Outreach and Missions

Leadership

Allison Penn
ampenn@bu.edu

Esther Tambe
estambe07@yahoo.com

Outreach

The Outreach Committee was established in January 2019, a time in which we sought to create an understanding of how our congregation envisioned outreach at NPC. A brainstorming event helped provide direction to our Outreach Committee in 2019 and we had planned for the same in 2020.

However, in mid-March 2020, following the governor’s direction, NPC closed our building as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were briefly stunned, but very quickly regrouped and began developing some strategies to worship virtually. The Outreach Committee also looked at how to strengthen our website, we started a Facebook page, and we began an Instagram account to help promote events.

Here are two highlights showing the types of activities that the Outreach Committee has since organized:

Watoto Children’s Choir

On November 15, 2020, NPC hosted the Watoto Children’s Choir in a virtual premiere on our YouTube channel. Watoto is an organization that brings hope and healing to vulnerable women and
children in Uganda and South Sudan. Read more about them at www.watoto.com

These worldwide concert tours are one of the fundraisers used to support this Christian community. NPC has hosted the choir in live concerts at our church in the past. For 2020, because of the pandemic, all concerts were virtual. NPC’s virtual, premiere event, helped raise $450 in donations for this
community.

Art Show

One of the exciting outcomes of the Watoto concert is the energy among the current Outreach Committee to continue using the arts and social media to reach out into our community, a community without boundaries.

The Outreach Committee organized an art show called “Moved by the Spirit”, in which several artists contributed works inspired by their religious and spiritual understandings. These works were based in Scripture, history, or personal interactions with religious life, and were displayed at Newton Presbyterian Church and on our website during the fall of 2021.

“Membership in the Church of Jesus Christ is a joy and a privilege. It is also a commitment to participate in Christ’s mission. A faithful member bears witness to God’s love and grace and promises to be involved responsibly in the ministry of Christ’s Church.”
– Book of Order, G-1.0304 The Ministry of Members from the Book of Order

Missions

Our focus is mainly on mission with programs and events locally and abroad. Through missions we have a wonderful opportunity to create relationships with organizations reflecting our Christian values, to whom we provide our church family support. The care packages we prepared for the Waltham Community Day Care Center and also our “Change 4 Change” program which contributes to different charities are just two of the many ways in which we support our community.

We are always looking for new missions and new ways of outreach. All church members are welcome to participate. Please share with us any ideas or suggestions for mission and outreach in the coming year.

The church disperses to serve God wherever its members are, at work or play, in private or in life of society. Their prayer and Bible study are part of the church’s worship and theological reflection. Their witness is the church’s evangelism. Their daily action in the world is the church mission to the world. The quality of their relation with other persons is the measure of the church’s fidelity.
– Missions (9.37 Book of Confessions)

Missions Plan at NPC

Newton Presbyterian Church supports global missions through PC (USA) and the Presbytery of Boston. We are dedicated to supporting missions reflecting our Christian faith.

Our Missions

Change for Change

Change for Change represents a special collection that we take up for a different cause every three months or so.  Small amounts can make a big difference, as has been shown so far by donations we have made to several causes:

    * Waltham Community Day Center
    * Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
    * Woodbury Union Church, a Presbyterian church that suffered from a fire

Currently we are supporting the Community Day Center of Waltham, which provides a core range of support and services to people facing homelessness in the MetroWest area. The Community Day Center is the only homeless drop-in center in the Western suburbs. It started in the basement of the Presbyterian church in Waltham, but has grown and now has its own building at 16 Felton Street, Waltham MA 02453.




There are many ways to contribute:

  • Drop change into the jar at the back of the sanctuary
  • Use the small brown envelopes in the pews and drop them into the offering plates
  • Click ‘Donate’ on our website and choose the Change for Change option

Scott and Louise MacGregor

Scott & Louise MacGregor, members of Wycliffe Bible Translators (USA) and its sister organization, SIL-International, served in the Philippines from 1974 to 2008 where they learned and analyzed the Kagayanen (kah-guy-YAH-nen) language.

Working with a team of expats and Kagayanen speakers, they translated the New Testament and Genesis into Kagayanen. These portions of the Bible were published together and dedicated in the spring of 2008.

Scott and Louise also worked to improve literacy for the Kagayanen in their own language by developing an appropriate orthography, conducting “How to Read and Write Kagayanen” seminars and preparing reading primers, health manuals and a multi-lingual phrase book. The MacGregors have since retired.



Wycliffe Bible Translators
P O Box 628200
Orlando FL 32862-8200
www.wycliffe.org

SIL International
7500 W Camp Wisdom Road
Dallas TX 75236-5629

Mission Proposal Form

Through missions we have a wonderful opportunity to create relationships as a church family with organizations reflecting our Christian values and the teachings of Jesus Christ. We want to find out which organizations NPC members and friends are already involved with and any new ones you would like to propose our church family support. To assist us in making decisions to support a mission, we have developed the following criteria. The criteria for Newton Presbyterian Church to support a mission includes:

  • A mission should help us follow the teachings of Jesus Christ
  • Organizations should reflect the beliefs of Newton Presbyterian Church
  • Missions should be primarily focused on local communities
  • Organizations should have a clear need which NPC can meet
  • The organization should be able to provide an explanation of how financial support will be used, monitored and reported

If there is a mission you would like to propose, please download and complete this form and send it to us at NewtonPresbyterianChurch@gmail.com

Click to access missions-proposal-form-scanned.pdf