St. Peter’s UCC has a Heart for Mission
Photo Credit: Cliff Vaughn, Good Faith Media
The people of St.Peter’s United Church of Christ in Ferguson, Missouri know how to put their heart for justice-seeking and mission into bold action.
In February of 2024, St. Peter’s United Church of Christ announced a $200,000 gift to Invested Faith. This generous gift expands their mission, helping to support Invested Faith Fellows across the country, while also supporting three Fellows in the St. Louis area.
For the past year, St. Peter’s and Invested Faith have met together regularly to worship, to learn about shared values and vision,and to explore ideas for partnership. Invested Faith partnered with Good Faith Media to produce a video telling the story and documenting the rich history of St. Peter’s and their commitment to the Ferguson community.
St. Peter’s has been a part of the St. Louis community for decades and at their current location in Ferguson since the 1950s. Established in 1843 as a German Evangelical church in downtown St. Louis, the congregation first moved to north St. Louis and then to Ferguson, with the intention of continuing to serve the German population of St. Louis. As the area around the Ferguson location changed demographically through the 1990s, the congregation chose to remain in place instead of moving a third time.
This decision set the tone for how St. Peter’s lives together in community today. St. Peter’s mission statement reads “We seek justice as we come to know God by providing meaningful worship experiences, delivering transforming mission outreach, shepherding families and friends, providing primary groups of caring and sharing, offering spiritual life and education opportunities, and continually seeking to grow in knowledge and relationship with God, experiencing everyday life through the lens of the Christian faith.” Through the years, this mission statement has guided this congregation through the decisions they have made together, focusing on justice issues in Ferguson and beyond.
Although the membership of St. Peter’s is smaller now than in the time they moved to Ferguson, the congregation is deeply committed to the local community where they worship and live. As part of their life together, St. Peter’s has become a gathering place for this community, from festivals early on to the Community Resource Center they built and began operating on their campus in 2016. The Community Resource Center offers space to nonprofit organizations serving the Ferguson area and provides much-needed services to the community. The congregation also owns and operates St. Peter’s Cemetery, originally created to serve the church, but now expanded to include community needs. The congregation operates a warming center when the temperature is below freezing, allowing neighbors to have a safe place inside along with meals and a shower.
Through these activities, St. Peter’s has taken Christ’s call to be the church to heart. In 2022, St. Peter’s and Invested Faith began a partnership as the congregation looked to find new ways to be the church in the 21st century. In 2023, the congregation voted to make an anchor gift to Invested Faith. This initial monetary contribution to Invested Faith reflects St. Peter’s mission and vision and their long history as a justice seeking community and signals the beginning of ongoing investment by the congregation.
Rev. Patrick Chandler, Senior Pastor, St. Peter’s United Church of Christ, Ferguson, MO
Rev. Patrick Chandler, senior pastor at St. Peter’s UCC, sees the gift as an expansion of the mission of this thriving congregation. “Our partnership with Invested Faith is a natural continuation of St. Peter’s long history and witness. Through our ongoing relationship with Invested Faith, this initial gift from our endowed funds not only helps equip new models and understanding of what it means to be “church,” it also seeks to model God’s justice as an act of reparations, seeds planted in often overlooked and underserved communities. Our work together is a bold act of faith."
