2023 FPC Dallas Annual Campaign

with glad & generous hearts

Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. Acts 2:46-47

Day by day, the Lord is adding to our numbers. Your faithful generosity and enduring commitment to follow the Way of Jesus by breaking bread with glad hearts, praising God, and spending time together has brought us to a remarkable milestone. I’m pleased to share good news that this year our average weekly worship attendance hit a ten-year high! Reports of a church in decline are premature according to the data.

God is up to something new at the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas. The pages that follow tell the story of a church that is growing. And still, our transformation is just beginning. The witness of FPC Dallas has always been shaped by our downtown location and our heart for the city. As I write this letter, the soundtrack of a rapidly changing neighborhood plays in the background: a bulldozer beeps when backing up, a pile of just-removed asphalt groans under its own weight, a concrete saw screeches through a sidewalk, all to make room for the 16-story apartment building that will rise beside us over the next two years. The same soundtrack is playing across Harwood Street from the site of a new 4-acre park under construction. Across

Young Street, our projects at 508 and 515 Park Avenue will soon join the chorus.

In eight years, we’ll celebrate the 175th anniversary of our church. While we can’t predict exactly how our changing neighborhood will affect us, there are clues embedded in our past. Together they tell us that gathering people to follow the Way of Jesus is our mission — the reason we are downtown, at the center of it all.

I love my church. We’ve got soul. We know how to laugh, and our welcome is generous. We see God in each other and weep when the world refuses to do the same. We aren’t perfect (which would be boring!); we are unfinished.

And so, my invitation is simple. If FPC Dallas is your church home, grow with us in 2023. We need you. Increase your pledge or pledge for the first time. And if pledging isn’t for you, set up a monthly recurring gift. Day by day, the Lord is making us whole in grace and love. The amount you give matters less than your commitment to walk with us toward the cross and a future that God has already prepared.

Dear Church Family,

Peace, Amos Disasa Pastor

FOCUSED

fo·cus·ed

[foh-kuhs-d] /fŌk sd/ adjective: focused

1. We gather people to follow the way of Jesus. We save seats for people, not programs or ideas. The transformation of people is how we keep count.

FOCUSED

Together we have come through a painful and trying time. For a while, we lost the ability to be physically present with each other. But what we never lost was our focus on gathering people to follow the way of Jesus. In fact, 2022 saw not only the revitalization of our worship and care communities, but the launch of new ones.

Week over week, more and more people have returned to in-person worship. The chapel and sanctuary, which for so long echoed in their emptiness, are now filling back up. Absent faces have reappeared and hugs are everywhere you look. Lay Liturgists join our pastors, choir members, and musicians in leading services each Sunday morning.

A new year brought new faces and new ways of coming together in the form of Wood Street Worship. In a renovated and refreshed Byrd Hall, this band-led service has created opportunities for exploring faith in fresh ways.

Home Groups, piloted in the spring, were opened up to all come the fall. All sixty spots across four groups were filled. Modeled after the disciples that gathered around Jesus during his ministry, they create a welcoming and inclusive space that respects all voices with hospitality and grace.

Similarly, Disciples Bible Study, which debuted in September, Adult Sunday School Classes, Presbyterian Women gatherings, and the First Step Classes, which took place in both March and October, have satisfied our thirst for a more personal communion with each other, centered on the teachings of Christ. The Benedictine Community, too, offers such connections. This multi-denominational group which draws on the Benedictine tradition is once again in person, offering an opportunity for individual spiritual growth alongside others.

The pandemic compelled us to approach how we gather in novel ways, creating new ways the church, our members, and the wider community now come together in Christ. These continue to grow and multiply, reflecting our commitment to ensure all who want to worship and serve God through this congregation can do so.

folks greet each other, pass the peace, and worship alongside those of us in the sanctuary, even though we may be hundreds of miles apart.

To help grow this community, we created a new Production Team which, ably assisted by volunteers from the congregation, is improving and refining our ability to bring new folks into our worship community.

Our new Transportation Ministry, in partnership with AARP Ride@50+ and Feonix - Mobility Rising, which started in March, helps make sure all who need a ride to Sunday School or Sunday services have one. Home Communion, which begins again in November, brings both communion and fellowship to those who cannot come to us. Together with those they visit, volunteer teams of two break bread, read scripture, and pray.

Online Worship continues to draw people from near and far. In 2022, our sanctuary worship service reached upwards of 800 unique views each month. From members who have moved away, to those who find us online via Facebook and YouTube, people gather with us in spirit. In the comments section of these virtual commons,

The sound of shouts and laughter tell us that the youngest members of our community are once again gathering on the top floors of the church. After a cautious start, Kids @ Study and Little Kids @ Study (formerly known as Children’s Sunday School) are growing and helping our children come to know Jesus and how to live a Christ-centered life in community with others. Kidquake at Camp Gilmont in April paired faith and exploration of the great outdoors, and VBS revved back up this summer, now accompanied by the new musiccentered program JAM Camp. In the fall, the four-week class

Nurturing Children’s Spirits offered guidance for adults who want to help foster children’s spirituality, establish rituals and routines, and have hard conversations.

In 2022, the Confirmation Class was able to meet in person and together grow their understanding of what faith means to them, as well as the tenets of the church of which we are all a part. Celebrations like Youth Sunday and Senior Sunday – the latter in collaboration with The Stewpot – showed us all how vibrant, dynamic, thoughtful, and caring the future of this church is, as embodied by its young people.

AMBITIOUS

am·bi·tious

[am-bish-uhs] /am'biSH s/ adjective: ambitious

1. We are a big church that’s still growing. We believe God put us in Dallas for a reason. We do the right thing even when we don’t want to.

AMBITIOUS

Our church is as old as the city in which it is rooted. Our buildings feature classicallyinspired architecture and occupy multiple city blocks, and yet we are neither static nor rigid. Many might expect a 166-year-old institution to rest on its laurels or hew ever closer to tradition as the world grows more complex. But that’s not who we are. We are nimble and responsive and always looking to the future. We are a big church that’s still growing – in breadth and depth.

FPC Dallas is intrinsically, inexorably a downtown church. We derive our identity in large part from our location. At the same time, who we are and what we do help define and create a sense of place in our corner of the city. In 2022, we doubled down on Downtown.

As the new year dawned, we hit a critical milestone in bringing the ambitious dream of Encore Park to life when we met the terms of the challenge grant offered by Moody Foundation for the revitalization and reactivation of the 508 Park Avenue building. The funds now in hand will mean that 508 Park, the anchor of Encore Park, will begin its process of transformation as the year comes to a close.

Across the street from 508 is 515 Park. We hoped that the century-old building that occupied the site might be saved and re-purposed; however, this was not feasible. In February of this year, demolition of the structure was complete, and planning for what would replace it began. A 515 SubCommittee was formed, and in the early fall a development advisor and broker was engaged to represent FPC Dallas to potential developers and advise the sub-committee as it prepares a recommendation to the Session and congregation. Central to the sub-committee’s work is evaluating the impact of future development on The Stewpot ministries.

So much of what we are about is nurturing growth and change in ourselves, as well as the world in which we live.

One way we accomplish this is through the FPC Dallas Foundation. Since its inception, the Foundation has grown its corpus and giving capacity – principally through generous bequests made by those who have come before us – so that the church’s boldest and most ambitious projects could come to fruition. Each year, the Foundation helps cover a large portion of the costs of the church and makes grants to community organizations that are working to make a tangible difference in our world. In fact, meeting the challenge grant that enabled 508 Park to realize its newest incarnation as an engine of communitybuilding was due in no small part to the generous support provided by the Foundation.

A force for growth and change in the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals and in the life of our city for almost 50 years is our community ministry The Stewpot. Always responsive to the needs of its clients as well as those of the community, in 2022 The Stewpot launched a new Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Program and a Career and College Readiness Program.

PSH serves as a complement to The Stewpot’s Rapid Rehousing Program and supports our unhoused neighbors who have more complex needs and higher barriers to independent living. Within its first month, it had already enrolled 10 clients. The Career and College Readiness Program is designed to help students who are graduates of the Children and Youth Program improve their professional prospects and connect to a network of mentors and contacts in their chosen field.

This year, the Developmental Day School started making its dreams reality. An ambitious strategic plan set out four priority focus areas: (1) achieve Texas Rising Star level 4 certification by improving facilities, training, and fostering excellence in every area; (2) become a first-in-class employer by offering improved compensation, benefits, career opportunities, and work/life balance; (3) scale programs and service by increasing the school’s physical footprint, enrollment capacity (including students receiving financial assistance), and programing; and (4) build a sustainable funding model by leveraging campus coordination and tapping new revenue streams.

UNFINISHED

un·fin·ished [uhn-fin-isht] /, n'finiSHt/ adjective: unfinished

1. We bless arrivals and departures of people. Community is defined by a spirit of belonging rather than membership. Our past is prologue.

UNFINISHED

Just as each of us learn and grow as we move through life, so does the congregation flow and evolve, together and apart, creating and re-creating ourselves as we go. Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda. (The church reformed, always reforming.) Our past is prologue.

Our church is where we come together to mark our most momentous life events. We celebrate and we mourn in community with one another. We hold space and embrace. We accompany each other through life. We are transformed by God’s love and by our relationships with each other.

This year, weddings, baptisms, adoptions, births, and memorials were marked again in person, and, at times, streamed online to allow friends and family who couldn’t be present to share these precious moments with loved ones.

A new partnership with Faith and Grief Ministries brought a monthly multi-faith support gathering to Anderson Common. And Stephen Ministries, a one-to-one lay leader caring ministry which offers Christ-centered care to those experiencing life difficulties, was again able to meet faceto-face. In November, we hosted an All Saints’ Service of Remembrance for our unhoused friends who passed away in the last year. Caring Link volunteers have ensured our homebound members remained very much a part of our community through phone calls, cards, and, when possible, visits. And we cannot forget to mention the great folks who have kept the Care Kitchen meal trains running to support individuals and families dealing with major life events.

From Table for Ten, which brought together new and prospective members each month at the Disasas’ home, to a new Young Adults group that launched a Summer Devotional Series, our time together has been marked by a desire to be intentional about how we grow and evolve during our time on this earth.

Even Summer Choir – a come-as-you-are, noexperience-necessary opportunity to raise our voices in praise – reflects our openness to try something new. To join, we just have to show up and be willing to give it a shot. Now in its second year, it’s a reminder that we don’t have to know all the answers and we don’t have to get it right every time. Instead, we discover it’s enough to get to share the experience.

This was also the third year of This Is Crucial, which fosters transformation through connection and dialogue about some of the most difficult and pressing topics that challenge us as individuals and a community. After the Conversation offers the chance to dive deeper into those topics with a small group of people who are also interested in racial justice, equity, and healing. These groups create space for discomfort, risk-taking, bravery, accountability, respect, confidentiality, hope, and grace. Our Elders completed two anti-bias training sessions led by outside facilitators. Other speakers were invited to share their knowledge and experience with us on issues that ranged from gun violence to the generational impact of the Holocaust.

Each of our missions – each of the ways in which our church is in the world – is about embracing the “unfinished” within ourselves. From the smallest and youngest among us to the folks who have lived decades on the streets, all can find their place here.

Every day, the Day School helps our young children learn how to be in this world. Sharing, caring, singing, praying, counting, discovering – our students are guided by accomplished and dedicated staff who partner with parents to bless our community with bright, kind, curious, connected, and wellrounded humans. 2022 has seen a healthy rise in enrollment and a five-fold increase in the number of students who are receiving Child Care Assistance. A STEAM lab will be open by the end of the year, and a new infant classroom has recently been opened. A new director of curriculum and instruction has been hired and the number of degreed staff increased this year by 40%. What is more, Dallas County College is providing scholarships for Day School teachers to cover the cost of their Child Development associate degrees and bachelor’s degrees.

The Stewpot meets people where they are, often at life’s lowest point. Its staff reaches out a hand to say, “We will walk alongside you. We will help you change your life for the better.” Through The Stewpot, we helped more than 50 folks become housed in 2022. We helped parents feed their families – more than 900 adults and children each month. We helped 132 students – including 39 scholarship students – further their education. We helped artists realize their creative potential, including exhibiting and selling their work at The Lighthouse, NorthPark Center, and online. We helped make sure more than 6,000 mental, dental, and physical health care visits took place by offering space to community partners. By serving up some 700 meals a month, we helped our friends experiencing homelessness get their nutritional needs met. We do it out of love, because we are all on a journey. We are all in this together. We are all unfinished.

2022 was the year the promise of Encore Park became reality, when its past became prologue. Already a place that gathers people from all walks of life in the 508 Amphitheater and Community Garden, Encore Park will, this winter, take another step closer to actualizing and activating the full block in which it sits. Restoration and revitalization of the 508 Park Avenue building will begin. Homage will be paid to its storied past, and its spaces re-imagined for gatherings, performances, worship services, and art exhibitions to come.

GENEROUS

gen·er·ous [jen-er-uhs] /'jen( )r s/ adjective: generous

1. We welcome all people that welcome all people. You were formed in God’s image, not ours. Our preference is for more people we don’t know yet than a few we do.

GENEROUS

As a community, we strive to live into abundant welcome and practice radical empathy. Each one of us has our story, our strengths, and our struggles. Our church is a family of choice, an elective coming together that nurtures the spirit. We hold and make space for all people that welcome all people.

2022 allowed us to fling open the doors – not just metaphorically – to welcome new friends who, like those for whom FPC Dallas is already home, are seeking to deepen their faith and grow their understanding of how to live into God’s plans. Since it launched in the spring, Wood Street Worship, which asks us to embrace new ways of worshiping and building community with others, has brought more like-minded and like-hearted folks into our fold. Beginning in the fall, the United African Presbyterian Church congregation joined us to worship in the Sudie George Chapel on Sunday mornings while they seek a new permanent home. Our church world has been enriched by all the new faces among us.

As our numbers have grown and we have begun to gather more regularly and freely, our Hospitality

Partners have been there to offer welcome and guidance, answer questions, and emanate love. Hospitality as spiritual practice allows us to share the abundant love of God with others.

Presbyterian Women – as vibrant as ever – have through their PW Projects extended care and comfort to the young patients at Children’s Health. Once a month in Blakley Hall, they have gathered to stuff and sew pillows and finger puppets to ease the fears and calm the hearts of children who find themselves in the hospital. Their efforts over the past year have resulted in the creation of more than 2,000 pillows – in the shape of animals, worms, pumpkins, hearts, and Christmas stockings – and 4,500 puppets. Likewise, Stitch and Pray volunteers have offered the gift of prayer shawls, blankets, and other similar items woven with a prayer that individuals going through difficult times will receive peace and comfort. Each of these items, crafted with love and care, is an embrace.

Our congregation has also offered gifts of welcome to individuals and families who are beginning lives in new homes and new communities. Sunday School classes and families have assembled Welcome Home Baskets for participants in The Stewpot’s Rapid Rehousing Program so newlyhoused residents have what they need to make their new apartment their home. Through our Refugee Ministry and in partnership with Faith Forward Dallas and Oak Lawn UMC, volunteers have created and delivered manna bags for asylum seekers brought to Dallas from the border. We also look forward to walking alongside a new family that has been granted asylum as they build a new life here in Dallas. Furniture is being collected, and we hope to connect with our new friends soon.

We are always happy to roll up our sleeves and get to work, and this year offered plenty of opportunities. Our Youth and their parents stuffed Easter eggs for Bonton Farms’ Easter egg hunt; we held an intergenerational Service Day at Camp Gilmont; and we volunteered at The Stewpot assembling groceries for food distributions, handing out mail, and dishing up meals at the Second Chance Café. Handy Hands volunteers have shown up with tools, skills, and smiles to help those who need minor home repairs or maintenance.

Our spirit of welcome extends to our community partners. This year our Music Ministry’s Performing Art Series featured performances by the Verdigris Ensemble, Kim Quartet, and SMU Choirs, bringing members of the larger community to our campus. The Dallas Street Choir continues to practice every Wednesday morning in the sanctuary, while

mobilizes local chefs to serve hot, nutritious meals to people experiencing humanitarian, climate, and community crises.

This year, The Stewpot added to its extensive roster of community partnerships, forging new relationships for the benefit of those it serves. Included among them are Goodwill for connecting clients to job opportunities, the Veterans Administration for housing assistance for veterans, Care Center Ministries for client referrals for vital records assistance, and Door Dash for food distribution deliveries to approximately 50 households that lack transportation to pick up groceries.

Junior Players used church space for rehearsals this summer. Our friends at Break Bread, Break Borders have used our kitchens to prepare food for their social impact catering business, and Stewpot partners Streetside Showers come to the flat lot twice a month to offer showers and clothing to anyone needing them. After a successful pilot project this summer, we will be partnering with Dallas Youth Mission Co. to offer a place for youth from all over the country to stay while in town for service projects. In an effort to assist individuals and families displaced by the war in Ukraine, we contributed $50,000 from the Blakley Fund to World Central Kitchen, which

1. When we gather together, we hear the voice of God. We like each other’s company. Curiosity is a silent prayer.

PLAYFUL

In 2022 we learned that Amos has quite the collection of kicks. It was also the year cookies became part of worship. In the sanctuary, Byrd Hall, Anderson Common, and the Amphitheater; at Mo-Ranch, Montreat, and Gilmont; at homes, restaurants, and stadiums – we have sung, we have hugged, we have brunched, we have laughed, and we have danced. We have gathered together and have heard the voice of God.

It’s impossible to reflect on this past year without marveling at all the ways music has brought us together. Wood Street Worship is all about the music. Each Sunday, an array of talented musicians takes the stage and leads us in songs both comforting and inspiring. Meanwhile, upstairs the Children’s Music Program helps children explore the wonder and joy of music-making. At the 11 AM service, we experience the power and resonance of the sanctuary organ and the range and beauty of the Chancel Choir voices.

Chancel Choir, accompanied by percussion, guitar, upright bass, and more. The Encore Park Amphitheater was also hopping. Spring Break Wind-up featured South by Southwest bands NOCONA, The HawtThorns, and Desert Hollow, and British artist Cam Cole of Ted Lasso fame held a concert for both Stewpot clients and the greater community this summer.

The Amphitheater was also the location of our Palm Sunday picnic and Easter egg hunt. Many a Sunday afternoon, it hosted Yoga in the Park. In the fall, we were visited by goats and donkeys and a whole passel of stuffed critters for the Blessing of the Stuffed Animals and Petting Zoo. (There was cotton candy!)

Easter Brunch, the All-Church Picnic, and Roll into Fall brought us together for meals and fellowship, while First Thursdays Women’s Gatherings, Young St. Seniors, Table for Ten, and the Young Adult

Group’s dinner excursions allowed us to connect in smaller groups. And then there were Late Night Out, and fun outings to the ballpark and Top Golf.

This year, we traveled together again. The Stewpot’s Children and Youth Program took members of Venturing Crew on a college tour, we sent a contingent to Montreat Youth Conference, and bunches of us made the trek to the Hill Country and Mo-Ranch for the All Church Retreat.

But music is not just for Sundays. Those of us lucky enough to find ourselves on the third floor during the week are treated to the sound of tiny voices coming from the music room singing everything from “Mary Had a Little Lamb” to “Jesus Loves Me.” The partnership between our Children’s Music Program and the Day School not only enhances students’ learning and enrichment – including the chance to learn about Samul Nori Korean traditional music – but also offers opportunities for play and joy.

This past spring, we were treated to the Music Ministry’s performance of Misa Criolla, Ariel Ramirez’s innovative and influential mass based on Argentinian folk rhythms. The work was performed by our own

Speaking of playfulness, The Stewpot’s Meal Services and Volunteer Services teams are a rollicking good time. From Christmas in July, to State Fair-themed meals, to Michael Haynes’ collection of flags-for-every-conceivable-occasion, to the antics of Stewpot Rob on social media (who, by the way, leads a team that recovers more than 700,000 lbs. of food a year), these good folks and our teams of volunteers together make sure our neighbors in need have plenty of nutritious food – and show us how to have a great time doing it.

Each of you has been a wonderful blessing as a part of the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas family. During the last two years, our fellowship remained strong and steady financially despite the test of the pandemic. In 2021, we topped $1.7 million in Stewardship commitments, which was the highest total of the previous five years.

During last year’s Stewardship campaign, we topped $1.7 million in Stewardship commitments once again. For the Fiscal Year ending 2021, you fulfilled 93.4% of your pledged commitments.

Like last year, through September 2022, annual campaign giving is over $1.2 million, which puts us on pace to exceed expectations.

Financially, our campus is in a very solid position.

For 2021, our church posted a cash surplus, which allowed us to provide each campus staff member with a small end-of-the-year cash reward as a show of appreciation for enduring the challenges presented by the pandemic. Through the first nine months of 2022, the church is on pace to have a balanced budget or small surplus once again.

While we incurred debt to acquire the property, the current value of the property is well in excess of the price we paid.

Our proposed 2023 budget is one that reflects growth. Our fellowship has invested not only in buildings and property over the last few years, but also in worship, ministry, and communications. In 2023, your gift will also go towards FPC’s participation in PC(USA)’s Special Offerings.

It was exciting to see church programming back in full swing after two years of a relatively quiet building. While the pitter-patter of feet in the fourth-floor gym and music from the summer music camp resulted in more noise, the activity is what you invest in and what staff enjoyed hearing for the first time in two years.

We are focused. We are ambitious. We are unfinished. We are generous. We are playful. We are all these things and more. Together we are realizing God’s plans for ourselves, our church, and our world. We are transforming our community through love. Now is the moment to make a commitment, to give with “glad and generous hearts,” to grow with us, and ensure our church home has the means to fulfill its mission in 2023 and beyond.

Our Meal Services and Day School are in sound financial positions, on pace to post surpluses for 2022, and The Stewpot is continuing to assist our unhoused neighbors with housing options through its grant funding. Finally, we are excited by the purchase of 515 Park Avenue. This purchase gives us input over who will be our future neighbor.

As we move prayerfully into the end of another year and towards the beginning of a new one, our financial focus is on stewarding your gifts to invest in growth. Investing in growing who and what is currently here and following the way of Jesus by ministering to those who are without strengthens our servant-focused fellowship here at First Presbyterian Church of Dallas.

Dear FPC Family,

God Bless, John Joe Sr. Executive Director & Chief Financial Officer

Pledge to give in support of all the ways

FPC Dallas will be a force of change, growth, and inspiration in the lives of our congregation members and neighbors in 2023. We invite you to fill out the enclosed commitment card and mail it back to us, bring the completed card with you to Commitment Sunday, Nov. 20, or make your commitment online at fpcdallas.org/2023.