Faith In Action

At St. Andrew’s, we strive to make our neighborhood, city, and world more kind, loving, and just. This work has always been at the very core of who we are. We believe that reaching out to the world in loving service and kindness is not about making us feel good, but rather is an essential moral duty and at the heart of our calling and responsibility as Christians. Our job, as scripture teaches, is to be “ministers of reconciliation.” That’s what we try to practice every day, in ways big and small. Below are some recent examples of what we - as a community - have been up to around Spokane!

Sharing Abundance From the Stands With Courage Garden

In 2024, a dedicated team of St. Andrew’s members began a community garden on our grounds. Open boxes available to anyone are located on our southwest lawn. Church members and neighbors tend to these boxes, growing vegetables for their own use. In our central test garden - managed by our garden team - produce is grown and donated to the nonprofit Growing Neighbors, which makes the food available at local farmer’s markets like the Garland Summer Market at affordable prices. Produce is also used to host community meals in partnership with Growing Neighbors and made available for worshippers to take home on Sunday mornings during harvest.

We call our garden the “Stands With Courage Garden.” In the First Nations Version of the Bible, the disciple Andrew - our congregation’s namesake - is called Stands With Courage for being one of the first people to follow Christ and his radical way of love. We envision the garden as a place where people, relationships, and community are nurtured.

BUILDING COMMUNITY WITH OUR NEIgHBOrs

In 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 our members joined with the community for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Unity Rally & March through the streets of Downtown Spokane.

Every year, we invite neighbors and friends to join us for our annual Community Barbecue on the church lawn, named in honor of our late beloved member Mary Ferguson. Mary, who lived in the Emerson Garfield neighborhood for many years and was a beacon of warmth kindness, and loved the fellowship of the barbecue.

Spreading Kindness and fighting hunger

In 2018, we installed a free food pantry on our church grounds with the help of our partners at Caritas Outreach Ministries. The message on the outside of the pantry reads, “take what you need, give what you can!” Church members and neighbors fill the pantry with soup, rice, and other foods, which are free and open to anyone in need. Our members continue to stock the pantry two to three times per week.

Our passion for sharing food and meals has manifested in many ways - in 2021, we hosted a 2nd Harvest Mobile Food Bank in our church parking lot. For many years, St. Andrew’s co-sponsored a free food and activities program for children called Stone Soup Cafe. The program was also housed at West Central Abbey and served thousands of meals to folks in central Spokane. Our Mission Administrator Tracey discussed Stone Soup Cafe on KXLY news in the summer of 2022.

Comforting The families of prisoners

St. Andrew’s provides volunteers and free event space for Kairos Outside, a ministry supporting the families of those community members who are facing incarceration. Kairos is based on the idea that when an individual is in jail or prison for whatever reason, that experience can have significant impacts on spouses, parents and relatives. Kairos exists to provide love, support, and kindness to those family members who are suffering while their loved one is away.

Our members give time and energy to charitable and social justice causes in countless other ways, both outside the church and within it. We are always exploring new avenues for activism, outreach, and social justice. If you have a new ministry idea you think our church should consider, don’t hesitate to let us know!