Community Outreach

Our primary link to community is through our Outreach and Peace & Social Justice Committees as well as other local agencies and initiatives to provide services for need in the local community.

Below is a list of RMC outreach activities and opportunities:

Hot Dogs in the Park: Church members gather with neighborhood residents periodically for hot dogs and a potluck meal in Whitmore Playground, which provides opportunities to connect with our neighbors.

Cross-lines Christmas Store: We organize the food section of Cross-lines Christmas store each year (500+ families served).

Easter Egg Hunt: This event, which takes place in Whitmore Playground, has taken place for 26 years!

East Hill Singers: This is an Arts in Prison program started by this congregation that demonstrates collaboration between inmates of the Lansing Correctional Facility and volunteer singers in the community, many from RMC.

Peace and Social Justice Committee: This committee is a part of RMC that focuses on ideas about current issues of war and peace, nonviolent resistance, conflict resolution, human rights, the environment, and community building.  Click here to join the discussion.

Here are some links to the aforementioned organizations as well as a few others that we partner with:

Sharing Community in Rosedale

The Sharing Community in Rosedale (SCR) has been a dynamic concept as well as a vehicle for delivering services in Rosedale. It has reinvented itself at least or four or five times. Its growth and development has been intertwined with that of the Rainbow Mennonite Church (RMC) and its former partners.

  • Rainbow Mennonite Church began in 1957 as the Kansas City Mennonite Church. From the beginning, the congregation was involved in outreach in the Rosedale neighborhood, starting with programs like a boys club and summer camps. In the 1960s, church leaders and community members began discussing how to respond to social and economic needs in southeast Kansas City, Kansas. This led to the creation of cooperative ministries and, in 1965, the organization Cross-Lines Community Outreach, which provided larger-scale community services.

    During the late 1960s and 1970s, Rainbow Mennonite partnered closely with the Rosedale United Methodist Church and the Disciples of Christ Church. Together, they shared worship, Sunday School programs, and community ministries. They also developed neighborhood-focused programs such as clothing stores, food pantries, GED classes, housing rehabilitation, and tool-sharing projects. These joint efforts became known as the Sharing Community in Rosedale (SCR), formally incorporated in 1977 so the churches could jointly own property and manage community projects.

    As membership declined in the Methodist and Disciples congregations, Rainbow Mennonite chose to remain in Rosedale and continue the shared ministry rather than relocating. By the early 1990s, the Methodist congregation had closed, and Disciples members gradually joined Rainbow Mennonite, with the Disciples congregation ending in 2004. In 2008, SCR’s services were fully integrated into Rainbow Mennonite Church, though the name “Sharing Community in Rosedale” has been kept to reflect the ongoing commitment to sharing resources with the neighborhood.

    Today, this commitment is visible through programs such as Head Start, a Mennonite Voluntary Service unit, community events like Hot Dogs in the Park and Easter egg hunts, the Whitmore Playground, summer education programs, and partnerships focused on healthy kids and community development. Rainbow Mennonite continues to see itself as an active part of the Rosedale community, continuing the legacy of shared ministry and neighborhood partnership.