St. John the Evangelist

St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church: who are they?

St. John’s is a diverse and growing parish in St. Paul. In the 1970s, they were active in the civil rights movement, promoting voting rights, staffing a women’s center, and housing refugees. They continue to follow the radical teaching of Jesus in their commitment to justice, offering a Racial Healing Eucharist every month, and working toward the repair of the world, in their community and beyond.

How can our buildings be used for the repair of our community?

St. John’s is discerning the potential for a capital campaign. To prepare, we first led a process to foster healthy relationships with money. We unpacked individual and collective money narratives and deconstructed dominant systems of power and control as they relate to financial resources.

During this listening process, we:

• facilitated a congregational-wide survey that asks questions around individual and corporate money narratives, in addition to asking questions around potential capital projects and how they connect with St. John's identity

• led a day-long, in-person retreat to explore money narratives

• interviewed community partners to understand how St. John’s is perceived and also what areas of future partnership might be ripe for exploration

• provided a report that is rooted in their faith community’s context with recommendations for future practices regarding a holistic relationship