Mercy and Justice Ministry

There are a few different aspects to our engagement in mercy and justice as a church. The first is resourcing initiatives supporting the work of our amazing partners:

• Safe Families creates extended family-like support for desperate families through a community of devoted volunteers motivated by compassion to keep children safe and families intact.

• Trellis is a community development organization that helps neighborhoods address injustice together through cultural events, educational forums, and advocacy.

• Pray March Act was established this summer to create a collective of churches and organizations that are committed to Christian anti-racist work by dismantling racist structures in their cities through praying, marching, and activism.

• Preemptive Love provides on the ground aid to refugees displaced by war and political unrest around the world.

The offering will also resource initiatives that grow out of our community as we interact with our neighbors and seek ways to show mercy and advocate for justice in our communities.

We have expanded our team of Justice Deacons this year. They will be helping us identify ways we can further mobilize to express the love of Jesus and his heart for justice in our city.

Deacons Fund

One of the most practical ways we are able to be the church together is to bear one another’s burdens, stepping in to provide tangible help in times of need.

Whether money is tight because of underemployment or as a result of a medical emergency, if it’s hard to make ends meet for rent, groceries, or anything in between…our deacons assess needs and steward these funds to provide support.

We long to grow in generosity so that it may truly be said that there are no needy among us.

Meeting Space

We are eager to resume in-person worship and are looking forward with the hope that we can worship together again in 2021. However, it is likely that it will need to be somewhere other than Middle School 51 at least in the short term.

Securing an alternative place to meet, whether short-term or long-term, will increase our costs significantly. This offering will contribute toward the costs of establishing a place we can gather to worship.

Impact from 2019

Here is some of the work your giving to last year’s Christmas Offering contributed to:

• Helped provide food for hundreds of our neighbors through the Roots Café Food Pantry

• Contributed to relational support for over 50 vulnerable NYC families struggling to stay together

• Provided food for 250 starving families in Venezuela

• Catered a healthy meal to the staff of Brooklyn Methodist Hospital during COVID-19 surge

• Partnered with Roots Café to make space for 40 neighbors to process the trauma of this year through “COVID Conversations”

• Provided $20,864 of support through Deacons Fund

• Contributed to the amazing work of partners such as Trellis, Pray March Act, Be The Bridge, Preemptive Love, Safe Families, and Recovery House of Worship

A Call to Generosity

We invite you to pray about how you can contribute toward our 2020 Christmas Offering and our goal of $75,000. Thank you for your generosity!