Grantee Directory

A Rocha USA’s Churches of Restoration program helps congregations understand and practically address the social, ecological, and spiritual impacts of nature loss and climate change. Our program connects participating congregations to local ecosystems and like-minded churches, empowering them to practically and collaboratively respond to pressing ecological concerns through restorative ecological actions.

The Christian Education Department of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) will initiate congregational learning labs that will help congregations harvest from their tradition, observe their ministry context and reflect on their gifts and challenges, pivot in order to respond to the ministry call before them, and enliven their witness and service in the world. With a particular eye toward the effects of gentrification in urban centers and youth exodus in rural settings, the project will use these H.O.P.E. Congregational Learning Labs to incubate and innovate so that their learnings can be shared more broadly across the denomination. The department will develop resources to support these local learning processes and will harvest and highlight the learnings through its publications (print and digital) and its gatherings (in-person and virtual). The project assumes design thinking and hybridity in methodology, as well as storytelling and contextualized Christian practices that are a part of African Methodism that aim toward a liberative theological understanding and faithful action for justice, peace, human flourishing, and salvation of all creation.

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church’s mission is “to increase our love for God and to help meet the needs of humankind by loving God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with our entire mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.” Since its inception in 1796, the A.M.E. Zion Church has faithfully worked to empower, edify, engage, and equip congregations, leaders, and communities around the globe. Called the Zion Leadership Hub: Empowering Congregations for Inward Development, Outward Impact, and Upward Faith Life Together, this project will convene 2,000 congregational leaders from 700 congregations within three Episcopal Districts in North Carolina and Mid-Atlantic. The Zion Leadership Hub model houses learning and training modules in three areas of focus: 1) Community Development: Connecting church to the community 2) Life Together Discipleship Small Groups: Building community within our church 3) Hybrid Worship Training: Spiritual engagement of in-person and virtual community in worship, including technical training. The A.M.E. Zion program is designed to engage congregational leaders in an interactive 6-month training series that will confidently equip them to lead in their congregations and communities with a growth mindset. A.M.E. Zion recognizes that thriving congregations must include engaged, trained, and resourced lay leaders. We will recruit and train them to come alongside the pastor in order to provide the necessary capacity for their congregation to engage their community in doing the work of the Gospel. Our firm hope is that through this initiative, congregations and leaders will be able to navigate the changing landscape of faith, community, and church life.

Korean churches have faced stagnation and decline as a result of multiple factors. Since 2010, strict immigration policies and reductions in Korean visas have led to a noticeable decline in students studying abroad and immigrants. The prolonged pandemic caused some members of the Korean immigrant community to doubt the necessity of churches, and congregants shifted to other churches or left altogether. These factors have resulted in the number of Korean immigrant churches plummeting, with reports suggesting that 130 Korean immigrant churches in L.A. alone had closed their doors before and after COVID-19. Additionally, Korean immigrant churches face unique cultural pressures. They are directly exposed to materialism, mechanization, rationalism, and extreme individualism on one hand. On the other hand, they grapple with issues prevalent in Korean society such as authoritarianism, saving face, competitiveness, a sense of comparison, and irrational decision-making structures and contradictions. Consequently, conflict and division are inevitable realities for Korean immigrant churches. The Rejuvenating Immigrant Congregations (RIC) program aims to address the problems facing Korean immigrant churches in crisis. Through conferences, seminars, research, and direct involvement, small- to medium-sized churches affiliated with the Korean church in America will be encouraged to participate in restoration, missions, and community service. The RIC program hopes to break down barriers of time and culture, bring hope and change, renew congregants, and enable churches to fulfill their original mission.

The world is facing both challenges and opportunities posed by rapid advancements in science and technology. But widespread assumptions about “conflicts” between science and religion, along with a lack of training in how to address these issues, have often meant that they go unaddressed by congregations and religious communities. The Science Engagement for Congregational Flourishing (SECF) project will resource and equip congregational leaders to engage with critical issues at the intersection of science and society within their congregations and communities. The Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program of the AAAS will have two prongs: 1) DoSER will provide grants to continuing education providers to develop offerings that equip and resource congregational leaders to meaningfully engage with science in their ministry contexts. DoSER will provide connections with scientists and science resources to enhance continuing education offerings and will support grantees through workshops, cohort meetings, and networking opportunities. 2) DoSER will directly support congregational leaders through a series of in-person and virtual workshops that provide tools and resources for leaders to engage forefront science issues within their ministerial contexts. Participants in both the continuing education programs and workshops will also receive ongoing support, including science resources and networking opportunities with one another, through virtual meet-ups and an ongoing online network for sharing questions, resources, and promising practices. And DoSER will provide mini-grants to congregational leaders to help kickstart science engagement programs within their ministry contexts. By providing resources and practical guidance in science engagement for congregational leaders, SECF will equip these leaders to shepherd their congregations through the challenges and opportunities raised by scientific and technological advancements that are shaping the world today.

Black congregations came into being to bear the gospel message of God’s kindom -- the reign of love and justice -- to the needs of healing and uplift for Black lives. In ethical and theological terms, justice is a divine moral imperative to do what is right in a manner that is fair and impartial. ABC stands in a unique position to help Tennessee congregations explore theological and ministry praxis for implementing strategies relevant for prophetic mission and social justice ministry. To this end, ABC is engaging congregations of varying denominations and sizes in Congregational Empowerment Zone (CEZ) cohorts from the four major urban areas of the state of Tennessee: Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville. ABC supports these congregations battling the intersecting evils of social crisis and justice-adjacent issues by facilitating their sociological and theological reflection and engagement on strategies for effective mission and ministry decision-making through learning communities for pastoral development, congregational study linking theology to lived reality, and peer learning. The common definitions for “thrive” or “thriving” are to grow vigorously, develop well, advance, or flourish with intentionality toward a purpose or mission. Adding theological content to the definition of “thriving,” this congregational initiative hopes to invigorate and breathe new life into the ecclesial practice of Black churches in three foci for spiritual and social empowerment: 1) Theological Imagination -- re-engaging all forms of oppression and dominant interpretations of reality through a congregation’s exercise of critical consciousness and human agency; 2) Ministry Praxis -- reorienting reflection and action upon forms of prophetic communal care to transform the ways in which congregations address social domains of injustice; and 3) Adaptive Leadership -- Re-visioning toward emancipatory models of non-hierarchical, gender equitable, and intergenerational leadership to humanize systems through profound love for people and the community. These areas of empowerment represent the Gospel’s portrayal of the teachings, moral uplift, and ministry of Jesus to those looked upon and treated by a spiritually ailing society as “the least of these.” ABC expects at the end of this process that congregations’ understandings of spirituality as social witness will stretch and empower participants to name the realities impacting marginalized and oppressed communities and imagine and engage unitive possibilities to transform them.