The Rev. Laura Bentley, pastor of Sanctuary Faith Community, felt called to be a pastor — but she had the best pastoral conversations sitting at bars with people over food and beer.
While listening to people, the 1001 new worshiping community leader noticed how isolated they felt, so she started a weekly gathering around meals in her home — for rest, for space to wrestle with spirituality and to learn about Jesus.
On The Way Church, a Spanish-speaking multicultural 1001 new worshiping community in Atlanta, held a “Pray for Venezuela” day in June for those impacted by that country’s worsening economic and political crisis.
Beth McCaw didn’t know what she was getting into when she first heard God’s call to start a new worshiping community. As a social worker, she was a long way from the challenges she would face in launching a new faith community.
New worshiping community lauded for its work at Charlotte center July 5, 2019 Traci Canterbury has found a spiritual home and a willing and able partner in The Fellowship… Read more »
New Creation Presbyterian Church, a 1001 New Worshiping Community in Hendersonville, Tennessee, plans to use a recent $50,000 award for its $2.5 million building campaign.
New Creation, which became an official PC(USA) chartered congregation last year, was named a winner of a $50,000 2019 Sam and Helen R. Walton Award in March.
When Nancy Wind, the leader of the new worshiping community Isaiah’s Table in Syracuse, N.Y., first saw the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s invitation for congregations to become Matthew 25 churches on this website, she was intrigued.
At the Church of Amazing Grace International in Anaheim, California, the Bible that the Rev. Kinyua Johnson preaches from is in the language he grew up with — Kikuyu, a language spoken by about 17 percent of Kenyans.
But recently, Johnson and the community discovered something profound about their approach to worship. “We realized we were being selfish,” he said, “by just having the service in Kikuyu.”
When Brett Foote decided to go to Princeton Theological Seminary in the fall of 2016, his wife, Laura Foote, was in a “really, really dark place.” She struggled with depression — and with church and how she fit in.
“I remember talking to my mom,” she said. “Like Brett’s got this dream and vision now. I was like, ‘Mom, I want that. Like, what am I doing?’ ”
The Rev. Laura Bentley, pastor of Sanctuary Faith Community, felt called to be a pastor — but she had the best pastoral conversations sitting at bars with people over food and beer.
During the recent one-year anniversary celebration of On The Way Church, the Rev. Rafael Viana began to see a convergence of many things.
“Each one was necessary for us to reach this moment of great blessing,” he said. Viana arrived in Atlanta with his wife, Ivette, and their two children in February 2016.
