Annual Conference 2023: Ministry with the Poor Team wants to equip congregations to build relationships with their communities

Rev. Dr. Adlene Kufarimai and Rev. Adam Burns presented the report of the Ministry with the Poor Team to the 2023 North Alabama Annual Conference.  After Rev. Kufarimai recognized the team’s members, Rev. Burns sat down with Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett to discuss the team’s work. 

During their discussion, Rev. Burns explained that their focus is to equip local church outreach ministries to offer Christ every day by testifying in a new way. Instead of interacting with their communities only through crisis intervention methods to meet specific needs at specific times, the Ministry with the Poor Team wants to help congregations engage their community,  build relationships and listen to community leaders in order to best address needs in the community. He noted that when an outreach ministry is revitalized in this way, the new relationships help give energy and bring new life to the entire congregation. 

During the presentation, the team announced two upcoming training opportunities.

• Opportunity 1: The Ministry with the Poor Team will offer a Racial Wealth Gap Simulation event called What Does Poverty Have to Do with Me? at The Church at Stone River in Decatur on Saturday, September 16.  Registration is now open at https://www.umcna.org/eventdetail/17527816.
• Opportunity 2: There will be an EarthKeepers training on October 5-8 in Birmingham at the Church of the Reconciler.  EarthKeepers is a program of the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church that equips US-based United Methodists to launch and grow environmental projects in their communities. More information is available at https://umcmission.org/earthkeepers/.

Watch the Ministry with the Poor Team’s presentation in the video below:


 

Throughout the summer of 2023, we will look back at the 2023 North Alabama Annual Conference and hear the inspiring stories, the invitations to ministry opportunities, and other important information shared during this year's reports and presentations.