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Manual on Local Church Case Study

MLC Case Study Submission

Thank you for your interest in helping us further develop the Manual on Local Church through submitting a case study. Case studies are a way to help one another understand how to use the Manual on Local Church in order to deepen our expressions of covenant and build our local churches towards faithfulness and vitality. Case studies should be specific examples of local church life shared within a specific local church context.
1.First Name(Required.)
2.Last Name(Required.)
3.email address(Required.)
4.home congregation(Required.)
5.Please describe your local church context including approximate size (under 50 members for example), age (is the church less than 20 years old? over 100 years old?), economic security (do you own a building?), dominant demographics (mostly white and retired, or first generation Samoan immigrant families, for example) and location (is your church in a small town or rural setting over 90 minutes to a major airport? is your church in a suburb of a metropolitan area?) and anything else to help understand your context.

For example: "Good Shepherd is a vibrant church in a small town between Tucson, AZ and the US/Mexico border. We are about 200 members and mostly retired white people though have a number of working families with children as well. The church was founded approximately 50 years ago and we own our building and use our facilities weekly as a community food bank. We have both a traditional and contemporary worship service weekly and stream our worship on Facebook."
6.This case study applies to:
7.What was the initiating need or event of this case study.

For example: "We hear many incorrect assumptions about migrants crossing the US/Mexico border and want to address them honestly and faithfully with words and deeds."
8.What specific part of the Manual on Local Church are you connecting to this case study? Is this applicable to a specific mark, or point of the congregational code, or task of governance?

For example: "Accompany those in our communities whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by systemic injustice, violence, poverty, and abuse; while acknowledging our relationships to historic injustices." from the Congregational Code
9.Please describe your case study in 3-5 sentences.

For example: "Our local church is located in the US/Mexico Borderlands and we have a thriving migrant and rapid response ministry to those crossing the Sonora Desert. We are working to understand our relationship with colonization and international economic policies in relating to our migrant siblings coming North. As we understand more our historic and present relationship and realities, we are better able to support our ongoing ministry."
10.Do you have any other supporting reflections?