Park Cities Presbyterian Church (PCA)

Called to the innermost parts of the city

Missionaries to modern-day Jerusalem

Published November 1, 2011 in Witness

In the good providence of God, PCPC commissioned its first home church urban missionaries on October 23—William “Trey” and Melissa Hill, Annie Roberson, and Reid and Ellen Porter. Thanks to those who served so honorably during the Katrina years, Urban Missions has been given a platform  on which our body can more vigorously minister to extend God’s Kingdom to the Metroplex.

Three years ago, Urban Missions developed and presented its Five-Year Plan, with its primary aim being to significantly increase our member participation throughout Dallas. Our vision is twofold: lead our congregation in serving the poor and needy of Dallas while experiencing Christ’s transforming presence as it becomes His hands and feet to our community.

As part of a broader plan of discipleship, the Lord has been using Urban Missions to provide opportunities for our members to identify, strengthen, and use their spiritual gifts in meeting the felt needs of others in our city. We hope simply to raise the awareness of opportunities of mutually transformative service opportunities and pray our members would become more involved in our mission—taking personal initiatives in serving the lost, the least, and the lonely among us.

Urban Missions sought the advice of World Missions and has developed a similar guide for our urban missionaries. Together, we identified key criteria: each urban missionary must have a sense of God’s call to the city and must have worked very closely with PCPC in aunching their calls. A home church urban missionary is similar to the traditional missionary in many respects, except that they have been called to “Samaria” rather than the “uttermost parts of the earth.” As urban missionaries, these brothers and sisters have been called to a geographically close, but culturally distant place.

The Hill family
Trey Hill was on staff at PCPC serving in urban outreach, and through the guidance of our Session and World Missions team, moved his wife Melissa and family to live and work in West Dallas. During the crucial development phase of his ministry, and at the urging of several of our elders, Mrs. Annie Roberson sensed her call to co-labor with Trey. Annie left her ministry at the Turner Apartments in the Bonton area, and moved to West Dallas to help the Hills launch Mercy Street.

The Porter family
Reid Porter admitted that he had initially sensed a call to serve overseas through an international justice ministry. He prayerfully sought counsel from PCPC, and through our World Missions ministry, began to actively pursue this call. As doors began to close, Reid’s sense of call did not diminish, and after many meetings and much prayer, he and Ellen became convinced that the Lord had called them to the city of Dallas.

He has founded Advocates for Community Transformation (ACT), an inner-city justice ministry seeking to extend the transforming presence of Jesus Christ into Dallas communities and establish safe environments free from injustice and oppression.
—Julian Russell