A small boy eyes the waters of baptism during worship at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Photos by T.J. Hamilton/SaboPR
Eight years ago, a Grand Rapids congregation left its stately but deteriorating church for a plain, empty building in a tough part of town. Today, the risk has paid off with a smaller but committed congregation heavily involved in neighborhood ministry.
Tierra Nueva's highest value is hosting God's presence. Its website states, "When we love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength we experience peace, joy, and revelation and are empowered for ministry in places of great darkness and need."
Photos courtesy of Tierra Nueva
An ecumenical ministry in rural Washington state helps Latin American immigrants, migrant workers, gang members, addicts, jail inmates and people who have been incarcerated become leaders in their own community.
Participants in the Johnson Service Corps, an Episcopal Service Corps program in North Carolina, working on a Habitat for Humanity building site. From left to right: Mentor Joe Coates, Jim Douglas, Daniel Kamakura, Adwoa Asare, Christina Massee, Amanda Drury, Emily Pierce Douglas and Holly Mueller.
Photos courtesy of Adwoa Asare
At a time when millennials are abandoning religion and service programs, the Episcopal Service Corps is growing, in part because of a lean structure and partner-based funding model.
Sacramento police officers involved in the Cops & Clergy program raffle off a bicycle to a child at a community health fair at Ebenezer Christian Center. This kind of activity helps build relationships between police, clergy and congregations.
Photo courtesy of Sacramento Cops & Clergy
From police departments to public schools, congregations are finding new partners -- and new mission opportunities -- as they team up to help the public sector be more effective.
The Rev. Brian Combs, left, and others join hands in prayer during worship services at Haywood Street Congregation in Asheville, North Carolina.
Photos by Matt Rose
Prepare to be blown away by the Spirit at this church in Asheville, North Carolina, where a radical experiment in street ministry is supported by a mainline denomination.
Sharon Ranew, "the cake lady," bakes birthday cakes for every foster child in Burlington County, N.C. Photo by Alex Maness
At Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in Haw River, NC, numbers don't matter, as the small rural church becomes a model of a kind of community outreach that many larger churches can only dream of.
If no one in power is pointing cannons at us, are we doing our jobs as Christian churches, institutions and institutional leaders?
In a park overlooking the Rio Grande, Holding Institute hosts a candlelight vigil for immigrants fleeing violence. Photos courtesy of Holding Institute
When immigrant families poured into the US seeking asylum, a small Christian nonprofit in Laredo, Texas, had to decide: Stay focused on its core mission or revamp everything in order to meet the humanitarian needs on its doorstep?
With some members left behind, the scene at the restaurant was the opposite of what her church had embodied a half-hour earlier. A pastor learns again that food and hospitality are the building blocks of community.
Continuing inequities in our nation's public schools are a moral injustice that Christians are called to address, says the founder of The Expectations Project.