The Social Ministry Committee facilitates the congregation's outreach of the gospel, to meet human need through involvement, action, and material support.

Social Ministry

Benevolences

Through the generous giving of its members and friends, First Lutheran Church is able to give financial support to the following:

• The Sierra Pacific Synod encompasses 48 counties in Northern California and 13 counties in Northern Nevada and is an expression of the Church, empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a witness to God's creative, redeeming, and sanctifying activity in all the world.
• Urban Ministry of Palo Alto seeks to break the cycle of poverty and homeless by providing free hot meals, bags of groceries and nightly housing through a rotating emergency shelter program.
• Ecumenical Hunger Program works with families to eliminate their hunger and to break the cycle of poverty. EHP provides food, clothing, household essentials, social advocacy, and referral services.
• Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary is the "garden seminary overlooking the Golden Gate! Future pastors and educators grow here, ready to blossom in ministry all across our church and around the world."
• Mount Cross Lutheran Camp is a heavenly place for Camping, Retreats, and Summer Camps, located in the beautiful Santa Cruz mountains of Coastal California.
• South Bay Sanctuary is an ecumenical group of churches, religious groups and concerned individuals from Redwood City to Los Gatos that advocates for better local and federal policies in order to improve conditions for refugees located here and in Central American countries.
• Reconciling-in-Christ/ Lutherans Concerned is a program for Lutheran communities of faith to answer the inclusive call of the gospel by welcoming gay and lesbian believers.
• Rios de Agua Viva is our Sister Parish in El Salvador. We were introduced to each other in the early 1990's through the Sister Parish Program of the Lutheran Church in El Salvador. We received our first delegation from Rios de Agua Viva in 1997. That visit was followed by our first visit to El Salvador at the end of 1998 by a delegation of our youth led by Randy Urdahl and Mark Hurty.