Our Pan-Methodist Campaign for Children in Poverty North Alabama UMC Conference Team mission is to equip congregations to share in God’s mission by providing hope, compassion, justice, and radical hospitality to children who live in poverty. Over the next year, we’ll offer monthly blog posts to provide ideas, inspiring stories from local congregations, and ways to connect what we do and who we are to others working on behalf of children and their families in North Alabama and the larger Pan-Methodist Campaign around the globe.
We are called to examine our souls and to deepen our lives in Christ. Through prayer, holy listening, and scripture, we are reminded of the vastness of the grace of God and of the power of repentance and forgiveness through the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. There is no better time than now to listen to children and their families, especially those in our neighborhood schools and communities beyond the walls of our churches.
Here is a helpful tool from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership – 50 Ways to Engage Local Schools. We are reminded that listening first is key to beginning and maintaining a good relationship with area schools and communities.

Also, over the coming months we will build a Story Bank: Transformational Stories of North Alabama Conference Churches with Local Schools. We invite members of our Conference and their congregations to share your stories. Focus upon the following:

1. What/How/Why did your relationship with your local school begin?
2. What is the main goal of your church-school relationship?
3. What did you do/are you doing?
4. How has this changed your congregation/your community/your school?
5. Why is this program and relationship important to your ministry and understanding of living out God’s mission for the church of bringing good news to the poor by being a visible sign, foretaste, and instrument of God’s compassion, justice, and radical hospitality?

May God bless our work and ministries as we care for children and their families struggling in poverty…
Rev. Melissa Self Patrick
North Alabama Conference Liaison to Pan-Methodist Campaign for Children in Poverty