First Presbyterian Church of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa saw a need in its community for an animal shelter and heeded God’s command to care for its neighbor, Mt. Pleasant Correctional Facility.
When she sat for a recent interview, the Rev. Sarah Hegar, who directs congregational ministries at First Presbyterian Church in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, was still basking in the glow of having welcomed six confirmands into membership the previous weekend. They got there in part by studying Matthew 25 confirmation materials that asked the youth: How do you change the world?
Marcy Stroud, the warden at the minimum-security Mt. Pleasant Correctional Facility in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, remembers very well the day she received a cold call from the Rev. Trey Hegar, pastor of First Presbyterian Church.
When she sat for an interview this week, the Rev. Sarah Hegar, who directs congregational ministries at First Presbyterian Church in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, was still basking in the glow of having welcomed six confirmands into membership the previous weekend.
“Our church’s commitment to Matthew 25 is important to us,” says Ashlynn Beauchamp, a 15-year-old member of First Presbyterian Church in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. “It gives us the opportunity not just to better ourselves and follow Jesus, but to branch out and work in the world to improve others’ lives, not just our own.”
First Presbyterian Church in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, gathered Sunday first to worship God and celebrate the many ways the congregation is following Jesus in the Matthew 25 movement. Afterward — following a thrilling Bach postlude on the church’s pipe organ by high schooler Ethan Sexauer — worshipers continued the celebration with a mission fair in fellowship hall.
The First Presbyterian Church of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa — believing where there’s God’s will, there is always a way — envisioned a way to care for God’s beloved creatures.
The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) will host a virtual discussion next month with New Mexico Women’s Global Pathways and a host of community leaders and clergy from around the country to help churches build authentic relationships to fight poverty.
Friday’s online appearance by Co-Moderator Elona Street-Stewart gave the Presbytery of East Iowa the chance to hear from one of the PC(USA)’s top leaders and to share some of the antiracism work going on in churches around the presbytery.
Mount Pleasant is a community of fewer than 9,000 people. It has an idyllic town square surrounded by restaurants and local businesses, just like one would expect when picturing small-town Iowa.
That image changed on May 9, 2018, when dozens of men were seized from Mount Pleasant’s Midwest Precast Concrete plant by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
