This article appeared in the July-August 2005 issue of Presbyterians Today, in the cover story entitled “Small churches doing BIG things.”

Focusing on God’s Call
New Creation Community Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, NC

Blessed by being with the poor: New Creation Church's pastor, Frank Dew, says, "We really see our main goal as to follow Jesus." Photo by Sarah D. Freeman

Don't let the size of New Creation Community Presbyterian Church fool you.
Yes, the Greensboro, N.C., church only has about 45 members. But "those 45 really pack a punch," says pastor Frank Dew.

On any given Sunday during church services, held at 5 p.m., New Creation members might be talking about the community garden they've started, or about a group members are involved with called "People of Faith Against the Death Penalty."

"You would smell a good meal cooking and you would see a good diversity of people," says Dew, explaining that church members have a meal and the Lord's Supper together every Sunday.

"We've been blessed to have folks with different gifts who have led us in different directions," he says.

Founded 20 years ago, New Creation meets in space it rents from another Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation. Its identity is focused on a simple question: What is God calling us to be and do?

"The idea was that the church should be formed around call and not just structure," Dew says. That call "then calls all of us to shared ministry."

"Ministry is something that all of the congregation is involved in," he says.

The church has sponsored two black Presbyterian students from South Africa to attend college in North Carolina, and has developed a partnership with a church in Nicaragua. The church also has welcomed and helped refugees from Vietnam, Bosnia, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

"The gospel is both personal and social," says Dew, who was pastor of a suburban church before starting the more urban New Creation. He says New Creation also is about the business of helping those less fortunate, including the homeless and mentally ill.

"We really see our main goal as to follow Jesus. That has lead us to being with the poor and hearing from their life experience, and being blessed by those relationships," Dew says.

"Following Jesus has led us to those who are the least, the last, and the left out in our society."

—Toya Richards Hill