Together, we’re joining God in his plan to bring lasting change to our world.

Church Engagement

Orange County and Greater Los Angeles
Ava Steaffens
Strategic Partnership Development for California
asteaffens@wr.org

San Diego County
Jane Register
Church Mobilizer
jregister@wr.org

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You long to serve your congregation well, to effectively call and mobilize them for mission and launch them into lives committed to the most vulnerable.

How can you inspire your congregants to ‘Be The Church’ seven days a week? To go out into all the world as disciples? And how do you, as a leader, follow your call to move your church?

These are questions many of us grapple with daily. And finding the answers can often be incredibly challenging.

But here’s the good news. We understand, and we can help.

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Empowering Local Churches

At World Relief Southern California, we’ve been partnering with churches across the region for almost 40 years, helping them join in God’s plan to bring lasting change to our world.

Our passion is to create partnerships that support and empower local churches to serve immigrants and refugees in vulnerable situations.

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Start, Rise, Stand

Together, we can expand your congregation’s understanding of what it means to love, serve and learn from immigrants and refugees, as well as guide your church through a process we call START, RISE, and STAND.

START exploring what it might look like for your church to serve refugees and immigrants. We prepare an individualized plan for your congregation to learn and launch into a ministry of welcome.

RISE stands for Refugee and Immigrant Sunday Emphasis. We partner with you to design and deliver a customized event or program that will help your congregation understand God’s heart for refugees and immigrants.

STAND with refugees and immigrants by taking what you’ve learned from your RISE event and putting it into action to welcome refugees and immigrants in the community.

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7 Reasons We Believe The Church Can Change The World

We believe that when the church is mobilized to achieve its full potential, it has the power to change our world. We believe this because:

1. The local church is God’s plan to reveal his mercy, compassion and truth to people around the world.
2. The local church is the largest social network on the planet and has the ability, authority and permanency to do far more than any government institution or non-profit organization could.
3. The local church is led by local, trusted community leaders — those with an inside voice and understanding that no outside organization can bring.
4. The local church has the influence and moral authority to shape behaviors rooted in biblical values of love, compassion and justice.
5. The local church offers the greatest hope of reconciliation between classes, tribes, ethnicities and political parties, unifying people under a common identity in Christ.
6. The local church can restore dignity and bring hope to the suffering, forgotten and marginalized by reaching out to the most vulnerable in its community and answering God’s call to love.
7. The local church is empowered by the Holy Spirit to do more than human wisdom and efforts could ever possibly accomplish alone.

"Church health can’t be defined by attendance or budgets alone. Rather, by how well our congregation is loving their neighbors and coming alongside the most vulnerable in our community and around the world. As a partner, World Relief has played an important role in equipping and mobilizing our church to step into the lives of the vulnerable both here and around the world."

– Nathan Nelson, Missions Pastor