Por Chris Hughes
From its beginnings, the mission of FaithWorks has evolved through experimentation, through assessing the needs of the churches and through its partnerships with other justice-oriented organizations.
Formerly Fellowship Southwest, the organization—which serves churches in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California—recently rebranded to reflect its broader mission of “putting faith to work outside the walls of the church through compassion and justice.” While some state and regional CBF-affiliated networks emphasize connecting and equipping the churches they serve and others focus on service to the community, FaithWorks found success pursuing both, while embracing advocacy work and centering its mission on justice, compassion and equality.
Founded in 2017, FaithWorks’ mission was shaped not only by its early leadership, but also by the pressing needs confronting the organization and the churches it serves. “CBF leaders and Marv Knox, founder of what was then Fellowship Southwest, showed real wisdom by giving FaithWorks enough space in those early years to allow us to respond to needs that arose in our region,” said FaithWorks Executive Director Stephen Reeves. Being primarily in the southwest United States presented its own unique context for ministry—including ministry with immigrants, advocacy on the border, ministry with Native American communities and more.
“Supporting these direct service ministries and engaging in advocacy helped clarify our work as ministry that often takes place beyond the walls of the church,” Reeves explained.
While FaithWorks’ earliest efforts included supporting communities impacted by Hurricane Harvey in Texas in 2017, that work became a catalyst for deeper engagement with historically marginalized groups, including Cambodian, Chinese and Spanish-speaking farm worker communities. Rather than approaching with a mindset of service, FaithWorks listened, learned and began building relationships that strengthened collaboration and shared advocacy with these communities.
By 2018, FaithWorks had fully stepped into its public witness for justice by protesting family separation at the border. It organized prayer vigils in Brownsville, Texas, and convened conversations with border pastors, centering the voices and experiences of immigrants and asylum-seeking families. Through this network of church leaders and advocates, FaithWorks partnered with community leaders to support coordinated access to food, shelter, legal aid and public advocacy already emerging along the border.
Reeves began as executive director in 2021 after Knox retired and brought with him a background well-suited for the mix of congregational support, missions and justice and direct advocacy that was brewing with FaithWorks.
For over 12 years, Reeves spearheaded CBF’s advocacy efforts, coordinated efforts with local churches, state and regional fellowships and numerous ministry partners. Prior to that, he worked for seven years at the Christian Life Commission in Austin, Texas, and was staff attorney for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C., before that.
FaithWorks churches were eager for the experiment to continue under Reeves as they embraced a three-fold model of compassion, justice and connection, and prioritized work in four critical areas: immigration, hunger, native justice and racial justice. “In 2020, we conducted a survey of almost 90 congregations to see what they were already doing and what they wanted help doing more of and these four priorities arose from that,” Reeves said. “The churches that we partner with and that support us want to be engaged in their communities, and they see these issues as pressing needs affecting their neighbors.
“We also like working on these particular issues because scripture is clear in its instruction to pay attention to these matters—feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger and loving all neighbors as we love ourselves,” he concluded.
The focus has led to ministries addressing both immediate needs and systemic realities shaping those needs. In partnership with Mariah Humphries, a citizen of the Mvskoke Nation, FaithWorks launched a native justice training program, centering indigenous perspectives and addressing the legacy of colonization within Christian spaces. The partnership with Let’s Talk Race Ministries on the “Let’s Talk Race” course is one example of how FaithWorks is working toward racial justice with the churches it serves.
On any given day, people in the ministry walk alongside people from across the globe—Mexico, Central and South America, Cuba, Haiti, Eastern Europe and Africa—listening and learning from their stories, amplifying their voices and defending dignity and resisting the policies that dehumanize immigrants.
With support from the Lilly Endowment, FaithWorks is launching a five-year “Thriving Congregations Immigration Ministry” project to help equip churches to participate in immigrant justice efforts in their communities. That’s in addition to the Knox Fund for Immigration Relief, which has distributed more than $1 million since 2018 toward justice efforts shaped by impacted communities.
For its work engaging the deep and systemic roots of injustice, FaithWorks received the Emmanuel McCall Racial Justice Trailblazer award in 2025. The award is named in honor of Dr. Emmanuel McCall, a Baptist trailblazer who has spent much of his life working for racial justice—as a student, denominational leader, pastor, author and professor.
The award recognizes “individuals and ministries who charter through unequal and unjust areas of life and initiate proactive resolutions for communities in the form of policies or practices resulting in greater equity, opportunity, impact and outcomes for all.” FaithWorks was honored alongside Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, one of its partner churches, at the 2025 CBF General Assembly in St. Louis. For Reeves, the award is an affirmation that the call to Jesus is for Christ followers to move beyond the walls of the church, and minister with justice and compassion in communities seeking dignity and equity. “People are hungry for Christian work in the world that brings people together and offers a different public witness than what’s so often seen, and they are willing to cross racial and denominational boundaries to do so.”
“For the good of the church, the next generation will need to see churches working for justice in the world,” he added. “The challenge is to model a better way, one that is bold, has real impact in the world and does not give in to the despair and divisiveness we see all around us.” It’s that kind of model FaithWorks hopes to continue living out for racial justice and for the Kingdom of God.