Our Vision
Sanctuary@SACC serves refugees and immigrants in Philadelphia by partnering with a community of multi-ethnic churches becoming a sanctuary for faith and support.
Our Mission
The 4 Hallmarks of our Ministry:
- Create a hospitable Atmosphere for all who come to serve or be served.
We seek to exercise the gift of hospitality for all who enter our building, leading to opportunities to share the gospel and make disciples.
- We foster a welcoming and Christ-glorifying environment.
- We are a permission-giving ministry that encourages our congregations to pursue evangelistic and disciple-making ministry and Christ-exalting opportunities.
- Our expressions of hospitality facilitate opportunities to share the gospel and invite those interested to meet Jesus through our lives and churches.
2. Provide Accessibility in the building.
We seek to make the building open to the greater community for worshipping God, making disciples, and encouraging the flourishing of our neighbors.
- One of our priorities is to make the building as safe and functional as possible.
- We are always seeking ways to improve the facilities.
- We communicate early and often with those who occupy the building regarding the expectations of using a shared facility. When necessary, we identify building misuse and seek to correct it promptly.
- We work for safe, orderly, and over all best practices in how the building operates.
3. Be of Assistance to our refugees and immigrants.
Our primary ministry is to come alongside our refugee and immigrant congregations with services, education, and spiritual training that support them as they resettle in America.
- We network and encourage networking whenever possible for greater effectiveness.
- We seek to communicate and implement best practices in church and life.
- Our overall goal is to train for personal and corporate discipleship on a leadership level that will lead to disciple multiplication.
4. Speak and act as an Advocate.
We seek to be a voice of defense and support for our refugees and immigrants– those who are already here and those who are yet to arrive– all the while encouraging self-advocacy.
- We advocate by informing our refugees and immigrants as to the laws, customs, and expectations of our city and country.
- We seek out legal assistance when needed.
- We campaign for and seek out necessary refugee services.
- We believe that our elected representatives must reform our national refugee/immigration policy in order to foster goodwill towards refugees and to open our hearts to the plight of the world’s approximate 120 million refugees.
- We seek to convince everyone of the value of refugees/immigrants to our society– immigrants make America great!
Our Statement of Faith
We believe in…
- We believe the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, to be the only inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word of God written.
- We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- We believe in the deity of Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
- We believe that for salvation of lost and sinful man regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
- We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by Whose indwelling power and fullness the Christian is enabled to live a godly life in this present evil world.
- We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life, and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
- We believe in the spiritual unity of all believers in Christ.
*taken from the Constitution and By-Laws of the Snyder Avenue Congregational Church
Our Team
Pastor Bagudekia & Suzanne Alobeyo
PASTOR DAVID & LISA GRAINGE
Coming Soon
Pastor Selemani (Solomon) Sikasabwa
Our Programming
- Food Pantry – healthy food choices for anyone in need (Every Saturday except the first Saturday of the month)
- ESL – English as a Second Language – occasional programming that includes Bible-themed lessons
- Kids Club – a youth discipleship program that takes place every Wednesday at the church (Oct-May) and at our local park, the Mifflin Square Park, Wednesdays (June-September)
- Pastoral Training – our director comes alongside our pastors and their lay leaders and offers training in pastoral matters, preaching, and church administration
- “The Refugee Experience” – a short-term missions experience led by our director and facilitated by one (or more) of our refugee churches
- Combined events that bring together our churches in a demostration of unity and a celebration of the Gospel in the context of our worship styles and culture
- Trauma Healing – we seek to form small groups to minister the healing balm of the Word in our neighbors’ and refugees’ lives
- Sanctuary Neighbors – a monthly drop-in opportunity for refugees to receive counsel regarding re-settlement issues, legal status maintenance, job and housing assistance, etc.