Partner Churches Ministry History
In 2023, Koinonia Christian Church, Love Center of Unity, and Reveille celebrated their 10-year partnership in the Richmond community of Swansboro. This page highlights oral history interviews with pastors and key leaders in this partnership, along with an article featuring the history of the churches and how their partnership came to fruition. Additionally, there is a timeline chronicling the ministries of this partnership over the last decade.
For more information about the Swansboro Partner Churches ministry history project, please contact Carol Hampton.
Project Partners
We thank Dr. Brian Daugherity, Professor, History Department, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), for recruiting two student interns to document the history of our 10-year Swansboro Churches Partnership.
- During the spring semester of 2023, Noah Sarmiento, a senior history and cinema student, interviewed 17 members from our partner churches in eight groups and created oral history video recordings with transcripts to document their personal knowledge and memories. He used a series of questions formulated by the Swansboro team as the interview structure. Recording the videos added dimension and personality to the history. He also produced the 10-year celebration video.
- During the 2023 summer semester, Kendall Sargent selected the internship as the final course to complete her master’s degree in history. After gathering, organizing, and analyzing historical documents, photographs, and video oral histories, she created the detailed historical 10-year timeline of the partnership, documenting activities, relationships, and viewpoints. She also wrote an article describing our churches’ unique partnership in Richmond.We thank the students for their terrific work to help us provide this recorded history.
How did it all begin?
In the summer of 2012, Reveille Youth Director Dwayne Stinson had the idea to redirect the annual youth mission trip to focus efforts locally in Swansboro rather than travel out of the state. Reveille had a longstanding relationship with Swansboro Elementary School from almost 20 years of volunteering and tutoring. Assistant Pastor Katie Gooch explored Swansboro on foot and attended community meetings held at Koinonia Christian Church in hopes of better understanding local needs. In June 2013, Reveille youth began work on a Habitat for Humanity home in Swansboro. Members from Love Center of Unity and Koinonia Christian Church served alongside Reveille youth throughout the week and in the following months to complete the Habitat home.
A celebration in honor of the Habitat home’s completion occurred in November of 2013, but Pastor Katie wanted to take the connection with the Swansboro community churches one step further. She reached out to Koinonia Christian Church and Love Center of Unity to create a joint ministry with Reveille and the common goal of serving together to build the kingdom.
Partner Churches Ministry Timeline
A timeline featuring various ministries, events, studies, and outreach projects that Koinonia Christian Church, Love Center of Unity, and Reveille participated in together over the last ten years can be explored in detail here. The timeline also showcases a wonderful variety of photos highlighting ministries among the churches throughout the years.
Oral History Video Interviews
A number of key leaders and pastors from Reveille, Koinonia Christian Church, and Love Center of Unity were interviewed to capture a deeper perspective on the relationships among the churches. Each of these videos can be viewed below.
Celebrating 10 Years