Outreach

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Matthew 25: 35-36

Opportunities abound—within the parish, within the community, and within the world—for members of St. John’s to live into their Baptismal promise to “seek and serve Christ in all persons.” This is the heart and soul of who we are as members of God’s holy family, and we search constantly for opportunities that will allow every age group to work side-by-side as we reach out to serve Christ in the world. Although money sometimes is what is most needed, whenever possible we strive to make Outreach a gift of time and skills in a hands-on partnership.

Within the Parish Family

Members—both adult and youth—reach out through worship by serving as lectors, acolytes, lay Eucharistic ministers, choir members, and on the altar and flower guilds. We support and lead our children and young adults as Sunday school teachers, youth group leaders, domestic and international mission trip leaders, and baptismal and confirmation mentors. We provide hospitality for newcomers, receptions for families following funerals, weekly Sunday morning breakfasts, and a variety of mid-week gatherings. We visit those in hospitals, nursing homes, and homebound, both to share the Eucharist and to offer companionship. We offer welcome to new babies. We have an active program of trained lay caregivers during periods of crisis recovery and for those who are experiencing special care needs. A large group of Garden Angels tends the green spaces that surround the parish properties. The St. John’s Day School offers a nurturing environment for preschool children from throughout the community.

Within the Community

Both financially, by the sharing of church space, and with hands-on commitment, St. John’s members reach out into the community with support for a wide variety of opportunities to give of our time and skills as well as our money.

Since 2007 St. John’s has made a financial and volunteer commitment to Lynchburg Grows, a community-wide initiative to restore a number of abandoned greenhouses for re-use as sources for food, education, and employment for those in need. St. John's has completed the renovation of Greenhouse #8 and, in the process, has rescued and replanted over 100 rose bushes and has planted beds filled with vegetables and lettuces. The harvested produce is given to Lynchburg Daily Bread. For more information or to volunteer, please contact Gracy and Don Martin at IGLM@aol.com.

Directions: traveling from downtown on Fort Avenue, cross Oakley Avenue and take the second left beyond the City Stadium walls onto Rutherford Street. Follow signs for parking at the greenhouse complex.

One of the highlights and focal points for the Outreach committee and the parish has been reconnecting with our neighbors in Tinbridge Hill, an inner-city neighborhood just over one mile from St. John's. Members of the Outreach committee are in constant communication with the Tinbridge Hill neighborhood and together we have built a relationship and partnership to help each other and live out our baptismal covenant: to seek and serve Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of every human being. Our parishioners are involved in the building of Habitat homes and with the Yoder Center, which provides a focal point and resources for the neighborhood children. There are additional and numerous opportunities, both short and long-term, to be involved.

A new subcommittee, Environmental Relations committee, is currently being formed and beginning its work to find ways to become better stewards of our environment - both within the parish and within the wider community. For more information, contact Ted Batt at tbatt@academyfinearts.com.

St. John's has provided community service and support to many organizations including:
Alcoholics Anonymous
Camp Kum-ba-yah
The Gateway
Habitat for Humanity
Interfaith Outreach Association
Jubilee Family Development Center
Kids’ Haven: A Center for Grieving Children
Lynchburg Daily Bread
Meals-on-Wheels
Miriam’s House
Rivermont Area Emergency Food Pantry
Salvation Army
The Society of St. Andrew
Tinbridge Hill Neighborhood Association and the Yoder Center
YWCA Domestic Violence Prevention Program

Members of the parish—and the community—are invited to suggest any additional opportunities for Outreach. Contact the Outreach committee to make additional needs known. Chair of the committee is Alan Williamson.

Within the World

St. John’s reaches out to the world through the ministries of the Episcopal Church, such as the Episcopal Relief and Development, the main avenue for crisis and emergency support of a global scale. Junior and senior youth groups, accompanied by adults of the parish, have made several mission trips, to both impoverished or crisis-stricken regions of the U.S. and Central America, and additional in-depth partnerships of mutual sharing, caring, and prayer support currently are being explored. If you are interested in participating in a mission trip please contact the church office.

Central guides to the work of the Outreach Committee are the stated objectives of the Millennium Development Goals www.milleniumcampaign.org —to significantly reduce global poverty and hunger; to achieve universal primary education; to promote gender equality and empower women; to reduce child mortality; to improve maternal health; to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; to ensure sustainability; and to create partnerships for development through aid, trade and debt relief—by the year 2015. The parish looks for opportunities to support these works. We also are linked with All Saints, Ilkley, a companion parish in the Diocese of Bradford England, with diocesan partners in the Church of the Sudan and with ChildReach Africa, a nonprofit organization in Uganda dedicated to helping orphans in northern Uganda. For more information about MDG contact Nina Salmon at salmon@lynchburg.edu.

Process for Outreach support

Over the past few years, the St. John's Outreach Committee has worked to redefine its mission and the means by which we will respond to the many requests we receive from different and important community organizations. In searching for the most effective way we can do God's work, we have initiated a grant cycle. Determinations of grants to organizations will be made twice a year: in June and November. Grant recipients will be notified once the Outreach Committee has met, likely within thirty days of the grant deadlines.

Whether you are an old friend of St. John's or a new partner in spreading our mission of love, we ask that you kindly complete a grant application so that we may better understand your very important mission and project. In doing so, you will assist us in keeping a rich history of those we help and in determining the best use of our parish's gifts to the world. Applications are available by clicking on this link: grant application.


Chair: Alan Williamson
Liaison to Vestry: Dee Edwards

Outreach committee members, who serve rotating terms, are:

While each may indeed be active in Outreach projects, the primary role for Outreach committee members is to be parish facilitators for Outreach.