Greenfield Presbyterian Church strongly emphasizes mission. We are actively engaged donation drives for various community organizations, participate in the Crossroad Soup Kitchen, host the South Oakland Shelter, just to name a few. We believe that feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and providing shelter for those experiencing homelessness is a central expression of our Christian faith.
We also accept that we are always in a process of growing into a deeper understanding of following Christ. This past year has brought greater awareness to issues of systemic poverty and especially to structural racism. We believe our faith in Jesus calls us to respond and engage. Greenfield’s session voted on April 20, 2021 to become a Matthew 25 Congregation. This is an initiative of our denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), that comes from Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-56 that “calls all of us to actively engage in the world around us, so our faith comes alive and we wake up to new possibilities.” There are three goals of the Matthew 25 invitation:
-
Dismantling
Structural racism by fearlessly applying our faith to advocate and break down the systems, practices, and thinking that underlie discrimination, bias, prejudice, and oppression of people of color.
-
Eradicating
Systemic Poverty acting on our beliefs and working to change laws, policies, plans, and structures in our society that perpetuate economic exploitation of people who are poor.
-
Building
Congregational vitality by challenging congregations and their members to deepen and energize their faith and grow as joyful leaders and disciples actively engaged with their community, seeing new disciples engaged in ministry and longstanding believers develop in faith as the gospel of Jesus Christ is shared in word and deed.
We believe these goals will help lead us into action. By accepting this invitation and becoming a Matthew 25 congregation, these will become goals we strive towards. Built on our existing foundation for mission, Matthew 25 will help us grow in seeking justice. We invite all Greenfielders to join us in living out this bold invitation.
Rev. Anders Edstrom and the Session of Greenfield Presbyterian Church
June 2021