PC(USA) - Small Church and Community Ministry

Small Church and Community Ministry: Serving Rural and Urban Congregations


	Affordable Housing and Homelessness Sunday August 9, 2009 Download these worship ideas. Call to Worship (based on Isaiah 1) Leader: God demands that we pray on behalf of the oppressed. People: How will we pray on their behalf? Leader: We will raise our voices to the Lord that God may revive the “cause of the poor.” People: How will we ask the Lord to relieve the suffering of the oppressed? All: We shall petition God with our constant prayers to raise the fortunes of the oppressed so they may be acceptable in the eyes of all, as they are in God’s eyes. Amen. Call to Worship (based on 1 Col 4.11: “... we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless...”) One: The Lord Almighty has set the path of the Savior’s apostles before us! Many: May their strength be our strength in suffering. One: Jesus gives the apostles His Word of support ... Many: Even when their clothes were tattered.... One: Even when they had no place to lay their head .... Many: Even when Jesus’ word, through them, returns rejection and beating as their reward. One: Because God poured the blessings of His Son on the apostles Many: We know that God’s blessings will fall as grace itself to lift the shoulders of the poor and downtrodden. Prayer of Invocation Our Holy God, fill us with wonder at your earth And fill us with compassion for what society deems the least of these If we see those whose strangeness is off-putting, May we overcome our fear to embrace them as Christ! For those who walk naked down the street May we offer prayer and clothes and hope To those languishing in cold, unhappy prison, May we pray for repentance and forgiveness. As we see those hungry or thirsty on the street May our response be not rejection but as they were the king! Open us to see clearly how we can finally live out the wonder of your creation earth In our relationship with those most unlike us, and yet Most like You in the margins of life Prayer of Confession God, our help in every age, help us now. We admit that we are afraid to practice the hospitality and welcome you expect of us. When someone in need approaches, we shrink away. Is it fear? Is it guilt? Or is it that all of a sudden our own neediness is awakened? Help us to cultivate that place inside each of us where we remember that our home is with You — a home that is warm, where things always work out in the end, and where love has the final word. We want to share your grace with others. Help us to be the bearers of your grace in every act of care, in every act of welcome. Amen. Responsive Reading Leader: O Lord, by whose cross all enmity is brought to an end, People: Break down the walls that separate us. Leader: Help us understand how to tear down the former things. People: Show us how to bring renewal to your world. Leader: Awaken in us the passion to dream. People: Guide us as we take small steps toward great visions. Leader: We ask that you give us wisdom and strength, People: Patience and compassion. Leader: Lord, who can make all things new, open our eyes. People: Let us see in our own communities and around the globe those who are without shelter. Leader: Today we lift up to you those who yearn for a simple, decent and affordable place to call home. People: Give us courage to respond. Leader: As we give of ourselves, let us be grateful for those who give to us. People: By the power of your Spirit, make us one. Amen. Litany for Shelter Leader: We pray this day, O Lord, for all people who do not have adequate shelter in which to live and raise their families, and for those who have no shelter at all. People: Hear our prayer, O Lord! Leader: We prayer for families who living space is so small that their children will never know the meaning of privacy. People: Hear our prayer, O Lord! Leader: We pray for all those who are sick because their house are infested or toxic, and the water comes through the roof every time it rains. People: Hear our prayer, O Lord! Leader: We pray for all people whose living conditions are more than a burden than a pleasure, causing them to lose their dignity and their hope. People: Hear our prayer, O Lord! Leader: We pray for all those people who use much of their energy and resources patching their dwelling, only to patch it again only to find that the patches have really solved nothing. People: Hear our prayer, O Lord! Leader: We pray O Lord that those of us in this congregation who live in safe, secure and comfortable shelter will see our homes with humble acceptance as treasures entrusted to us for use in your work. People: Hear our prayer, O Lord! Leader: Move us, stir us, O Lord, to action on behalf of all people in our world who desperately need decent housing and cannot make it on their own. People: Hear our prayer, O Lord! Leader: Make us sensitive to the world around us. Give us hearing that really hears, sight that really sees, insight that really knows, and hearts that are restless until all of God’s people can live is safe and adequate shelter. People: Hear our prayer, O Lord! Leader: Help us to see those who are poorly housed, not as objects of our pity, but as brothers and sisters who stand at the foot of the cross and at the doorstep of the Church with real and pressing needs. People: Hear our prayer, O Lord! Leader: Teach us to be generous, O Lord — generous with our time and talents, generous with our money, generous with our creativity, generous with our lives. People: Hear our prayer, O Lord! Leader: Grant, O Lord, that we may learn to serve you by working with those who are in need of decent shelter. May the work we do be an expression of our faith and a witness to the love you have for all people. Scriptures and sermon ideas Social and economic justice is clear and predominant biblical themes. Christian and Jewish texts remind us that those in poverty have often been made poor through oppression, greed and broken relationships with the human family. Here are a few of the scripture texts that can be read or used for your sermon. Genesis 15:13-16 — God promised to end homelessness for Israel and give them a new home. Exodus 2:23-25 — God hears the cry of the destitute homeless. Exodus 3:1-12 (and other excerpts from chapters 1, 2 and 3) — God hears, sees and knows human suffering, especially that caused by economic exploitation. God's will is for slavery and oppression to end and for Creation's gifts to be shared by all. Leviticus 19:9-18 (or Deut. 24:10-21) — In grateful response to the God who frees from slavery and oppression, the community sets rules to provide for the needs of the lowest wage workers, widows, orphans and aliens. Isaiah 1:17 — Be action people; the hands and feet and voice of Jesus Christ in this place. We are called to make things right for people in need. Isaiah 58:6-12 — The Lord promises favor on those who care for others, who build up what has been torn down, who do His work. Isaiah 65:17-25 — In God's realm, work brings life's necessities in ample supply, and our children and elders dwell in health and security. Jeremiah 29:1-9 — As people exiled from our true home, we are to seek the welfare of the city within which we find ourselves. Amos 5:21-25 — Our worship offends God if not accompanied by righteousness and justice within society. Micah 6:6-8 — Ending homelessness is what God requires us to do. Matthew 25:31-46 — Our love of Christ is demonstrated through our regard for "the least of these," those despised and forsaken in our communities. Acts 2:43-47 and 4:32-35 — The Pentecostal blessing of the Holy Spirit leads to sharing by all so that none experience scarcity. Ephesians 2:11-22 — Christ is our peace, breaking down the walls that divide us and building one united household in God. James 2:14-26 — Ending poverty and homelessness takes action and cannot be done by confession alone. What a congregation can do by the Rev. Dr. Jean Kim Within your congregation Move one step forward toward permanent solution — ending homelessness. Encourage your church to pray faithfully on the issue of ending homelessness. Encourage your pastor to preach on the issue of homelessness. Encourage your church to offer a special seminar on homelessness by inviting speakers. Encourage your church to hold a Mission Fair Sunday and allow guest speakers to address the issue. Encourage your church to include homeless issues in “minutes for mission” during the worship service. Promote the PC(USA) Homeless and Affordable Housing Sunday each August Build resource library at your church on the issue of poverty and homelessness. Begin to share with homeless people what you have accumulated at your house. Encourage your presbytery to provide a pre-Presbytery seminar on Homelessness. Invite your neighbors living in a homeless shelter to a picnic at your church and befriend them. Encourage your church to open a room to be a shelter in partnership with local homeless programs. Share what you are doing to help end homelessness with Jean Kim by email. With other churches Inspire other congregations to do the same as your church is doing or vice versa. Build partnerships with other churches to carry out homeless mission more effectively. Develop a new homeless mission in partnership with other churches and civic organizations. Identify landlord in your and other congregations and convince them to rent units to homeless people in partnership with local shelters or transitional housing programs for ongoing support services. Identify those who own mother-in-law apartments and encourage them to share it with homeless people in partnership with local shelter or transitional housing programs for ongoing support services. With community civic groups Encourage your church to endorse and support your local 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness. Have your congregation rent an apartment for the homeless in partnership with a shelter in your neighborhood or city (Model: Washington State Korean — American Christian Coalition for the Homeless.) Contact: Jean Kim (425) 712-1677 or by email. Encourage your church to adopt a homeless family and mentor them in partnership with local homeless programs. Attend meetings/homeless conferences of local church/ civic organizations that work toward ending homelessness. Participate in local groups that develop housing for the homeless. Join local and/or national public policy advocacy. Make a house warming package for a new tenant in partnership with a local agency for the homeless. Cook meals for local shelters or for local meal programs or cook community dinner for the homeless. Make financial contributions or volunteer for local homeless programs. Help your church join the Presbyterian Network to End Homelessness. Help to start a local Presbytery Network to End Homelessness with $100 contribution, encourage other churches and organizations to join your network. Adding low-income housing in your community Individual, Congregational and Community Actions Individual Read everything you can about homelessness and housing issues Find about about your community’s amount and quality of affordable housing and extremely low-income housing. What are neighboring cities doing? More? Less? Volunteer for your city’s Housing or Planning Commission where housing decisions are made. Attend public discussions about housing, zoning, possible funding sources. Network with people who know about building affordable housing. Congregational Join a faith-based community organizing group, like PICO National Network, to gather support for building low-income housing. Educate the community about possibilities: have a speaker or speaker series, show films like “Holding Ground: the rebirth of Dudley Street” and excite people about housing issues. Research land availability, funding sources (there are many non-profit housing developers who know how to put funding together for housing projects such as Charities Housing. Participate with local Habitat for Humanity house-building and building-rehab projects. Become an active member of a low-income housing development organization in your community, such as Bethel New Life. Provide funding or a no/low interest loan to support a non-profit housing development organization to create or build affordable housing. Acquire, rehab and sell/rent an affordable housing unit. Community Create a “community care” consortium with other churches, community, and neighborhood groups and then lobby, raise money for, and raise awareness about the need for low-income housing in your community. Join with other congregations and/or neighborhood organizations to form a non-profit housing development corporation. Research Federal “Community Development Block Grant” (CDBG) funding in your community (call your Housing Authority or City Housing office). CDBG funds can be used to build low-income housing (or repair or renovate existing housing). Links to more information on Affordable Housing and Ending Homelessness Affordable Housing Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Commonly asked questions about Affordable Housing Online Mercy Housing Justice Talking on Low Income Housing National Low Income Housing Coalition Low Income Housing Institute Jubilee Housing, Washington, D.C. Effects of low-income housing on neighboring communities Saving Affordable Housing; What Communities Can Do Affordable Housing Institute The Campaign for Affordable Housing Ending Homelessness The Rev. Jean Kim National Alliance to End Homelessness The National Coalition for the Homeless Presbyterian Network to End Homelessness The Partnership To End Chronic Homelessness Coalition to End Homelessness National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty Urban Institute study: What will it take to end homelssness? Advocacy National Alliance to End Homelessness — Tips on Advocacy Sign up for the Washington Office Action e-serve newsletter on information and action alerts The Presbyterian Network to End Homelessness Our Mission: to affirm, challenge, educate and empower local churches, and the church as a whole, in the struggle to end homelessness. Our Vision: Our vision is for each Presbyterian congregation and presbytery to embrace a comprehensive approach to ending homelessness. Visit the Presbyterian Network to End Homelessness Web site. Finding a vision for the future by discovering the past Presbyterian church first established in 1846 to be demolished to provide affordable housing for seniors by Paul Seebeck Associate for Mission Communications QUEENS, N.Y. — Pastor Don Olinger of the Presbyterian Church of Astoria in Queens wears his favorite baseball cap religiously these days. A friend found it at a garage sale and thought it would be perfect for Olinger when he saw these words: “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” [Read more] Resources “How to Be an Effective Advocate...Let your Voices Be Heard” PC(USA), Washington Office; FREE, PDS #7282206001 “Speaking Truth to Power — The Washington Office”; FREE, PDS #7294201002


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