Each month, the Justice Takes Courage podcast explores national and international social witness issues and actions in response to today’s most pressing social concerns. Hosted by Bishop Julius C. Trimble, General Secretary of The General Board of Church and Society, the podcast brings together United Methodists and interfaith partners to share ideas and perspectives that drive faith-based advocacy and legislative action.

In this episode, Rev. Allison Mark—senior pastor at Faith United Methodist Church and president of the Church and Society Board—joins us to talk about how communities of faith are leading wildfire recovery efforts in Southern California. She reflects on her own call to justice work, the Board’s current priorities, and how churches can engage in transformative advocacy using GBCS resources.

Welcome to Justice Takes Courage, a podcast hosted by Bishop Julius C. Trimble, General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Justice Takes Courage podcast.

I'm your host, Bishop Julius Trimble, the General Secretary for the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church.

My guest today is Reverend Allison Mark, the Senior Pastor of Faith United Methodist Church. My guest today is Reverend Allison Mark, the senior pastor of Faith United Methodist Church in Torrance, California, and the board of directors president for the general board of church and society. Today, we are going to talk about the Southern California wildfire recovery efforts where people of faith are engaged, as well as the social justice work supported by our board of directors. Welcome, Pastor Allison. How are you?

I'm doing well. Aloha, General Secretary Trimble and all of our faithful justice seeker listeners today. I am doing well. It is sunny out here in California.

Well, they tell me it's always sunny in California.

Sometimes smoggy.

This past March, your church hosted the Church and Society Board Meeting in Southern California.

I saw firsthand, along with the other board members, the damage of the recent wildfires, including the loss of two United Methodist churches. of the recent wildfires, including the loss of two United Methodist churches.

While there, I was impressed with the recovery efforts underway led by people of faith, lay persons, clergy persons, community stakeholders.

Can you just share with our listeners an update on how the wildfire recovery efforts are going in the Los Angeles area? And what is the collective attitude and spirit of the community today? Thanks for asking and checking in with us,

General Secretary, out here in California. For those who continue to follow the news,

we're in May already, and it is four months later after the fires. It was a blessing to be able to host our board and agency back in March so that we could actually bring to light the plight and the hardships of those that are going through as victims of the fires. There are two different kinds of fires, though. There was one in Palisades and one in Altadena, and both of the people who live in these towns have really struggled. But the recovery efforts have been really different, you know, for each community in the same way that a year and a half ago, Lahaina in Maui, Hawaii, had the same kind of fire that just raged through an entire town and entire city. Lahaina is still rebuilding, you know, they just started rebuilding efforts with our Lahaina United Methodist Church just this year. And so to watch how Palisades just jumped into action and had Mayor Karen Bass just had an emergency executive order for the city of Los Angeles. And so they were cleaning the grounds very quickly. And one of our churches,

community, the United Methodist Church in the Palisades had burned to the ground, as did Reverend John Shaver's home, his family home that they were living in. And so we continue to pray and work with the community church and also Reverend Shaver as they are rebuilding efforts in their communities.

And then Altadena had their fire. And so that the church had burned down. The parsonage actually was spared just a couple of houses above the church. But Reverend Andre Wilson and his wife, Heather, were a part of the rebuilding efforts and are a part of the rebuilding efforts for their community in Altadena, which unfortunately, because it's unincorporated, they were slow in rebuilding, slow in cleaning the ground, slow in cleaning the lands. And as fellow United Methodists and other communities of faith, but also just community friends, watching these fires and the effects of it,

and the slowness of the rebuilding efforts has really been hard. And so we've tried, everyone is waiting on bated breath when they can go in and help, actually physically help. But we are still continuing to ask for support from our CalPAC fire fund, and as well as just thanking the board for really paying and giving interest to both of the communities when they were out in March.

We were grateful to hear the voices that shared from the communities.

We have, there's actually a documentary coming out, Bishop Trimble. I don't know if you remember seeing the sizzle piece that they actually, Eric Dyson shared for the first time when our panel spoke at Crenshaw United Methodist Church. They had, the documentary is called Eaton, A Tale of Two Fires, and really talking about the racial disparity, the economic injustices that are happening, the environmental issues in the community, but as well as how it was generational wealth in Altadena.

So houses passed down from generations versus a lot of people who just rented and owned or people who it's been really hard to see the destruction, but to see the community stand by each other and our different communities of faith stepping up like our mission areas continue to donate and support these churches is heartening. One of the things that I recall hearing from the bishop was that while people really want to be helpful, sometimes in our efforts to be helpful, Pastor Allison, you know, people send and give things that aren't really needed. And what we were told what was really needed was cash, was money to be able for people to buy the things that people actually do need, as opposed to people stocking up on winter clothing and so forth and dropping them off at places that then you have to turn around and have to figure out what to do with these donations that are not really apropos.

Absolutely, right? There's some people who are saying, you know, we want to donate. Here's some clothes. Here are couches. And here's church furniture. Here are things that you might need.

And the response is, where are we going to put it?

Right, we don't have a building.

Yeah, they don't even have a building.

So I think for us as people of faith, it is being very conscientious and sensitive to the needs of anyone who needs support.

And I think we often make a mistake as people of faith, wanting to help all the time, saying, oh, this is what you need, or assuming that's what you need, instead of asking people what they need. And I find that in the years of going on missions and doing ministry and fact-finding groups, over and over again, that is our mistake as people of faith. We think that if we throw things at you,

it'll make things better as opposed to saying,

how do we work beside you and how do we work with you?

And I think we can learn from those lessons and be partners instead of charitable donors and make ourselves feel better about working side by side versus here's a handout for you. That's not how we're asked and how we're called to live as neighbors.

I know one of the priorities for the general board church and society relates to climate justice and climate concern.

You made a reference to environmental results from the fire, the disparity.

Can you speak to that? Some people might not understand how this also has environmental implications and some communities pay a higher price than others.

Oh, definitely. And I think no one ever expects an entire town to burn down. I think forest fires are nothing new to California, but we're seeing them all over the world, aren't we?

I mean, I grew up in Hawaii and the drier side of the island always had brush fires.

But at the same time, climate change is real.

And for anyone who denies that it's a fallacy, they're absolutely incorrect because we know it by the weather changes. We know it by the sheer fact of a fire may have started either human-made or an accidental fire or an electrical spark.

These nature-based environmental disasters, it really does only take a spark. And because of the nature of the winds at that time that just rushed through the Palisades, rushed through Altadena. It was the Santa Ana winds that just came through and carried those fires far beyond what anybody could have ever imagined. But if we're seeing that now, can we imagine if we're not taking care of our environment, not taking care of our electrical poles or even just fires in general when it's dry,

we're going to start to see more problems. And then what happened after Bishop Trumbull, I don't know if we talked about it, but right after the fires, it rained, it poured. And so all of the land that had been burned and charred became landslides and flooding because there was no trees to hold it down.

There was nothing to keep the roots in.

And so as part of our work as church and society is the overall creation care.

And I really, I think what we do as part of church and society is to help people resource and find that kind of information of what they can do locally and feel empowered to do that because they have the backing of their United Methodist Church, you know, in their back pocket.

And I love that about being a part of such a bigger family of faith that has the experience,

the wisdom, the resources to share that. And church and society to me is one of my favorite places to go to as a pastor,

as a United Methodist, as a person of faith. I'm like, what are we doing in the world to make it better? And so this is the place, man. Well, you're the president of the board of directors for the General Board of Church and Society. Help our audience understand the work of church and society board of directors. And what would be a couple of priorities that you see for church and Help our audience understand the work of Church and Society Board of Directors.

And what would be a couple of priorities that you see for Church and Society, both from the board's perspective, as well as what the world is calling for the church to do now?

And tell a bit of your own story, if you would, about how you became such an advocate for social justice. I know you have a long trajectory of history in your family in terms of the church and social justice.

Well, thanks for asking that question.

For me, it is rooted in my family life.

Absolutely.

I'm a pastor's kid, so I'm a PK.

And my four children are double PKs, so my husband is also a pastor.

And I didn't realize until I was in seminary where I was able to articulate and put into words the work that I had been doing the whole time. My dad is a community organizer and a pastor by trade.

He helped to start organizations in Hawaii, Faith Action for Community Equity, FACE. And as a kid, my dad always dragged us along. And so we went to union meetings, you know, we counted votes and we went to organizer trainings and places where we asked for funders and we would go big and, you know, go big or go home. We'd say, if you're wanting to be a partner with us, then we need you to really be a partner. And if you just want to give us a couple hundred dollars, then we'll come back next year when you're ready to be a partner. Like those were the kinds of lessons that I was learning as, as a young, young adult, as a child. But when I went to seminary, I started like,

I had classes with Bishop Karen Oliveto and Reverend Jeffrey Kwan,

who are really strong United Methodists,

even before they were in the places that they are today.

And they would close classes and say,

you know what, you can read and study tonight, but go out there on the streets and march because your voice is needed out there. And so when we would protest against wars, when we would protest against immigration deportations, it meant something to me greater because it said that I am a person in this world. I am a person of faith. And using that voice is that prophetic voice that we're called to. And I think everyone has that.

I think we're all called to speak to injustice and to speak to oppression in the world.

And so for me to be able to go out in the streets and use my voice and protest, but also to invite other people to be in that meant that we weren't alone. Right.

And so I had the fortune of first meeting Reverend Phil Lawson, and then later working with Reverend Jim Lawson when I served at home in United Methodist Church. It was this broad experience of how do we do civil disobedience in a nonviolent kind of way? How do we teach people to speak up and share what they're called to do as justice seekers and faith seekers, but also to be in our civic engagement to call our churches to that attention? Sometimes we want to separate church and society, and that makes no sense.

And the Methodist church has always known that it makes sense to go together.

known that it makes sense to go together. You asked General Secretary about the work of our board,

and we're comprised of board members from all over the world. You know, like I have to wake up at 6am for our meetings because we have to have everyone at the table. And so if we're going to go all the way to Africa and to Europe and the Philippines, where we are a worldwide board of justice seekers,

social justice, people of social justice, hearts and people who feel strongly about peace and justice and reconciliation. But sometimes it feels like, well, it's just, you know, a few of us on the board. What can we do? We also represent just like our legislators, our congresspeople, we represent our people. And I think our job, I believe our job as board of directors is to actually not keep the information to ourselves. We have to go back to our local homes, to our districts, to our conferences,

to our jurisdictions that elected us, and we have to share the information. If we stop at going to a board meeting, then we are not doing our job. We're not being the board of directors. We're not sharing the resources that church and society could be sharing with others. And I'll tell you,

Bishop Trimble, the reason why I got engaged with church and society so early and so right at the beginning of my career of vocation as a pastor was because the general board with church and society so early. And so right at the beginning of my career of vocation as a pastor was because the general board of church and society loves to sponsor young clergy. And so I was coming to programs and invited to participate in church and society programs in DC. So I got to see the work. I got to know all of the staff. And that was nearly, dare I say, almost 20 years ago.

And I went to Palestine with the general board of church and society.

They offered a young clergy and spouses and whoever wanted to attend a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

pilgrimage to the Holy Land. And there we really worked with the Society of Biblical Studies,

our United Methodist missionaries, and saw the entire landscape. It wasn't just going to Israel or wasn't just going to Palestine, but it was visiting all of the sites and the people who live. We visit Bedouins and we visited Palestinian refugees and the IDF soldiers that were there that, you know, really moved my heart to say that, you know, we recognize human dignity and often things we've done harm the people who live on this land. And it changed my life. Church and society has affected my life in so many ways that I just feel indebted and feel this is one of the best ways that I can serve our United Methodist Church through this civic engagement, through our faith in life, through our social education and advocacy. This is the way we do it as partners in faith, right?

Your passion really shows, and I guess that's probably why you didn't hesitate when you were called upon to become the president of the General Board of Church and Society. I know it's not a position you campaigned for, but because of your passion for this work and your long history, were you surprised that you were called upon to be the president of the board? Oh, absolutely. Of course I hesitated, General Secretary. It was frightening to think that I was like, that's a big job. And I have watched my predecessors do it in such good faith as following Bishop Sally Dick. It was, she was a model and a mentor for me in a way that when she said, when you need help, if you need to be called,

if you need to call me, please do general secretary, former general secretary, Susan Henry Crow.

I called her and I said, what do I do? And she said, you take it. Of course. And I think sometimes when we hesitate and we ponder, it's that extra nudging that is given. And of course, I wanted to work with you, General Secretary,

you to have been with you in our search process. And also, in watching the work you've done,

I've been getting I told you when I met you, I said, I've been getting your emails for years. And you said, really? I said, I was getting your HIV AIDS ministry newsletters and with diligence for years. And so I'm, I'm grateful to work with this board for her amazing staff. Say it again. Amazing staff. Amazing. Like this is a staff that, that knows what they're called to do. Absolutely. See their work is so vital as ministry to the world. And that is, if people don't see what's happening behind the curtain, they really, we should pull it aside and highlight the workers and the work that we do on the ground, but also here in cyberspace and in the world, because I do believe that we're making a difference and we can make a difference.

You bring a particular, I think, a particular perspective, Pastor Allison,

that's really needed for a moment like this.

And you often share this in the meetings.

Your perspective as a pastor of a local congregation in an annual conference,

and you know this, you know this from your long time serving on the board,

but also just being United Methodist, from your long time serving on the board, but also just being United Methodist.

Sometimes there's a big disconnect between local churches and our general boards and agencies. And tell us about how your church, Faith United Methodist Church, engages in social justice efforts and how local congregations maybe can help us or maybe we can help, you know, close that chasm, that divide between general agencies and local churches.

And what we do, actually what we do is really to help empower, educate and support.

Because people might think we have 30 people working here in New York and D.C.

And that's actually not the case. We don't have a huge staff.

Well, that's because a staff is supposed to be us.

That's because we're supposed to be doing that work of church and society work within our local congregations and beyond, right?

And I appreciate that perspective, General Secretary Trimble. I think it's something that we often don't see.

And it's something that I thought about when I was in seminary. And I think about when I think about Jesus and his disciples going up on the hill to pray. And then they meet Moses and Elijah. And they're like, let's build, let's build some shrines. Let's build some temples. Let's camp out here and stay here forever. And Jesus is like,

no, it's time to go back down the hill. And I think that's the disconnect is sometimes when we are engaged steeply into academics and academia, we, our heads are in the clouds. And then we don't really recognize what to do in practice and how to go back down the hill.

And then I think for church and society or for say other agencies, like, you know, we get caught up in having to do the bureaucracy and to do the work. But I love, like, I mean, we're just talking and whenever this comes out, but today they elected a new Pope. You talk about Pope Francis. And when you hear about the word that Pope Francis did was the reason why he was beloved by people was because he walked with the people, even as the Pope.

You know, when it came time for a prayer, you know, people pray for me, Pope, Pope goes pray for me too.

And so I hope this new Pope, Pope Leo, has the same kind of thinking in the same way that I pray that bishops and general secretaries walk on the ground.

Bishop Trimbo, you walked on the ground with the people in California, in all the sites that we visited when you came. I think that is what is the reminder for us is to how do we reconnect?

And then in our local churches, how do we use the resources that you're giving us?

How do we use all of our general board of church and society staff to come out and speak or to join on a webinar that we're doing?

This is an agency that puts out amazing programs.

And if people are missing out, like how do we get them on board?

Because like the book studies are fabulous.

All of our engagements and our witness for peace or justice and compassion, leaders from all the conferences join together every month on weekly calls,

monthly calls. How do we get people excited about that? We have to share it.

You can't hold it to yourself. You have to share it.

You're already answering my final question was about energizing. You're sharing it.

How do we energize United Methodist to be the hands and feet of church and society? And, you know, I was just thinking of, you just brought to my mind the image of the faith and fact cards and our online bookstore and all of the resources. So tell us,

or I shouldn't say tell us, continue to charge us. How do we energize, you know, our local congregations and United Methodists in general to be the hands and feet of church and society? Maybe so we don't get so discouraged around church survival of our congregations or, you know, our own internal infighting when there's so much pain and suffering going on and so much injustice?

Because I've heard you say this before, you know, we don't just need to give people bread.

We need to help people have living wages.

We need to give people an opportunity to have fair working conditions.

How might we continue to energize United Methodists to be the hands, as you say,

the hands and feet of Christ and the hands and feet of Christ and the hands and feet of church and society? Well, I think that's where we have to see it as our responsibility to go on and be the church. I think that church and society, it's beautiful that we have an agency for that. It's beautiful that we have organized work for that. But it's about the people being the movement. Like the United Methodist movement is what is supposed to be sparking and igniting and inspiring people to believe in Christ, but to believe in the work that Christ taught us how to do. And that was to be with the poor and to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty and to put clothes on those who need, but also to fight the systems of injustice, to fight evil and oppression and empire. Right. And I think that's what we're called to do, especially for such a time as this in ways that, you know, we have to mobilize as United Methodist Church. I've told you before, as a general secretary, but also as church and society, I was like, how can I or how can your board be your hype people for the work that is called for us this day? Like, I think that we're we need to be better at mobilizing.

And so to use our church and society resources to teach you how to mobilize.

We have a community organizer.

We have educational resources that you can pick up, to send to you.

I love that we have posters that say, you know, the United Methodists stand for justice or the United Methodists stand for peace. And when I stand on a corner with my Methodist sign,

I can't tell you how many people thank us because they are visibly seeing someone from a faith tradition standing with them because they think that they're alone.

And they said, where is the church in this?

Do they not care?

In a local church, like how do we help you?

And you don't have any money to do this.

We have grants.

We have our justice and compassion grants. We have our hunger grants. There are so many places where our agency can support you doing the good work in this world. We're not going to do it for you. I think that's the difference. We're telling you, we're not going to just keep on feeding you. You've got to learn how to organize so that you can learn how to feed other people. And that's, I think, the standing on the street corners or speaking from a pulpit or doing the good work. We need missions and justice work, working hand in hand, because there's always going to be a need, but there's always going to be a need. And so we need to end why that system is not working. We need to work towards better ways of helping each other and being good neighbors and loving one another. I think it's easy, but it's not. You know, I want to say that loving one another is such an easy thing I think that love just, you can't help it.

It's in you.

It's in our bones to encourage one another and to facilitate God's love in the world.

I think one of our best resources, and you may want to emphasize this as well, is our website.

If you go to umcjustice.org, I just went on it today, as a matter of fact, and I said, oh, wait a minute, I can look up some up for other resources.

And one of the things that we've done and under your leadership as well is to take on the posture.

If people call us or email us, if we don't have the resource, it might be another general border agency.

You know, we don't have huge amounts of money to give out in grants.

But if something they're asking for might be more appropriate through UMCOR or Global Ministries or Religion and Race or COSRO, we don't have a problem saying maybe you may want to check with them. But I think one of our best resources, and it has been commented that we've updated, is our website. Absolutely. Bishop Trimble, I love that what you just said was not just a PR commercial for Church and Society. It was for the whole United Methodist Church. If our agency cannot help you with that, we have an agency for it that can help you. If you're a student, like you could come to our young ethnic young adult internship, but if you have another need, we can, you can get to a scholarship from our general board of higher education and ministries. You can go on a mission trip with GBGM. You could be a missionary, but you know, how are we sharing resources and supporting one another in the work that we do?

Because we are a United Methodist Church. I love that so much, Bishop Trimble, because it says that we're all partners in the work.

We're partners in the struggle.

I love one of my favorite things.

I'm so super metho nerdy.

I love the social principles.

And it's not because I was invited to help write parts of it, but also because even before time, you know, before I even started, I was teaching confirmation classes at my local church as a 21 year old, and I didn't know what to do.

So I just took the book, the social principles, a little pamphlet and on the back had all these exercises and then we'd run them with our kids and then I went to seminary and learned more about the book of discipline and our project was to present the social principles and not bishop at the time but professor Karen Olavido was my professor and encouraged us to have fun so we dressed up as superheroes and we were the Methodist cross and flame. And we went, and because of that, I ended up teaching the social principles to districts.

Wow. Tell us about the social principles. Hey, maybe someone for the first time is hearing,

the Methodists have a, what is the social principles? Where am I not finding out about that?

I think, Ashley, it is one of the most helpful things.

And in some ways, it used to be the language through parts of it that were hurtful that have been changed because of the way we wrote them. But the social principles in the United Methodist Church are meant to be guidelines for living.

And so, you know, if you're using your Wesleyan quadrilateral, you've got your tradition,

your experience, your Bible and scripture, but also your reasoning. And so that's what the social principles are. It's what have we read in scripture that help us live out our lives today on social issues that are coming up that affect us. And so when we go out into the world, for a lot of people, the bigger issues were, what does the church say about X, Y, Z? What does the church say about war? What does the church say about environmental issues?

What does the church say about family or homosexuality, right? Those were the big ones.

But I used to have students that would say, well, I'm adopted. You know, does that mean that God loves me less or my parents didn't love me? And I would read them section from the social principles about family and about adoption.

They were so beautiful.

Or, you know, kids would ask things that I wouldn't even think of because for them, God loved everyone. But what does God say about harming the earth?

Or, you know, what does God say about politics in church and so to be able to turn to the social principles is a way to help us explain to other people what our faith looks like and what we did for the new general conference last in 2024 or we tried to get past in 2020 were these worldwide social principles ones that were initiated by Neil Christie and meant to help us see the world and our issues, not through just a US-centric lens, but through a worldwide lens.

And for us, it was very important to have all voices from around the globe putting in their input, their culture, their thoughts. And so it is a very,

very thoughtful document that helps people understand what we believe as United Methodists.

You don't have to believe in everything and you don't have to follow everything because they're not rules, but they're guidelines and they're guidelines for living. And for me, it helps us know as a Methodist that we have principles, that we have values,

and that we have moral standards that we stand on.

And sometimes we disagree,

but we pray that at some point we'll all have the same heart together.

Different minds, but hopefully the same United Methodist. Same heart.

But this sounds like more like akin to Christian discipleship than what I hear people say, are you just being political?

It sounds to me the way you describe the social principle.

This is really about being a follower of Jesus and more about growing as a Christian disciple as opposed to, you know, this is the Methodist being in politics.

Absolutely.

And isn't that what church and society is supposed to be doing?

We're supposed to be walking with their faith.

And also, how do we do that in the world that we live in today?

And so I think for me, being a part of this agency is where I put my eggs in this basket. is where I put my eggs in this basket. Not all of them.

They're expensive, right? Not all of them, they're expensive, right?

We talk about how we are supposed to be living in this world.

This makes sense to me.

Church and society makes sense to me.

I've served on Red for the World Board,

and it's also based out of Washington, D.C., and they taught me how to lobby.

They taught me how to go to my congresspeople and senators and talk to them about the issues that I really care about. And so does church and society. If you want to be empowered, I looked at Bishop Trimble about how many United Methodist senators and Congress people were United Methodists. And there are so many, you know, if we go, I'm trying to see how many there are, right? But we have so many United Methodist Congress folks. And I'm in awe because we should be having relationships with them and having conversations with them because where does their faith align with what's happening in our country today? And I would say the same for anyone in any other country that look to see where their fates are, where are your politicians' fates, and how do we as the people, their constituency,

make changes happen for the good of the world? Would you encourage people who may be listening to this podcast even to consider supporting General Board Church and Society. I know all of the resources we get don't come from the World Service Fund, and, you know, because there has been a decline even in the giving, and we still have the same mandate to bring to life the social principles, to be engaged in conversations and collaboration with lots of other faith organizations and nonprofit organizations that are doing the work of peace and justice. You know, our mission statement says we are to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Often we don't remember the second part of that for the transformation of the world.

And I think that as people have opportunity to support church and society, they're also supporting not just making disciples, but transforming the world.

Absolutely.

And I think for us, we are needed to encourage others to be a part in giving in the same way that we remember our Methodist Sundays.

We have our UMC Justice Sundays. We have our Student Sundays. We have our Native American Sundays.

But you don't only have to give that way.

In 2019, the General Board of Church and Society worked on a campaign to how do we fundraise just in case, right?

When we were a denomination, a little feeling in turmoil, what are we going to do if our church and society agency loses funding or loses articles?

So we started a plan to how do we fundraise outside of, you know, these special Sundays.

Our general secretary at the time, Susan Henry Crow, was launching a campaign tour to start going around to different conferences and to cultivate giving through our churches, through the leadership, through outside sources.

And then the pandemic happened.

And so our momentum kind of slowed down.

But with you, we got to celebrate our 100th anniversary of our building, not the 100th anniversary of our work, because Methodists have been doing good work in the social gospel for a long time.

Long time.

But when we celebrate that work, it also, yes, just like a pope is symbolic to the world of faith,

so is our building.

We're not worshiping the building, but we're celebrating the work of what has happened in that building.

How do we support that?

How do we give to that?

And if people feel compelled to give and to donate, I would really encourage folks to support, to sponsor.

And go ahead and put down in your donation that you would like to be a continual giver, a regular giver, or go ahead and tell us what your passion is and where you feel like you want us to put our energy into because you feel passionate about it too.

That's okay because we need to hear from our constituency too.

We need to know what you care about. And if you care, we also invest.

And if you want to invest, this is one of the best places to invest your faith,

because it's faith in action, faith in the world. And like that, I see the sign in back of you while we're recording, Bishop, it says, justice takes courage. It does. It's a reminder for us and a prompt for us of how we're supposed to live. So may this spark some conversations. And it doesn't have to be you. Offer it to your church. You know, it doesn't have to be one giver. It could be many. And I think about how we start a movement again. It starts with just one person. It starts with two fish and five loaves. And through that, this work can continue by the support of church and society. And through that, this work can continue by the support of church and society.

Thank you so very much, Reverend Allison Mark, President of the Board of Directors for the General Board of Church and Society.

It's been a great conversation.

I know it's going to be shared in other places.

One of the things I encourage people to do is when you have good news, don't keep it to yourself. If you have an opportunity to be a witness, then share it. Share it on your social media platforms as well,

umcjustice.org. We've had a record number, Reverend Allison, of communication. I just was looking at 100 reports for North Georgia. So there've been more communications this year than the previous two years in terms of people who are contacting their elected representatives. So people are really taking serious the action alerts and taking serious the information on grace over greed, information that's available by going to umcjustice.org.

org. Any final words that you want to share with our listeners around the work of the General Board Church and Society, the work out on the West Coast? A word of encouragement for those who may be a bit discouraged. We did get good news that there's a new pope in the Catholic Church,

so we pray for our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers, and we pray for the new pope,

and we also pray for this current Congress that's mulling over a budget that we think really needs to reflect the concern for the least and the lost and the marginalized. Because right now, it's a budget that seems determined to be balanced on the backs of the poor. Absolutely. Well, if my last words were to give hope and encouragement and inspire others is to go out and make good trouble. John Lewis had it down. You got to go out there and make good trouble. And meaning in the ways of our call to be Christian siblings with one another,

to love one another, we are not alone. And so we have to show and share with each other that we are the church, that we are followers of Christ. We also are ones who do good in the world, that we're called to not do harm and that we're called to love one another and love God. And I live by that. I'm so Methodist. But I think also in this remembering to go back to church and society, to check out uncjustice.org.

If you are looking for funding, we've got it.

If you're looking for resources, we got it.

If you're looking for people, we got it. And so however we can connect you, let that be our gift to our United Methodist Church denomination.

And I thank you, General Secretary Trimble, for the work that you do in being the face of our agency, but also for being our spiritual guide and leader as a bishop. I encourage you, and my prayer for you is that you use your prophetic voice because it is strong. And I think that more people need to hear more of that. And I encourage you to do that as my prayer.

conversations and good ideas. So I know our president of the board is always encouraging input, not only from our board members, which we always want to hear from, but also from local congregations and people who have a passion for the work of peace and justice. Come visit us in D.C.

God bless you. Thank you so much. Amen. God bless. God bless you. Thank you so much. Amen. God bless.