From Reflection to Response Around the Covenant
As 2025 began, many churches throughout the US felt unprepared for and overwhelmed by the shifting landscape of immigration policies, legislation, and enforcement. As programs that had historically served the needs of immigrants and refugees were defunded, an executive order indefinitely suspending the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) was issued, and the polarizing nature of political discourse significantly intensified in the United States.
The Covenant prayerfully responded by inviting congregations to participate in a Liturgical Common Read of the book Welcoming the Stranger, by Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang. Resources were created as a way to engage the historic Covenant questions “Where is it written?” and “How goes your walk?” Churches read the book together, alongside an accompanying discussion guide written by a wide range of Covenant leaders to help foster honest conversations. As congregations prayerfully practiced solidarity by reading, learning, and processing together, many witnessed God moving. The experience kindled generosity, hospitality, and welcome within many churches. It also inspired many Covenant congregations to join together in a collaborative spirit. Since then, a wealth of testimonies from Covenanters across the country bear witness to the fruit fostered in their communities because of congregational conversations, new missional engagements, and bourgeoning relationships with neighbors.
Many Covenant churches have communicated that returning to Scripture, before revisiting history, has sparked new theological insights. Asking, “Where is it written?” has been critical. Churches have also conveyed that developing relationships where they could listen to the purposeful narratives of their immigrant and refugee neighbors has been imperative. Relationships have reinforced the understanding that immigration and refugee policies are not just about faceless statistics but revolve around real people, with real stories. These relationships have recentered the imago Dei and have been essential in correcting incomplete narratives around who our immigrant, refugee, and undocumented neighbors are, as well as why they are here.
After participating in the Liturgical Common Read, Arvada Covenant Church in Colorado recently hosted an event with World Relief in an effort to move beyond headlines and focus instead on human stories and the biblical call to welcome the stranger. More than 150 people gathered for the conversation, and the event proved to be exceedingly fruitful for the congregation and surrounding community.
In nearby Lakewood, Colorado, Rev. Nick Von Stein has been leading Grace Covenant Church deeper into mission as they explore how to serve their immigrant neighbors. They launched a four-week sermon series called “The Neighbor Bridge” and a six-week devotional study on the topic. “It proved to be a vibrant catalyst to unsettle the dust of apathy in our engagement,” said Von Stein. “Some cheered, some cried, some followed along, some fought back, some dived in to participate, some threatened to leave the church, some wanted to contribute time, talents, and treasures, and others wanted to contribute anecdotal Google search results, news articles, and social media feeds. At the end of the journey, even though the path trodden was perilous and exhausting, we are healthier and more alive as a community than ever before.”
In Seattle eight Covenant churches came together to learn how they could faithfully love their local day-laboring neighbors as themselves. This midweek training brought together 100 congregants from Bethany Covenant Church, Encounter Church, Kent Covenant Church, First Covenant Church, Monroe Covenant Church, Renew Church, The Table Covenant Church, and Shoreline Covenant Church. It has produced mission fruit that has cultivated Christian hospitality, sustained relationships, and created congregational collaborations that are advancing mission in the region.
In Portland, Oregon, Rev. Joel Sommer of Access Covenant Church led his congregation in exploring how to reclaim a narrative of hope. Sommer shared, “Jesus is calling us to follow him in his mission of including those who are overlooked, healing those who are hurt, and moving the stories of those on the margins into the center.” During the 2026 Midwinter Conference in January, Evelyn Perez helped bring those stories to the forefront. Perez, who coordinates Latino ministries for the Pacific Southwest Conference, facilitated a solidarity gathering for around 30 pastors from non-Latino churches, inviting them to listen to the experiences of their Latino peers, pastors who are walking alongside affected families in challenging circumstances.
Rev. Greg Ellis of The Table Christian Church and Pastor Edith Soto Lopez of Jesus Fiel Amigo Covenant Church, collaborated to coordinate a prayer and worship event hosted by Bloomington Covenant Church in Bloomington, Minnesota. The event was Latino-led and invited the entire Northwest Conference into the conversation. Soto Lopez, who primarily organized the event, invited the Minneapolis chief of police, who is a fellow Christian, to speak, and participants prayed for him. A team of student leaders from Minnehaha Academy also participated, bringing food and household supplies to offer neighbors in need.
Bloomington Covenant Church has also responded by providing clothing assistance, delivering groceries that feed 517 people and paying rent for 56 immigrant and refugee families.
Congregations have also transformed their learning into action. Covenanters are stepping into the complex world of legal advocacy by partnering with Immigrant Connection, a church-based, nationwide network that provides low-cost, high-quality legal services to immigrants and refugees. Rev. Tim Hawkinson, pastor of Renew Covenant Church in Carroll, Iowa, has been exploring ways to make his church an intake site for Immigrant Connection. Recognizing that many of their immigrant neighbors are employed by large manufacturing and meat processing plants in the area, Hawkinson hopes to collaborate directly with those businesses to help their employees and families safely and affordably file legal paperwork. “We hope that our status as a church can help establish the trust necessary to make these connections,” Hawkinson said.
Even before participating in the Liturgical Common Read, Metro Community Church in Englewood, New Jersey, was prayerfully discerning how God might be leading them to respond to the needs of their most vulnerable immigrant and refugee neighbors. In June 2025, Metro sent a group of leaders to participate in the Covenant’s immigration immersive discipleship experience, A Migrant Journey: Scripture’s Call to Welcome the Stranger. Afterward, several small groups at the church read Welcoming the Stranger, and a few weeks ago the congregation concluded a three-week sermon series on the topic. Metro has held “Know Your Rights” workshops, handed out “red cards” to assist immigrants in understanding their constitutional rights, and plans to host a free medical resource fair next month, aimed at the local immigrant community with services available in English, Korean, and Spanish. The church has partnered with several immigration attorneys who have agreed to provide free consultations to people at the congregation’s request. Congregants have written letters to their federal representatives, advocating for the creation of humane and just immigration policies. Metro is also planning to become an intake site for legal aid in partnership with Immigrant Connection.
At Encounter Church in Mercer Island, Washington, Rev. Michael Lee and his congregation have been taking similar action. “As a church, we see immigration, not as a peripheral issue but as a discipleship-centered opportunity to live out the ministry of reconciliation,” says Lee. Encounter has begun the lengthy process of becoming a legal center for their immigrant neighbors. In the meantime, they are launching initiatives such as citizenship classes, family resource nights, and possibly virtual legal consultations. Immigrant Connection has been a resource for churches just beginning their journey into immigration dialogue. The six-week devotional study that Grace Covenant went through in Lakewood, Colorado, came from Immigrant Connection.
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Liturgical Common Read directly sparked on-the-ground action. Penny Gutierrez, a member of First Evangelical Covenant Church, helped lead the book discussion, which birthed a grassroots movement they called Hope for Neighbors. The group supports detainees with visitation, legal aid, basic needs, and transportation. Gutierrez personally visits the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, to offer hope to people who are detained. She is often joined by Rev. Dale Dalman, a retired Covenant pastor who spends hours visiting detainees and driving them hundreds of miles back to their families in the Chicago area when they are released. Reflecting on their shared ministry, Dalman said, “We don’t know these individuals, but we care for them because they’re our neighbors.” While driving released men home in the middle of the night, Dalman summarized his mission simply: “As a pastor and a follower of Jesus, I believe if Jesus was here, that’s exactly what he would be doing. He’d be giving people rides to get home.”
Covenanters have also been engaged in the public square. Rev. Dominique Gilliard, director of racial righteousness and reconciliation for the Covenant, noted that 45 Covenanters from six congregations participated in a 300-person interfaith prayer vigil and procession in Tacoma, Washington, where they walked to a detention center to engage in worship as a loving act of solidarity with immigrant and refugee siblings.
In Minneapolis, Rev. Edrin C. Williams and Rev. Dr. Rose Lee-Norman of Sanctuary Covenant Church convened a prayer gathering that brought together members of Sanctuary Covenant Church, Epiphany Covenant Church, Mill City Church, and many others at the site where Alex Pretti was killed in Minneapolis. In an act of worshipful resistance, they assembled to pray, lament, sing, and encourage one another and their neighbors.
Williams shared with the crowd on that freezing January morning, “We gather this morning because to remain silent—either out of fear or indifference—is to co-sign every inhumane thing happening to our city and state right now. So, instead of staying away, I felt it was necessary to call us together to be present here, bearing witness to the God who Hears the Cries of His People and to be prayerful here on behalf of our city and our neighbors, including Renee Goode and Alex Pretti.” Lee-Norman reflected, “As followers of Jesus, we are reminded that faithfulness to Christ is not only something we confess, but something we live. To claim the name of Jesus is to take his teachings seriously—to love our neighbors, to stand with those on the margins, and to speak against injustice wherever it harms God’s beloved.” She called her community to keep the faith, adding a powerful charge: “Let’s continue to be salt and light people who melt this intrusive ICE in our city.”
In a similar spirit of worshipful witness, Rev. Stephanie Williams O’Brien, pastor of Mill City Church in Minneapolis, went to the Whipple Federal Building, where many detained immigrants in Minnesota are initially taken. Although she was denied entry to pray with detainees, she stood outside in the cold to pray, beneath a surveillance drone, even as departing ICE agents drove past, blasting the song “Bad Boys” from their vehicle.
In Chicago, following Operation Midway Blitz and violent raids conducted by ICE in local apartments in the South Shore neighborhood, Rev. David Swanson, pastor of New Community Covenant Church in Bronzeville on the South Side, responded to an invitation from nonviolent protest organizers to pastors and faith leaders, asking them to be a peaceful presence in what can often feel like a hostile environment. Along with other clergy and interfaith leaders as people of peace, Swanson joined them. They gathered with other concerned citizens outside the main immigration and customs facility in the Chicagoland area, which is in Broadview, Illinois, about 15 miles west of the city limits. As protesters gathered, prayed, and advocated for accountability regarding what many deemed dehumanizing ICE activity, the protest concluded in a peaceful spirit.
Then, according to Swanson, the mode shifted. At around 9:00 a.m., as protesters began departing the scene, a group of ICE officers gathered and made their way toward protesters. Swanson was off to the side with a few other protesters, where they were not interrupting enforcement activity. ICE officials approached them and ordered them to leave the premise. Swanson began to slowly back away, keeping an eye on the unfolding situation, when Greg Bovino, the chief patrol agent for the US Border Patrol El Centro sector, started shouting in his face before shoving him several times. Swanson left but was undeterred in his conviction to lovingly respond.
Swanson penned an open letter appealing directly to the Christian faith of ICE officers. “Following Jesus has always included more than personal beliefs; it impacts how we live, including the work we do,” he wrote. Swanson’s congregation has partnered with Garden City Covenant Church to host educational events on how Christians can lovingly respond to the needs of their neighbors, the history of immigration in our nation, and to raise funds to support organizations that provide aid and assistance to immigrants and refugees in need. Both churches have partnered with World Relief to form Good Neighbor Teams to meet the needs of their vulnerable neighbors.
Three weeks after Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, a Covenant family had members who were detained by ICE at Millennium Park. The Serve Locally team from Covenant Offices partnered with churches throughout the city who came together to pray in response. They prayed in a spirit of solidarity, interceding on behalf of the family and the city’s immigrant and refugee neighbors. Prayer has been the anchoring force for the Covenant’s response, engagement, and offerings in the midst of a polarizing season.
Through a new initiative in partnership with World Relief, Covenanters are invited to join a virtual gathering with Matthew Soerens, co-author of Welcoming the Stranger, who will explore key changes in immigration policy and legislation since 2018. The event on April 15 at 7 p.m. Central will help Covenanters learn how those shifts are impacting the country and our neighbors, and how we can respond with God’s love as the body of Christ.
Another opportunity to learn about the missional opportunities before the Church today will take place on April 22 at 7 p.m. Central. Daniel Yang, national director for Churches of Welcome for World Relief, will share about missional opportunities before the body of Christ today. The session will be a time to discover where God is at work and how we can practically engage our communities with Christ’s love. Yang will share how congregations can join the World Relief Churches of Welcome campaign alongside other Covenant congregations.
Additional Resources
Immigration Resources
A consolidation of immigration resources curated by Love Mercy Do Justice to help Covenant churches offer welcome in their unique contexts.
Virtual Gathering with Matthew Soerens
Through a new initiative from Love Mercy Do Justice in partnership with World Relief, join a virtual gathering with Matthew Soerens, co-author of Welcoming the Stranger, on April 15 at 7 p.m. Central. Explore recent immigration policy changes and how churches can respond with faithful, compassionate witness.
Virtual Gathering with Daniel Yang
Join a virtual gathering with Daniel Yang, national director of Churches of Welcome at World Relief, to explore the missional opportunities before the Church today and how to engage our communities with Christ’s love. April 22 at 7 p.m. Central.
