Church Involvement

CCDA 2009: Barbara Williams-Skinner Sermon: 
Subversion — Pursuing New Approaches to Activism

Church involvement is welcomed and critical to the mission.

Churches can easily become involved with activities within Project URGE. We also help steer church groups to the appropriate organization or into ministry partnerships with other churches, based on the type of activity best suited to meet goals and needs of each. Our role is to be the catalyst that brings churches and organizations together to meet the challenges we face in our community. Our desire is to exhibit the unity Christ has called us to, as well as sharing each other's burdens.

Financial support is also extended to Project URGE through urban/suburban/rural, Evangelical, Protestant, Catholic and non-denominational churches. The largest percentage of our donor support comes through individuals attending 30 plus churches throughout the Rochester area and beyond. This is a direct reflection of their belief in our mission to work collaboratively to bring the love of Christ throughout our community.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”   Phillipians 2:3 & 4

“Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all you soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”   Matthew 22:37039

Things to Consider

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I am meeting young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust.
Maybe again, I have been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Maybe I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ecclesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)

But if the Church regained the wholeness of the biblical vision of justice and mercy, we could shake our society to its roots.
Dorothy Day (1897-1980) co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

The present division between the haves and have-nots in the body of Christ is a major hindrance to world evangelism.
Ronald J. Sider

If suburban and urban Christians can't joint-venture for the Kingdom, then why should we expect the unregenerate to get along?
Dr. Tony Evans - from "How Christians are Destroying America"