Salt & Light: Reaching Out to their Community

Salt & Light

Reaching Out to their Community

Salt & Light encompasses a large campus in Southwest Philadelphia with a second location in Mt. Airy. This congregation is the creative merger of the former New Spirit Presbyterian Church and the former Grace Christian Fellowship, a United Church of Christ congregation. As a result, Salt & Light is one of the newest churches in our presbytery which opened its (virtual) doors on Easter of 2020. During the merger process, leadership from the two congregations discerned intentionally and diligently about what to name their new congregation. Salt & Light was chosen for its reference to Matthew 5:13-14. Being “salt” represents their commitment to mission work and ministry, while being “light” reflects their devotion to shining God’s light into the world and proclaiming the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Community outreach is central to Salt & Light’s identity. The congregation prides itself on being a neighborhood church where the majority of worshipers come from the nearby area. They house another ministry familiar to the presbytery, The Common Place. Originally founded in 2013 as a ministry of Wayne Presbyterian Church, this outreach serves kindergarten through eighth-grade students in Southwest Philly. “Common Place Scholars” is their flagship program that provides a safe place for students to go after school to receive educational, spiritual, and social support through homework help, nutritional support/education, and other extracurricular activities such as orchestra, yoga, and computer programming. During the summer, Common Place Scholars transforms into Southwest Arts and Technology Summer Camp which provides the same services as Common Place Scholars but runs all day long.

Rev. Christopher Holland serves as Executive Pastor of Salt & Light as well as Executive Director of The Common Place. He finds hope in his ministry through working and interacting with children and speaking with their families whose lives have been positively impacted by the work of these ministries. An entrepreneur by training, Rev. Holland envisions expanding The Common Place’s outreach to include preschool and high school students. He also hopes to grow their nutritional support ministry. The Common Place and Salt & Light are also working to create a sidewalk farmers market and walk-in fridge that would provide the community (much of which lacks access to fresh fruits and vegetables) with low cost, high quality produce.
Rev. Holland, who works alongside Senior Pastor of Salt & Light, Rev. Cean James, asserts the importance of the church is to both extend the invitation for people to know Christ and to be a voice for the voiceless. To this end, he believes we must work towards building relationships with other churches, groups of believers, and our neighbors. He claims the loudest voices come from the largest groups, and as the church, our voices should be proclaiming a love for Christ and people, and our hands should be the proof of our desire to make a positive difference in the world.

Photo descriptions

Salt and Light’s church building in Southwest Philly and the meeting space for the Common Place
A worship service at Salt and Light
The Common Place Orchestra Program
Salt & Light logo