Opportunities for Community Outreach

These are recurring and ongoing opportunities to gather with other members of Christ Church Lutheran to provide support and resources for our wider community. If you are interested in participating, please fill out the form on our contact page and indicate in your message which opportunity you would like to explore. We will connect you!

  • The second Thursday of each month, we prepare and deliver an evening meal for eight at Safe House, a shelter for youth experiencing homelessness. It's a small but important way to support these young people.

  • Every Meal (formerly The Sheridan Story) provides bags of food for children in local schools in order to overcome the weekend food gap between Friday and Monday, when children are not able to participate in the free or reduced meal programs at school. We support Every Meal at Howe Elementary School by purchasing bags of food and placing them in children’s backpacks each Friday during the school year. New volunteers are always welcome.

  • Six times a year we deliver noon meals for a week to homebound people in our neighborhood. If you can drive, if you like to connect with people, if you have a heart for elderly or lonely people, this meaningful ministry can use you.

  • The third Friday of alternate months, we prepare and serve an evening meal for 40 men and women at the transitional housing ministry of our neighboring congregation Our Saviour's Lutheran. We delight in creating healthy, tasty meals, and we often cook together in the church kitchen.

  • We collect food donations in the large bin in the back of the sanctuary to supply the food shelf at Community Emergency Service. We also support CES financially and with seasonal collections of food and supplies. As Christ feeds us in his Meal, so we seek to feed the hungry with food and with justice.

  • Since the summer of 2016 we have partnered with St. John’s Lutheran Church in Northfield to sponsor and support a refugee family settling in Minnesota.

 

Committees & Task Forces

These volunteer groups meet regularly to enrich and guide the life of our congregation. We are always looking for more volunteers, so please fill out the form on our contact page and indicate in your message which committee or task force you would like to join. We will connect you!

  • Contact: Pat Baehler

  • Contact: Tim Hagen

  • Contact: Pastor Andrea Roske-Metcalfe

  • Contact: Clayton Smith

  • Contact: Pastor Erik Haaland

  • Contact: Dan Mueller

  • The preservation committee and property committee of Christ Church Lutheran both work to preserve the integrity and beauty of this architecturally significant building while, at the same time, encouraging its use for outreach.

    Projects include collaborating with the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Walker Art Center on the Saarinen Retrospective, fall 2008; promoting our application for National Landmark Status; developing and maintaining archives; coordinating a paint project for interior spaces and new interior signage.

    Contact: Tim Hagen

  • The preservation committee and property committee of Christ Church Lutheran both work to preserve the integrity and beauty of this architecturally significant building while, at the same time, encouraging its use for outreach.

    Projects include collaborating with the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Walker Art Center on the Saarinen Retrospective, fall 2008; promoting our application for National Landmark Status; developing and maintaining archives; coordinating a paint project for interior spaces and new interior signage.

    Contact: Darrell Anderson

  • Formed in 2016, the Racial Justice Task Force provides leadership in educational and advocacy work around racial equity and justice. They also intentionally engage the congregation around issues of racial justice and equity, both in the wider community and within our congregation. The task force has also collaborated with neighboring congregations, including Zion Baptist Church, Holy Trinity and Minnehaha Communion Lutheran Church. This work is critical and ongoing.

    Contact: Rachel Slater

  • Contact: Clayton Smith

  • Contact: Pat Baehler

Community Partners Fund

Following the social unrest and racial reckoning that occurred in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department in May of 2020, the leadership of Christ Church decided that one small response would be to give more generously to new and existing community partners, especially those serving communities that have experienced systemic racism.

Each year since then, Christ Church members have been invited to give a “second tithe” to partners chosen by our Mission Committee and Racial Justice Task Force. Each year, this has resulted in pledges of over $20,000 (over and above regular congregational giving). 2021 recipients of this extra giving included Zion Baptist Church and Plymouth Christian Youth Center, both located in north Minneapolis, with whom we have been building connection and mutual relationship.