Seminarian Jessi Lane Johnson, T’27, has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Episcopal Evangelism Society (EES) for a project titled Already at Work: Listening, Organizing, and the Gospel We Find There.
The project grew out of travel in South Africa this summer, where Johnson connected with Mbali Ndhlovu, a community organizer working in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Together, the two are developing a series of workshops for clergy and lay leaders in Sewanee, Houston, and Atlanta planned for spring 2027.
The workshops will explore what community organizing can teach the Church about evangelism, particularly how listening to communities, building relationships, and responding to material needs are themselves expressions of the Gospel. At the heart of the project is a simple question: What might happen if the Church spent less time asking how to bring people through its doors and more time asking where God is already at work beyond them?
Johnson writes “I'm grateful to EES for supporting this opportunity and especially excited to bring Mbali's experience and perspective into conversation with the Episcopal Church here.”
The School of Theology will report on the project as it progresses.
Congratulations Jessi Lane!
