Englewood Portal 's New Smart Urban Ministries Outreach Project
Rev. Joel Washington
Published: October 17, 2011
An important outcome of the October 15th Englewood Portal Editorial Committee meeting was the consolidation of its faith community outreach sub-committee dubbed the Englewood Clergy and Laity Concerned Caucus (ENCUS). ENCUS will specialize in inviting faith communities based in Englewood to make full use of Englewood Portal (EP) as a free gift for advancing Englewood urban ministries.
ENCUS'S immediate objective is to increase EP faith community participation from the meager handful of ministries now using the community-based website to a number far more accurately reflecting the scores of faith institutions housed in Englewood.
The new ENCUS initiative is spearheaded by EP Editorial Committee members the Rev. Joel Washington, This Far By Faith Campus Ministry-St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Church of Auburn Gresham (that serves Englewood's Kennedy-King College).
The new EP faith-based outreach initiative has two components that are ENCUS on the one hand and its long-term vision to build an Englewood Portal Network of Smart Urban Ministries (EPNOSUM) on the other.
Rev. Washington observed, "EPNOSUM reflects our view of what must finally be done to insure ongoing faith community involvement and use of EP while our immediate creation of ENCUS reflects our understanding of where we need to begin to meet our envisioned long-term goal."
Washington concluded his thought with "ENCUS is immediately emergent to joyfully and more systematically proclaim the good news of EP for advancing Englewood urban ministries."
For more information about both ENCUS as an immediate EP catalytic agent or EPNOSUM as a long-term EP work-in-progress, please contact EP Manager Rashanah Baldwin at rashanah@englewoodportal.org or Joel Washington at langston1212@gmail.com