MISSION AND OUTREACH
Our commitment to mission comes as a response to God’s love. Knowing that our congregation is blessed beyond measure, we are called to look beyond the walls of our church and our expanse of lawn to a community and world in need. Hearing the cry of our brothers and sisters, we offer ourselves — our hands, our hearts, and our financial resources — to local and worldwide mission.
The Mission Ministry is responsible for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a broad range of mission activities, to engage the whole congregation in ministries of love, compassion, and justice in our community, the Transylvania Presbytery, and throughout our Synod and General Assembly and for providing opportunities for discussion of significant social issues affecting our church, our lives, and our world.
To fulfill these responsibilities the ministry shall:
- Identify crucial unmet local needs, select some, and develop ministries, possibly in cooperation with other churches, designed to meet those needs.
- Evaluate current ministries and financial gifts to other organizations to ensure they are consistent with our purpose and vision.
- Study all requests for support or contribution received by Beaumont Presbyterian and make recommendations to the session as appropriate.
- Engage the whole congregation, including children and youth, in mission projects; encouraging support for church related activities as well as those offered through other community based service organizations.
- Develop within the congregation an ongoing knowledge of and support for the mission engagements of Transylvania Presbytery, the Synod of Living Waters, and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
- Organize and facilitate opportunities for discussion of significant social issues impacting our community and our world as appropriate when these issues arise.
Mission Close to Home
Local mission is very important to us, as we commit ourselves to our neighborhood as well as the broader community. We share God’s love by helping to feed the hungry, house the homeless, and bolster the work of existing organizations. Local mission gives our members an opportunity to share their gifts, and to recognize the presence of Christ in others. To learn more about our involvement in local missions, please read below:
God’s Pantry
We currently deliver commodity boxes on the third Monday of each month to seniors with disabilities prohibiting them from picking up their own. We also participate in delivering Thanksgiving boxes to those in need every November. The Mission and Outreach Team also gives a yearly financial donation to the local Gods Pantry.
Lexington Men’s Hope Center
Every 3rd Saturday Beaumont members and friends serve the meal at the Hope Center. This is a great service activity for families or groups of friends, and our youth often take a turn. We also provide and serve the entire meal once or twice a year.
The Croft- Community Garden
Blessed with a grassy field adjacent to the church, Beaumont sponsors The Croft: A community Garden.
The term “croft” has its origins in England and Scotland. A “croft” was a small enclosed parcel of land located in close proximity to a house, and cultivated by tenant farmers. While the farmers did not own the land, they were entitled to keep some of the produce they raised.
This term accurately describes our garden at Church — the Lord’s house. The purpose of this garden is to bring the community together and to provide a place for people to grow their own flowers, fruits and vegetables. Individuals or groups may obtain a plot, which is about 10 x 15 feet. Water is available and the ground will be tilled.
Gardeners, or “crofters” if you prefer, will have the chance to meet other people in the community, grow their own flowers, fruits and vegetables, share the bounty with persons less fortunate and maybe even save on their grocery bill!
Please contact the church office for more information.
gleanKY
After The Croft was established a member of our church became passionate about feeding God’s people and worked with other members in the community to establish a new non-profit called “Faith Feeds”. This new organization recruited volunteers to glean fresh produce from local farms and farmers’ markets and distributed them to locations throughout the city which provided food or meals to those in need. This group grew into the organization now known as “gleanKY” whose mission is to gather and redistribute excess fruits and vegetables to nourish Kentucky’s hungry.” Beaumont Presbyterian supported them with volunteers and monetary donations which in part allowed them to hire their first administrative staff person and later to purchase a van.
You may find more information about gleanKY here.
Westminster Village
With the hope of providing housing assistance to low-income families, Beaumont joins with other Presbyterian churches to support Westminster Village, a low-income housing development on Versailles Road in Lexington. It is sponsored and supported by Presbytery of Transylvania and the Presbyterian churches in Lexington. Many refugee families call Westminster Village home.
Beaumont’s contribution is both monetary and through service and the provision of goods. A Beaumont member serves on the Christian Service Ministry, a board which sees to the non-housing needs of the residents. We collect and deliver used clothing, toys, school supplies and cleaning supplies throughout the year. We also participate in the delivery of Christmas food baskets and the Adopt-a-Family program.
Since 2012 Beaumont has hosted a Vacation Bible School (VBS) on-site at Westminster Village. We provide a light supper and an evening of stories, crafts, games and songs to the children who live there. Beaumont’s children also participate in this VBS and our older youth serve as volunteers. This program has been well-received by the families and we often have up to 40 children in attendance.
Kroger Gift Cards
Kroger and Beaumont have teamed up to create an easy and effective way for you to support the church’s mission work!
Fundraising through Kroger has gotten simpler in the past year! Instead of reloading a gift card, all you have to do is link your Kroger Plus Card to BPC to give a small percentage of each purchase to the church. For more details, go to https://www.kroger.com/communityrewards.
Around the World
At Beaumont we understand that mission is not something we do to or for another: It is an act of love that we carry out in partnership with others. In mission, we recognize that we serve God and God’s people, working alongside our brothers and sisters in various places.
Missionaries
We provide financial support to Jo Ella Holman, who is a Presbyterian Mission Co-worker in the Caribbean. As a regional liaison, she nurtures the PCUSA’s relationship with mission partners in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica. Learn more about Jo Ella here: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/missionconnections/jo-ella-holman/
ZOE
In 2014 we were looking for a new international ministry when Pisgah Presbyterian’s pastor approached us about forming a partnership to sponsor a group of children with ZOE. Their slogan is “We help Children Never Need Charity Again.” They put groups of orphaned children together to form a working group where they learn together about health and hygiene, handling money, learn a trade and build businesses. They are able to have their siblings return to school, help each other with building safe homes, start group businesses and loan money within the group. In 3 years’ time they graduate from the program, but the groups usually continue to work together and begin paying forward what they have learned to other family members and people in their communities. You may learn more about ZOE here: http://www.zoehelps.org/
A member of Beaumont participated in a ZOE “Trip of Hope” to Kenya in February 2015, and two members traveled the following year. They were able to visit with the 2 working groups we partnered with and to learn more about ZOE’s model of empowerment and returned home to be advocates by sharing what they had seen and heard. The children and graduates of the program are happy, successful, faithful, and so proud of their accomplishments.
The ministries listed above are just some of the things our church has been involved in over the past few years. We also provide quarterly donations to several organizations locally and within the state, and we support the general mission of the PCUSA.