LOCAL OUTREACH
Our Community Involvement
Mennonite Community Church is committed to meeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of individuals and families in our surrounding community. Our goal is to show Christ's love and bring peace and justice to those whose lives we touch.
Our congregation is directly and indirectly involved in numerous community advocacy programs. Besides providing direct financial support through our annual budget, we also provide indirect support by offering cost-free use of our facilities. We believe that partnering with other local faith-based agencies, together working at bringing peace and social justice to our community, is a vital part of our ministry.
The Peace and Social Justice Team identifies areas of need in the community and encourages congregational involvement in addressing them. As one aspect of those efforts we are a member of PICO National Network and are active in the Fresno area through its local federation, Faith in Community. Several of our members are active in Peace Fresno. We have several members who volunteer at service agencies like Love, INC (Love in the Name of Christ), and West Coast MCC.
The Climate Awareness and Action Team (CAAT) is a work-group under the umbrella of the Peace and Social Justice Team. The purpose of CAAT is to provide opportunities to increase awareness of climate change. Examples might include presentations, movies, Zoom sessions and videos. A variety of formats, including Adult Education, meditations/sermons and Ministry Minutes could be utilized. Additionally, there may be opportunities within the larger community to collaborate and consult with interfaith individuals and groups. This could include symposiums and conferences.
CAAT also provides action opportunities to address the climate crisis. Actions might include energy audits of the church campus and congregational households and subsequent action steps to decrease carbon footprints. Consultations could be provided to assist with this process. Community actions might also be highlighted, including marches, protests, and engagement with political leaders to address climate change. This could take the form of letter-writing, emailing, calling, and meeting with leaders. Additional actions could include writing letters to the editor and opinion editorials in the Fresno Bee on relevant climate issues. Anyone is welcome to join the group, which currently meets on Zoom from 7 - 8:30 pm on the first Thursday of the month.
Mennonite Community Church is involved with two long-term local outreach programs:
We operate a program called CARE (Community, Advocacy, Resources, Empowerment). Volunteers regularly distribute food twice per month... once for the Community Food Bank, and once from our own Food Pantry. For more information about CARE click on the link to the right. We also have a clothes closet available on food distribution days.
Mennonite Community Church offers a community garden on our property administered by FIRM (Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries). Click on the link to the right to learn more about our connection to Asian gardeners from our community.