Outreach“The place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”
Frederick Buechner [adap.] Northside Presbyterian Church has always been a place where outreach isn’t just a catchword – it’s a calling. Approximately ten percent of our annual church budget goes to various public service organizations in Washtenaw County and ministries throughout our denomination. Also, we consistently rank in the top ten percent among the churches in our regional judicatory, the Presbytery of Detroit, in per capita denominational outreach giving. Outreach at Northside is more than just giving “at” a project with money (aka charity). We also incarnate the gospel as well as our Purpose Statement (see Home) by actively giving “with” (justice) — working in the community to make systemic changes for the common good. We focus on three primary social concerns: In that ongoing effort to move beyond charity and toward justice in our outreach ministry, in March 2009 we entered into a Dedicated Outreach Partnership with SOS Community Services in Washtenaw County. We look forward to this “deep discipleship” commitment of working with our friends at SOSCS and the families and individuals they serve — and who serve us all (cf. Matthew 25:40!) — toward ending the scandal and despair of homelessness in the area. Here are some of the other area organizations we support:
We also host six Twelve Step groups under our roof — which collectively serve approximately 300 recovering persons each and every week. In short, Northside is a place where we seek to be faithful to our congregation’s Commission, repeated each Sunday at the end of our Worship service — the basis of Jesus’ “inaugural address” of his ministry: to“bring Good News to the poor … to proclaim release to the captives, and receiving of sight to the blind; to set at liberty those who are oppressed; and to proclaim the year of the Jubilee.” [Luke 4:18-19]
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