The multicultural, multilingual church located in the heart of Plainfield, NJ, is defined by its name Iglesia Presbiteriana Nuevas Fronteras. It is represented by a congregation of dedicated Christians from 17 countries throughout North America, South America, and the Caribbean. The church is a representation of the mostly Latino/a immigrant population of the Plainfield community, with this demographic leading the populous at 43.8 percent.

Nuevas Fronteras is home to many Spanish speaking immigrants and second-generation Americans who are marginalized. In 2017, 22.9 percent of Plainfield’s residents lived in poverty. These rates were 12.3% for white non-Hispanic residents, 16.4% for Blacks, 27.0% for Hispanic, 63% for American Indians and 31.8% for other races and residents and 8.0% for two or more races. This home away from home incorporates the mixed cultures of its community through worship, music, and fellowship while providing services to the community such as vacation bible study, La Cocina Caliente, immigration assistance, job preparation, a clothing bank, and ESL for the elderly.

Adedayo Adebayo, a 2020 Sacred Sector Fellow, served at the Second Baptist Church of Asbury Park (SBCAP), a predominantly Black church that was incorporated in 1891. It is a church committed to Christian growth, and they do this through practical, engaging, experiential, and creative teaching of the scriptures. SBCAP has a wide range of ministries through which they carry out their God-given purpose. They are an intentional, intergenerational, impactful, and inspirational community.

SBCAP is built on four pillars of purpose – Worship, Discipleship, Benevolence, and Outreach – and through the four pillars, they continue to strive to make their community into God’s desired image.

Chapel Pointe is a growing church in Hudsonville, MI that pursues a mission to multiply transformed followers of Jesus. To that end, the church strives to intentionally reach, serve, and disciple its community. It also holds strategic partnerships with other ministry leaders, with a desire to see the church make a radical impact for the Kingdom in its community and beyond. In this article, Max Spoelstra introduces his host site, Chapel Pointe, through the Three P’s framework of organizational policy, public positioning, and public policy.

It is crucial for a church to be involved in the community and serve those around it. As a Sacred Sector Fellow this summer with First Baptist Church Pharr, Saraí Muñiz assists the church in evaluating its practices and creating a crisis management plan.

Creating and maintaining a just and equal society in the city of Bridgeport, CT is the main purpose of the Council of Churches in Greater Bridgeport. Omar Nicholson, a 2020 Sacred Sector Fellow who is serving with the Council this summer, reflects on his initial interaction with the Council and its sacred mission. The Council engages this mission through several outreach efforts, including working to address food insecurity, criminal justice, educational reform and the Becoming Anti-racist summer study series. Omar shares plans to assess the organizational and public policy culture at the Council and also to provide supportive consultation to the Racial Ally initiative.

Yasmine Arrington, ScholarCHIPS, Inc. Founder and Executive Director and 2020 Sacred Sector Fellow, analyzes Prison Fellowship’s mission and activities in respect to the Three P’s framework. She elaborates on how Prison Fellowship’s approach to ministry and advocacy for all those impacted by crime and incarceration makes prisons sacred and rehabilitative, advances criminal justice reforms, and supports prisoners, their families, and their communities.

Chloe Specht, a Sacred Sector Fellow, wrote a summary of Lexington Rescue Mission’s (LRM) history and description of their work in the greater Lexington, KY community. The article features a description of major ongoing projects and programs and why they are valuable to LRM’s clientele. Chloe plans to help LRM prepare for their new women’s transitional housing program.

Prudent leaders of faith-based nonprofits in the U.S. often seek out best organizational assessment practices in order to administer constructive changes that will position their organization to more fully live out its sacred mission. Sacred Sector Fellow Rev. Girien R. Salazar provides an introduction to the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), a Christian ecumenical organization comprised of 40 major denominations, and provides a preliminary application of Sacred Sector’s Three P’s Framework of organizational assessment: Public Policy, Organizational Practices, and Public Engagement. Salazar discusses what he hopes to learn throughout the fellowship and how he plans to contribute to the organizational goals of his host-site.

This article will highlight Redemption Housing, a faith-based organization that is designed to help men assimilate back into society through intentional relationships and access to social services in a dignified environment. Unlike typical nonprofit half-way houses, it’s a faith-based organization that has real solutions to housing and employment for citizens. Redemption Housing believes spiritual practices that engage and encourage corporate worship in a covenant faith community supply social support and accountability for formerly incarcerated persons so they do not re-enter the prison pipeline. Rev. Dianne Faust of the historic Grace Baptist Church of Germantown and a Sacred Sector Fellow has been instrumental in helping the organization put in place policies and practices that bring about physical, emotional, and spiritual healing in returning citizens. She has also helped Redemption Housing to expand its housing capacity by forming partnerships in the community with other churches.

How many times have we left the church in order to get to church? This is the question that started On Ramps Covenant Church in Fresno, CA. It is a multi-generational, multi-ethnic, interracial, multi-class, and multi-educational congregation with a strong theology of place. In this post, Michael Carline-Perez writes about his role as a Sacred Sector Fellow with this remarkable congregation.

In Denver, CO, over 350,000 people live at or below the poverty line. While homelessness persists in that city as it does in many urban areas of America, it is the working class poor in Denver who often feel the economic pinch the strongest. One nonprofit and faith-based organization, CrossPurpose, is committed to addressing the issue of financial insecurity through a six-month-long career and community development program. Hunter Hambrick, a 2020 Sacred Sector fellow, provides a brief overview of CrossPurpose’s history and mission, assesses how this organization lives out the Three P’s and details his role there this summer.

Immigration laws and regulations are the focus of a lot of debate and emotion, and the impact on asylum-seekers of constantly shifting priorities and enforcement policies has been fear, pain and suffering for many who are simply seeking a safe harbor. Gretchen Saalbach, a 2020 Sacred Sector Fellow, has been working with the SoCal Presbyterian Immigrant Accompaniment Ministry as they seek to bring clarity to churches and individuals on the complexities of immigration among their congregations, and recruit them to help.