of students with special needs.

“As pastors, our schedules can get busy,” Pollock said. “But there are interesting connections you can make” at places including service club meetings.

“As a pastor,” Pollock said, “I am a community member, too.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Synod of the Covenant webinar

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Tom Taylor, President & Chief Executive Officer, Presbyterian Foundation 
James Tebbe, Pakistan Property Representative, World Mission Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Lord, allow us to be wise enough to know we can always learn from each other and to be humble enough to do so. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Synod of the Covenant webinar explores a provocative question: Can our faith make us well?

It can and it does, according to the organization Science for the Church

April 26, 2023

The Rev. Drew Rick-Miller

When Jesus assures the woman who’d suffered 12 years from a flow of blood that “your faith has made you well,” he was stating a truth that applies to people of faith today as well, according to the Rev. Drew Rick-Miller.

Rick-Miller, project co-director for Science for the Church, led a webinar last week for the Synod of the Covenant on how faith and faith practices contribute to people’s well-being. Rick-Miller’s hourlong talk can be viewed here.

Rick-Miller, a pastor who studied physics as an undergraduate, made the case for clergy and other faith leaders to keep in mind that the nation’s mental health crisis is big and growing. Nine in 10 Americans, one poll found, are aware of the crisis. “Not all [struggles] are solely mental health issues,” Rick-Miller said, “but it’s certainly a contributing factor.” One in five U.S. residents has a diagnosed mental health illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This is a severe crisis,” Rick-Miller said, “and in the church we feel it.”

For Rick-Miller, many questions have been studied and some warrant further study: Does what we do in the church help us? Can the things we do every day in church enhance our health? Is there benefit to the things church leaders do to nurture Christian disciples? Can scientists measure it? Does our faith make us well?

“Our bodies are remarkably good at healing on their own,” Rick-Miller said, “but there are instances when we need help, from science and directly from God.” Much of the healing we experience “comes from God working through our bodies and through medical professionals and the treatments they’ve created,” he said. “It’s a both/and perspective.”

No less an authority than the Mayo Clinic concluded that “most studies have shown that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes, including greater longevity, coping skills and health-related quality of life, even during long-term illness, and less anxiety, depression and suicide,” Rick-Miller noted. “Several studies have shown that addressing the spiritual health needs of the patient may enhance recovery from illness.”

A Harvard study focusing on teenagers indicated that participating in church lowered depression by 12% and going to church made them 87% more forgiving and 38% more likely to volunteer.

“All this research has medical researchers asking a fascinating question,” Rick-Miller said. “Should doctors prescribe church?”

Here’s an answer from Harvard medical researcher Dr. Tyler VanderWeele, writing in USA Today in 2016:

“If one could conceive of a single elixir to improve the physical and mental health of millions of Americans at no personal cost, what value would our society place on it?

Photo by Patty Brito via Unsplash

“Going a step further, if research quite conclusively showed that when consumed just once a week, this concoction would reduce mortality by 20-30% over a 15-year period, how urgently would we want to make it publicly available?

“The good news is that this miracle drug — religion, and more specifically regular church attendance — is already in reach of most Americans. In fact, there’s a good chance it’s just a short drive away.”

What is it about the things we do in church that helps religious people live longer and have reduced stress, anxiety and depression?

“The most common answer is community support,” Rick-Miller said. “In a healthy church, it’s hard for people to be lonely. Human beings are created to be in relationship.”

Religious patients are more likely to follow up on treatment. They typically drink less alcohol and use drugs less frequently. They smoke less and are more likely to wear their seatbelts. “Caring for our bodies that are fearfully and wonderfully made is a factor that contributes to why we have these benefits,” Rick-Miller said.

Rick-Miller asked those participating in the webinar not to hear him saying that everyone in faith communities “receives the benefits” enumerated above. “People in church get cancer and experience depression. People of faith are not immune from illness and suffering of all sorts,” he said. “But there do seem to be some benefits pretty generally and pretty widely to what we do in church.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Teresa Bidart, Bilingual Mission Specialist, Self-Development of People, Compassion, Peace & Justice, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Ricky Blade, Customer Service Consultant, Communications Ministry, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Almighty and Everlasting God, strengthen the church so it may witness to your faithfulness, build communities passionately committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Inspire individuals with the fire of your Holy Spirit and bless this work to your glory. Amen.