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Audrey Smith is a pastor of The Gathering at Washington Street, United Methodist Church, a mission congregation in Petersburg, Virginia. She serves as executive director of the nonprofit Gathering Community, which works with Open Table on a community convening project using principles of asset-based community development in Ettrick, Virginia.
Angie’s greatest passion is empowering people through mutual relationship to create transformational impact by engaging in the lives of others, especially youth with complex needs. Angie serves as COO for Open Table and joined the organization in 2017. She has more than twenty-five years of experience working with youth, young adults and families. Prior to joining Open Table, Angie managed community and volunteer engagement for 7 years at United Methodist Family Services (UMFS) and she served as the Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries for the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church for 8 years.
Rev. Dr. Jonathan Page is the director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Previously he was director of Connection and Innovation for the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church and has served as a pastor in churches of a variety of sizes and contexts. Jonathan holds a Doctor of Education with a degree focus in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California and a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School.
What does it look like for churches to truly center their communities in their ministry? In this interview, Audrey Smith and Angie Williams explore the…
This article is reprinted by permission from Leading Ideas, a free e-newsletter from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary available at churchleadership.com.