The South Los Angeles neighborhood that is home to Saint Mark United Methodist Church is populated by a mix of people, with a majority of Black, Latino and Asian American families. It is primarily a lower-income neighborhood, and some households do not have wi-fi connection or computers beyond phones and tablets. This made the COVID-19 school shut-downs particularly challenging for students in this community.
While schools reopened and students went back to in-person learning, the technological challenges remain the same for these families. Staff and volunteers at Saint Mark had been working on that challenge before the pandemic.
When Saint Mark UMC became part of an Annual Conference Community Development Program Cohort with five other churches in the South Los Angeles area. This community development model pioneered by General Board of Global Ministries brought a cohort of churches and church leaders together to consider needs throughout their whole community and opened new possibilities with more partners.
With a Global Ministries’ grant derived from Human Relations Day Sunday funding and with the support of the California-Pacific Conference, the West District and the South Los Angeles cohort, Saint Mark moved ahead with a new computer lab, celebrating its grand opening three years ago.
The computer lab is part of a larger community center called Manna House. Saint Mark’s pastor, the Rev. Gary Bernard Williams, prefers to describe it as a “neighborhood center” being developed by the church.
Saint Mark has a gifted retired United Methodist Community Developer, Latanya Cunningham, who was part of Global Ministries’ Black Community Developers Program in the 1990s. She now works full time on the church’s community engagement projects and with the other churches in the cohort as well.
“We are very happy to be of service in having the computer lab open,” Cunningham explained. “We have been very consistent, open 9 a.m.-5 p.m., three days a week.”
Cunningham said the computer lab provides the church with opportunities to work on three of its ministry objectives: leadership development for young adults and youth; ministry with the poor; and health and wellness for those in the community. Children from a nearby elementary school also come, as well as older youth.
The South Los Angeles Mission Area, which Saint Mark is part of, was established in 2010 to create partnership among area churches. Williams became the mission area chair in 2015.
The other churches in the South Los Angeles Community Development Cohort include Hamilton, Bowen, Wesley, Faith and St. John United Methodist churches. The cohort decided to develop a computer lab in each of the churches – Saint Mark is the first to complete the project.
Each church had the opportunity to delegate a lay leader to attend virtual training offered by Global Ministries Multiethnic Ministries, led by Dr. Dana Lyles, the program’s director. The training included cohort groups from across the U.S. Both Cunningham and Williams attended from Saint Mark UMC. Williams said he was inspired by what other churches in other communities were able to do and Cunningham found it refreshing.
“Our church motto states: ‘We are a church in the heart of the community with the community at heart.’” noted Williams. “Our mission is to provide social services and programs that empower children and adults in our community to help promote respect for one another, self-determination, and to lift each other up and just be community.”
excerpt from a story by Christie R. House, consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR.
One of six churchwide Special Sundays with offerings of The United Methodist Church, Human Relations Day calls United Methodists to recognize the right of all God’s children in realizing their potential as human beings in relationship with one another. The special offering benefits neighborhood ministries through Community Developers, community advocacy through United Methodist Voluntary Services and work with at-risk teens through the Youth Offender Rehabilitation Program.
When you give generously on Human Relations Day Sunday, you encourage ordinary people to have a voice in changing the world. Give now.
