Living Our Mission

The purpose of the Outreach Commission of St. Matthew’s is to help the parish live out its passion for service to the community and to propose to the Vestry a distribution of the parish’s Outreach budget to Qualified Organizations serving those Passion Areas. We do this through:

1. Administering an annual grant process to support Qualified Organizations, especially those founded with St. Matthew’s help or with significant parishioner participation.
2. Identifying ways parishioners can provide hands-on service together and encouraging parishioner participation in the ministries we support financially.
3. Reporting on the impact St. Matthew’s devotion of time, talent, and treasure has made on the outreach ministries we support as a parish.

Passion Areas

In Genesis 2:15, all peoples are called to care for God’s creation. In Matthew 25:35-36, Jesus goes further to specifically call us to feed, clothe, visit, invite, comfort, and care for those in need. To that end, the parishioners of St. Matthew’s have identified outreach “Passion Areas” on which to focus our service. For 2023-2027, those areas are:

• Alleviating Isolation – Ex.: outreach to homebound, addressing loneliness, suicide prevention
• Creation Care – Ex.: care for the climate, earth, and animals
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) – Ex.: job skills training for neurodiverse students
• Interfaith – Ex.: promoting peace and respect through interfaith dialogue, service, celebration
• Immigrants – Ex.: helping immigrants/refugees adjust to their new community
• Poverty (includes Children, Economic Opportunity, Food & Housing)
• Children & Youth (non-poverty related)

Grant Application Eligibility Requirements

1. Applicant must be a Congregant in Good Standing at St. Matthew’s (explained at Vestry page).
2. Applicant agrees to champion the awarded organization within St. Matthew’s to raise awareness, encourage participation, and submit an Annual Review form at year-end (page 3).
3. Applicant agrees to provide additional information about the Qualified Organization’s business structure, financial health, executive leadership team, etc. upon request.
4. Qualified Organization agrees to allow an on-site visit by the Outreach Commission Chair or representative after the application is submitted and to allow St. Matthew’s to request additional information as needed.
5. Applications may be submitted through February 14 by emailing them to outreach@stmattsaustin.org. Applicants are strongly encouraged to present their application in-person at the February Outreach Commission meeting. Applications require approval by both the Outreach Commission and the Vestry.