LOCAL MISSION
OPPORTUNITIES
The people of Friendswood Friends Church care about this community, and are engaged in many different ministries that touch the lives of people locally and in the greater Houston area.
You can find members of our congregation doing everything from taking meals to the elderly, hosting homeless families in our church building, helping newly-arrived refugees adjust to life in our city, working to help combat human trafficking, volunteering at a playgroup for special needs children, taking our VBS program “on the road” to communities in need, gathering materials for recycling, and a myriad of other ways we are seeking to be good neighbors.
We would love to help you find ways to connect with others from our congregation and to use the gifts that God has given you. There are many opportunities to serve and engage weekly and seasonally. Below, you’ll find a sampling of such opportunities. If you are interested in getting involved in some way or want more information about any of our classes or local ministry opportunities, let’s connect. We invite you to contact any of our staff members to help get you plugged into the ministries that interest you.
Family Promise of Clear Creek was established as a way of helping area homeless families to transition away from homelessness to permanent housing.
Friendswood Friends Church is one of the founding churches for FPCC. In partnership with other area churches, we help to provide a safe environment that includes shelter, meals, and hospitality for these families, while they also receive support services to help them in the search for employment and housing.
We host families in our church building 4 times a year, and over a hundred different people from our congregation have helped in some way with this important ministry – by bringing food, playing with kids or helping them with homework, setting up beds, helping to raise funds, doing laundry or shopping, or just being a listening ear. It has been a joy to see the transformation taking place in the lives of these families.
For more information on getting involved, contact our church office.
Our church sends a group of volunteers to “Lord of the Streets” in downtown Houston each Tuesday. We take a shower trailer as well as toiletries and new or used clothing, and provide the opportunity for about 50 homeless men and women to be able to take a shower and change into some clean clothes.
There are many ways to help with our ministry of providing showers and clothing for the homeless – by volunteering, donating needed items, or making a financial contribution. See details below.
Donation Items Needed:
VOLUNTEER NEEDS:
(These are all flexible. You can volunteer weekly, once a month, or occasionally.)
If you have questions, contact the church office or reach out to Carter Powell. Thank you for helping to support this ministry.
With FISD Community Faith Partners, our church provides mentors and prayer partners for students in grades K-5. Volunteer mentors receive training from FISD and then spend about an hour a week meeting one-on-one with a student in need of consistent adult encouragement.
Meals on Wheels provides an important service to many elderly people in our community, delivering hot, nutritious meals to their homes each weekday.
We partner with the Friendswood Nutrition Center and other area churches to help provide this service. Along with the food, the daily contact with caring volunteers is a blessing to all those involved.
Friendswood Friends assumes responsibility for delivering these meals every eighth week. Our coordinator picks up the meals and then several volunteer teams help to distribute them. Additional volunteers are always welcome – call the church office if you would like more info about volunteering.
If you are interested in more information about having Meals on Wheels delivered to your home or to a loved one, contact Debbie Hasty at Hope Lutheran Church – 281-482-7943.
Dr. David Byrne, director of the Coalition for Hispanic Ministries, is a member of Friendswood Friends Church. Here’s more information about CHM:
CHM is an equipping organization that promotes ministry to Hispanic communities through the research and analysis of Hispanic ministry organizations that allows CHM to act as a bridge of resources and information that can be communicated motivationally in order to coordinate a comprehensive and effective Hispanic ministry effort in leadership training and church planting that integrates into existing church structures.
That CHM is an equipping organization means that CHM is not designed to be an end in itself but to provide the training and information that allows individuals and other organizations to achieve their potential in Hispanic ministries.
CHM is an organization that promotes ministry in others rather than carrying it out on it’s own. Obviously, in order to accomplish that, CHM provides ministries for ministers in order to help prepare them for more effective service. The promotion of Hispanic Ministry takes place both in the “Anglo”church context as well as among the Hispanic peoples and churches.
CHM strives to reach out to Hispanic communities and focuses on the needs of those communities. This is not an attempt to ignore or exclude other groups on the basis of race or ethnicity. It is an attempt to compensate for past neglect of this important area of ministry especially among Friends.
It is through the research and analysis of Hispanic ministry organizations that CHM will begin to make it’s contribution to Hispanic ministry. Groups from many different denominations have initiated ministries among Hispanics. CHM is needed to bring together the insights gleaned from those successes and failures in order to maximize future ministries.
The research and analysis allows CHM to act as a bridge of resources between the “Anglo” churches that are concerned about Hispanic ministries and the Hispanic communities and churches that are initiating those ministries. The “Anglo” churches bring leaders, training programs, personnel, finances and facilities to the effort. The Hispanic community brings leaders and potential leaders, finances, and the unlimited potential of communities that will be transformed by the power of Christ. When these resources are brought together there can be an explosion of ministry.
CHM acts as a bridge of resources and information that can be communicated motivationally. This is where the information gleaned from the research and analysis gains relevance. How can an “Anglo” church reach across the cultural barrier and work in the Hispanic community? What ministries should it attempt? How should a Hispanic church look different from an “Anglo” church? The answers are out there and need to be shared in an inspirational way to motivate Christians to effective action.
CHM is in place in order to coordinate the Hispanic ministries that are newly born. Whether those be educational, motivational, or ecclesiastical. Why should CHM play this almost parachurch role in coordinating ministries? Because CHM has the expertise to understand and mediate between the special needs of the Hispanic church or ministry and the participating “Anglo” partners in ministry. Until the specific Hispanic ministries have developed their own infrastructure of interchurch / interministry support within their denomination, they will need CHM’s partnership to “walk with them” in their ministry endeavor. Likewise, until the predominantly “Anglo” church leaders come to grips with the unique needs of the Hispanic communities, they will need CHM’s partnership and leadership in coordinating Hispanic ministries.
The dream that is being realized is that CHM will bring about a comprehensive and effective Hispanic ministry effort. Friends and other denominations have begun Hispanic ministries in the past. CHM knows that we can be more effective. CHM stands as a catalyst for a far reaching ministry that will bring about solutions that are far greater than the sum of the constituent resources. Ministries that participating organizations could not have imagined will be created. We find ourselves at the forefront of God’s work as servants of the Hispanic peoples.
CHM will work in leadership training so that men and women will be prepared to serve God in the Hispanic, and especially the Spanish language, context. There are few seminary level programs geared to serve Spanish speaking Christian leaders. CHM wants to find ways to meet those leaders in their own context. Spanish language education by extension through TEE, Bible seminars and “boot camps,” and accredited Bible institutes will begin to fill the leadership “gap” and help current leaders reach their potential in serving Christ. Without adequately trained Hispanic leaders any new Hispanic ministries are destined to fail. CHM’s sponsorship of the leadership training institute, “Instituto ALMA: ALcanzando al Mundo Alrededor” is our response to this key need.
And church planting is at the heart of CHM’s ministries. The church is the body of Christ. It is the chosen instrument for God’s work of salvation in the world. Church planting effort may spring out of “mother church” relationships being formed cross-culturally as “Anglo” churches are motivated to become involved in Hispanic ministry with CHM acting as a facilitator and coordinator. Other churches are formed as “urban flight” causes previously prosperous “Anglo” ministries to be left with an empty shell that can be made available to Hispanic congregations. There may be many different patterns employed in establishing the new churches but it is essential that those ministry and discipleship centers are instituted.
CHM’s purpose is not to create it’s own denomination, but to develop ministries that will be integrated into existing church structures. This does not mean that new churches and ministries will immediately be knit into the fabric of “Anglo” denominations. That would not be advisable or constructive, but neither would setting up a CHM denomination or mission. CHM seeks to serve a transitional role as Hispanic churches and ministries form their support structures in their particular denominational context.
God brought into existence our amazing Earth. It’s full of life, expansive in variety, breathtakingly beautiful and home to more than 5 million species of life, including ourselves.
We believe that God delights in His good creation and calls us to participate in caring for it, or as The Message puts it, “…work the ground and keep it in order…” (Gen 2:15)
Green Friends is a group that is committed to putting into practice the call for good ecological stewardship through the participation in conservation and environmental practices. Our hope is that, step by step, we can bring about improvement in care for the environment in ourselves, our families, our church and the larger community.
Such practice has led to the management of all recyclable products generated at the Friends Church. These products are gathered weekly and turned over to be recycled. The group has assembled ideas and recommendations for energy conservation within the church, as well as in our own homes and neighborhoods. We will continue to seek avenues to participate in ecological conservation within the greater community.
If you have a heart for caring for the environment as an obedient demonstration of your faith, please consider joining us. We could use your help! Adults, youth and children, help us as we grow and consider the wide range of opportunities! For more information, contact the church office.
The Patricia Ann and Robert Ladd Allen Scholarship is awarded annually to an incoming college freshman or a continuing college student. The recipient is chosen based on a strong Christian faith, active involvement in Friendswood Friends Church, character, leadership, academics, interest in Christian ministry, and financial need.
Applications are made available each spring on the website.
The deadline for submission of applications is May 1st. Contact Katelyn Sanders or the church office for more information.
GLOBAL MISSION
PARTNERSHIPS
World missions is an important part of the ministry of Friendswood Friends Church. Through our denominational mission organization, Evangelical Friends Mission (EFM), we help to support mission work all over the world.
In addition to our support of EFM, we have a special relationship with several missionary families who have close ties to our congregation. We support several families who are working in closed countries in various parts of Asia, and we celebrate with them as they see lives transformed by the gospel.
Each year many adults and students from our congregation work in short-term missions – whether visiting EFM fields, participating in the Saltshaker or Spring Connection Programs, or working with other mission agencies. Our church missions team helps to provide financial and prayer support for these individuals and families as they serve in different locations.
For more information about world missions at Friendswood Friends Church, contact the church office or Grace Kirkpatrick, our Coordinator for Missions.
For security reasons, specific information about ministries in China cannot be published on the website. Please contact the church office or a member of the missions team for information about this ministry.
Brad & Chelsea Carpenter
Brad, Chelsea, and their three kids serve with EFM in Musanze, Rwanda. Their children attend a local Christian international school while Brad trains leaders through Discipleship for Development. That group decided to join their efforts in farming church land. The profits from the farming are going towards building a new church sanctuary. Brad and Chelsea are excited to see movement toward new mission fields.
B&K with their three kids are ministering in Asia. This family has been serving in this mission field for 17 years, but recently they started serving in a new role as mentorship trainers for local churches and missionary teams. Their vision includes fostering relationships with the local and global body of Christ by ensuring that their teams feel equipped, supported, and loved.
DAVID AND DEBBY THOMAS (RWANDA)
Our partnership with the Thomas family goes back to 1995, when they were first appointed as missionaries to Rwanda. Working with Evangelical Friends Missions, David now works as a mission consultant, helping train missionaries and local Christians in community development ministries.
To learn more about David and Debby Thomas’ past mission work in Rwanda, watch the videos below.
