LOUISVILLE – What assumptions do we make about poverty? As in: People are to blame for their own poverty. It’s their fault. Poor people grew up in a subculture of poverty. It’s not their fault.  Poor people live in the ghetto. They live in rural America.  Not here. Poverty is triggered by cyclical events: by the auto plant closing, the flood, the hurricane, the impact of war – things outside our control. The poor will always be with us. The Presbyterian Mission Agency is concentrating its mission focus on three things: congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty. On March 28, the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board spent about two hours of its spring meeting talking about poverty and injustice — learning some of what the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is doing to confront poverty and what Presbyterians need to do differently if they want to make an impact. “We need to address the root cause of poverty,” said Rhashell … [Read more...]

LOUISVILLE – It’s not clear how the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board is leaning regarding the finances and future of Stony Point Center – as the board went into closed session for the part of its meeting March 27 when it talked about that. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, and her leadership team have made a proposal: that the board hire a consultant to help develop a vision for Stony Point, and that Stony Point become a mission arm of the PMA, aligned with the agency’s Matthew 25 focus. That recommendation carries financial implications. The consultant, Run River Enterprises, would cost about $38,000, plus another $3,200 in travel costs. The deeper commitment: the recognition that Stony Point has run a deficit in eight of the last 10 years, and that it needs significant capital expenses to fix what’s been put off over time and to provide the kind of amenities that travelers routinely expect. The report to the boardstates … [Read more...]

LOUISVILLE – The Presbyterian Mission Agency plans to kick off its Matthew 25 initiative on April 1 with a full media campaign and a new website – part of a broader effort to build support among Presbyterians around the mission goals of congregational vitality, combatting structural racism and ending poverty. The Matthew 25 campaign – based on the calling in the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel to give food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, welcome the stranger and visit the prisoner – “is getting a lot of traction, a lot of enthusiasm,” said Rosemary Mitchell, senior director for mission engagement and support for PMA.  Congregations will be invited to formally commit to becoming Matthew 25 churches – and to share with others the impact that making that commitment brings. “People give to the mission, they don’t give to budgets,” Mitchell told the coordinating committee of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, which met a few hours before the start of the board’s March 27-29 … [Read more...]