Invested Faith Receives Gift From Ferguson, Missouri Church

St. Peter’s United Church of Christ, an open and affirming faith community in Ferguson, Missouri, has recently gifted Invested Faith $200,000 to bolster their work with faith-rooted social entrepreneurs. 

Invested Faith, founded by Rev. Dr. Amy Butler, is a fund that helps historic religious institutions continue to realize their gospel vision, even as contemporary realities drive them to adapt. 

According to a joint statement from the congregation and Invested Faith, the contribution “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.” 

The gift will help expand St. Peter’s presence in the Ferguson community to include justice initiatives across the United States. 

Invested Faith uses funds to help support the work of innovators seeking to bend the various systems in the United States toward more just and equitable outcomes. Butler’s goal in creating the fund was to “create a vehicle by which traditional faith communities could use their considerable resources to fund a future we cannot yet see.” She added that St. Peter’s “is leading the way, showing traditional faith communities how to live boldly into the future God imagines for us.”

St. Peter’s senior pastor, Patrick Chandler, says the partnership is “a natural continuation of St. Peter’s long history and witness.”

Chandler also said that the gift 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.” 

Established in 1843 in downtown St. Louis as a German Evangelical Church, St. Peter’s UCC is grounded in Jesus’ example of caring for and connecting with those often overlooked, oppressed, or marginalized. A presence in Ferguson since 1957, the church has continued to support justice efforts in the community and, in 2016, opened a resource center on their property, offering space for non-profit work and much-needed services and programs for the community.