Outreach FocusHelping the community around us.

Service… It’s what a church community is all about.

At Bellevue First Congregational Church, we seek to make a real difference in people’s lives. If one clear message has come down through the centuries, it’s that Christ lived to serve others, improving the lives of those oppressed, marginalized, and left behind by society, and asking us to follow him. This is our role model. We believe God is still speaking, calling us to act with compassion and justice, and ask you to join us on this journey.

Outreach activities in our church are coordinated by the Outreach Commission, with these main goals:

1. To provide services to those in need in an effective, unencumbered, eligibility-free, non-judgmental manner while affirming the equal value of all people.
2. To provide support to social service agencies.
3. To help provide basic human needs of food, shelter, clothing,, medical care and education through the UCC Wider Mission, Church World Services, Eastside Interfaith Social Concerns Committee, the Church Council of Greater Seattle as well as other organizations.

The Outreach Commission achieves these goals through focused efforts in several areas:

• In 2006, we partnered with the YWCA to open the first homeless women’s day resource center on the Eastside. Even in a temporary space, this critical facility logged 2,000 visits and helped 225 women with counseling, referrals, and essential services to help turn their lives around. Now, known as the Angeline’s Eastside Women’s Center, the permanent facility includes a full-service kitchen; a comfortable seating and eating area; restroom and shower space; laundry facilities, private counseling and nursing offices; and Internet and computer access for skills training and other uses. Teaming together with the local interfaith community provides a full hot meals each afternoon.
• As Angeline’s Eastside Women’s Center hits its second anniversary, Bellevue First Congregational Church spearheaded another interfaith community movement to open the Sophia Way.  The Sophia Way is an overnight educational program for single homeless women that provides shelter and life skills training meant to lead women along the pathway from life on the street to life in a home of their own.  Under the umbrella of the Eastside Interfaith Social Services Committee and run by a board of interfaith members, Sophia Way is open seven nights a week, supporting women along this pathway leading them to subsidized housing with the essential life skill they need to be successful, eventually maintaining a home of their own.  This unique overnight program is housed five nights a week at Bellevue First Congregational and is hosted by Redmond United Methodist and Lake Washington United Methodist on the weekends.
• Also alongside other faith communities, we support homeless men in our area when we take a turn offering our church home as a shelter, giving them a chance to feel valued and an opportunity to be part of the life-changing program that is Congregations for the Homeless.  Approximately 35 men spend the night in our community room, are fed dinner, provided laundry and shower services, and are given the hand of friendship by our parishioners who server their meals in November.
• We also prepare hundreds of meals a year for the Crossroads Meals Program run by the Salvation Army caring for the hungry. We have joined with other churches to endorse “the 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness.”

Take a moment to imagine our Sanctuary filled every year with five times its capacity with people from every demographic group possible, each offering a prayer of thanksgiving for the way you have touched their lives. That’s making a real difference through Bellevue First Congregational Church.

Through these life-changing programs, we are lifting up the homeless, the hungry, the disabled, youth in need, all the people who need the validation that comes from knowing that there is a community that cares. How will we speak out against injustices this coming year? What impact will we make on the community? How will we continue to define and expand our community? To what dark corners can we bring light by sharing our gifts?

To get involved in planning outreach activities, please visit our Outreach Commission community page.