Community Engagement

In November, the National Benevolent Association’s Board of Trustees convened to review and approve the 2025 budget, marking a significant step in our ongoing mission to serve the community. The approved budget reflects our commitment to financial stewardship and strategic growth, ensuring that our resources are allocated effectively to support our programs and initiatives in the coming year.  

The Board of Trustees of the National Benevolent Association of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) met June 6th – 8th, 2024 at Union Avenue Christian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. 

We are excited to announce the newest member of our staff and the justice work they'll be involved in.

The Board of Trustees of the National Benevolent Association of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) met November 9 – 11 at Community Christian Church in Kansas City, Missouri.

Prison & Jail Mission Specialist Rev. Dean Bucalos explains the link between this theory and mass incarceration.

In the spring, NBA brought together members of our Peer Learning and Wellness Groups for a weekend of fellowship, reflection, and healing.

NBA is in the process of launching several Peer Learning & Wellness Groups that center voices of color. Meet the conveners leading the charge.

NBA’s new Justice Coordinator, Rev. Alexis Vaughan, reflects on Martin Luther King Jr.'s words and the need to share the load of social justice work.

Upcoming webinar guest Savvy Shabazz shares his experience with the prison system in Kentucky and his struggles of trying to find employment after returning home.

Read about the impact of NBA’s Executive Leaders Peer Learning & Wellness Group.

Over the last few months, we’ve added several new faces to our team. Get to know them!

This September marks the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Here are ways to cope with trauma from these past events.

Sometimes, dystopian movies have eerie resemblances, not just to what the world could be, but what it actually is writes Tialisha Lumpkin.

Rev. Foster shares learnings from her experience at the Scarritt Bennett Center White Co-Conspirators Conference.

Get to know the Director of our new Community Engagement program, Rev. Héctor J. Hernández Marcial!

We’re excited to announce our new Community Engagement Program. This program was born out of NBA’s commitment to activism and advocacy coupled with our mission to build communities of compassion and care.

Introducing NBA's newest Peer Learning and Wellness Group for Advocacy and Activism.

All Peoples Community Center is providing groceries to families in need.

After NBA's weeklong pause, staff members Brittany King and Rebecca Hale came together to discuss the week of rest, what it meant to them individually, and offered some perspective on how other organizations considering a similar pause could do the same.

I have been intrigued for a while by the prison abolition movement. Wikipedia defines the movement as “a network of groups and activists that seek to reduce or eliminate prisons and the prison system, and replace them with systems of rehabilitation that do not place a focus on punishment and government institutionalization.”

Rev. Dr. Dietra Wise Baker shares eight steps communities can take to prepare before a crisis.

The current White House administration has made it a priority to come up with new anti-immigration rhetoric and policies at every turn. In response, churches across the country are stepping up in support of immigrants, learn more about what you can do below.

Effective January 1, 2019, the National Benevolent Association welcomes Rev. Héctor Hernández into the new, full-time role of Connect Coordinator.

Fall 2018 marks the third year of UrbanMission Community Partners’ InsideOut Art program.

I invite you to watch a powerful new film series, created and produced by The Marshall Project. “We Are Witnesses” gives voice to those whose lives are enmeshed in the criminal justice system and provides a rare 360-degree portrait of crime and punishment in America today.

As we continue to connect and resource Disciples health and social service ministries, we have called together eight Disciples activists into our newest Peer Learning and Wellness Group for Advocacy and Activism.

Ministry can be lonely sometimes. As a peer group convener, my greatest joy is bringing people together so they know they are not alone, sharing in their joys and challenges, and watching new relationships form that reflect the very presence of God among us.

An active summer of art exhibits and sacred conversations around incarceration, creativity, and healing.

With stops in Texas, Ohio, and California, we traveled with Rev. Terri Hord Owens for a variety of partner visits, special events, and conversations.

Read and download the 20-page PDF of the 2022 NBA Impact Report, featuring stories from NBA programs, partners, and Disciples leaders.

There have been so many exciting resources, initiatives and partnerships at NBA recently, hear all about it!

Resources focusing on the intersection of gun violence, trauma, and ways to care for our mental health and the mental health of our communities.

AllianceQ and the NBA offer resources for those looking to be more inclusive of all gender identities and expressions.

With the right tools, congregations can play a big role in social justice issues that arise in their communities.

Our current justice system and practices aren't working, restorative justice may offer an alternative.

Restorative Justice encourages the humanization of those who have caused harm and provides better alternatives than our current incarceration system.

This webinar explores the importance of considering the employment of people who are returning from our prisons and jails and those who are in recovery.

Join our experienced panelists for a conversation on why the corrections system has become so dysfunctional and broken.

These resources were created to offer people of faith an opportunity to worship together and reflect on the experience of immigrants in the Bible and the experience of immigrants living in the United States.

We invite you to explore immigration through these liturgies and worship resources.

We invite you to explore immigration through these liturgies and worship resources.

We invite you to explore immigration through these liturgies and worship resources.

What does the Bible say about capital punishment? Should followers of Jesus Christ, who was executed himself, oppose the use of capital punishment?

16-page PDF resource with historical insight into the HIV/AIDS epidemic, sermon starters, and statistics.

Join us as we discuss the impact of the increasing number of women, particularly women of color, that are spending time behind bars and work to address solutions