In 1881, a new movement began waving the banner of salvation in Jesus Christ and proclaiming the unity of every follower of Jesus Christ.

Churches were started all over the world, and in 1935, the First Church of God in West Palm Beach began.

Twenty years ago, that church made some difficult decisions and sacrifices to further God’s mission. They sold their building, renamed themselves Church in the Palms, and developed a vision to build a mission outpost that would be used every day of the week to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of people in its community. By the time the church moved to their new campus ten years later, the vision included sharing that mission outpost with other churches. They called the 16,000 square foot building the Community Life Center.

Two years after that campus opened, God began to nudge a pastor in Virginia out of a fruitful ministry. Compelled by its spiritual need and intrigued by its cultural diversity, the pastor’s family made a challenging transition to South Florida in 2012. After a few years of ministry in this unique culture, God gave that pastor, Shawn Allen, a strategic vision for Missional Unity: inspiring Christians to see God’s vision of unity, connect together, and join God’s mission together.

What happened next was . . .
a beautiful fulfillment of the dreams of a new movement in the 1880s,
the continued fruit of a new South Florida church plant in the 1930s, and
a realization of that church’s renewed missional vision at the turn of the century.

In 2017, as the new Senior Pastor of Church in the Palms, Shawn invited the 7 Christian organizations who were meeting in the Community Life Center to partner together on mission. All 7 organizations agreed to join God’s mission together!

Since then, Community Life has grown to 18 non-profit organizations
who are partnering together to give our community life
through ministries such as feeding the hungry,
raising the reading level of elementary school students,
and advocating for foster children.

Some of the partners are based out of the Community Life Center, like the 10 churches who offer worship services in Spanish, Creole, and English to our diverse community. Other partners are located around our county, and we are all on God’s mission together!

To learn more about Missional Unity and the strategic vision for Community Life, visit missionalunity.com.

If you want to learn how you or your organization
can partner together with Community Life,
contact us or join us for at the Community Life Center
for our Community Life Partners Connection
on Wednesday, October 3, 2018.

Imagine 32 people from 10 different churches telling the story of Jesus’ last week on earth with the rhythms and harmonies of jazz, blues, funk, and more!

“Spectacular job of honoring Jesus. The music was awesome and the singers were great.”      

“What a service!  What a performance!  I think Jesus was right there in the room cheering you all on! Even if you are a committed Christian, I am thinking we were (I was) sooooo moved and gave a whole new meaning to that story.”

“Incredible service. Made me very emotional!”

“It was awesome – I’m glad I was part of the service”

Palm Sunday Jazz was truly a picture of what I call missional unity. People who don’t usually worship together . . . working together to share Jesus with their community.

Here’s what it sounded like . . .

November 13: Enjoyed lunch with a friend, Rod Rivera, whose combination of superior age and athleticism inspired me to come out of my running retirement.

November 23: With my brand new running shoes laced up, ran .2 of a mile (yes, that’s two-tenths of a mile . . . I invite you to keep reading while you laugh).

December – January: Gradually increased my distance and limited my speed to prevent myself from destroying my knees like the time I tried to train for a marathon.

February 6: Now running 2 miles, I began to dream about running a 5K (3 mile race). Because I love turning normal events into opportunities for people to share their resources (Jazz Nativity, anyone?), I signed up for the Children’s Home Society’s 5K Race, committing to raise money for foster kids.

March 29: I individually texted almost every single person I had texted in the last year, asking each of them to share $5 for foster kids. It worked!

Over the next few days, the Children’s Home Society received $835 from my friends, making me the 2nd highest individual fundraiser for the event! I also convinced four other runners to join my team, which brought my MissionalUnity team total to $925.

Can you believe that? $925. Thank you to each person who shared $5! Here’s some of the ways you supported foster kids with your generosity:

• Transition home (for homeless teen moms – only 3 such programs in PBC and all the beds are always full)
• Safe Harbor (for troubled and runaway teens – they receive therapy and time to figure things out before the teen returns home)
• Bridges (a preventative program in the community to help with parenting skills)
• Street outreach (helps runaway teens)
• Gifts (to help create normalcy for the lives of foster children)

April 2: Ran the 5K. Had to stop three times in the first mile to stretch a calf injury, and actually made a wrong turn at one point (only I could get lost in a race!), but by God’s grace was able to finish 17th overall. My daughter finished 2nd in her age group (go Nellie!).

Most impressive, my MissionalUnity teammate and fellow elder at Church in the Palms, Jerry Barrantes, finished 5th overall!

Hurting my calf during the last few weeks of training prevented me from being in optimal shape for the race. On that 3rd mile, I REALLY wanted to stop and take a break. But you know what kept me going? The 800 bucks my friends had given to foster kids in honor of me finishing that race.

If you are inspired by this story to do something to help foster kids, but don’t want to run 3 miles, join us for Take Heart on May 22nd, 6pm, at Grace Fellowship and learn how you can get involved in the lives of modern-day orphans here in Palm Beach County.

I don’t know about you, but I want to help the 1200 foster kids in Palm Beach County who are looking for a forever home. So I came up with a way to motivate my friends to share their resources with these precious children.

I have spent the last few months training to run a 5K. The race is on Saturday, April 2nd, and I am asking my friends to donate ONE DOLLAR for every kilometer I am running to the Children’s Home Society. The Children’s Home Society helped 76,000 kids and family members last year . . . when you share 5 dollars, you will help provide emergency shelter, counseling and outreach, and help kids find their forever family through foster care or adoption. If you are ready to bless these kids, click on the link to sponsor me . . .

Sponsor Shawn Allen

By the way, if you love the idea of walking or running to raise money for foster kids, join our team! Register for the event and then inspire your friends to support you a dollar per kilometer that you walk or run. Here’s the link, and our team is called Missoinal Unity.

Register for the Fun Run