Rev. Lina Thompson
From Church to Community Hub - Transformation at Lake B
2025-26: Lake Burien Presbyterian Church (Lake B) is launching a project to document and reflect on its decade-long transformation from a small, elderly congregation to a vibrant, diverse faith community and neighborhood hub. The initiative will examine the factors behind this growth, including preaching, shared leadership, spiritual practices, and the balance between individual and community formation. Led by a team representing diverse voicess—the project will also explore equity, diversity in worship, community partnerships, and practices that center the most vulnerable. The goal is to capture Lake B’s journey and offer insights for sustaining congregational and community transformation.
Conversations in Urban Diaspora
2025-26: This affinity working group seeks to engage the unique and complex faith formation and identity of Samoan people living in U.S. urban communities. The group hopes to discern what the Spirit is doing among Samoan people during this distinctive time, especially at the intersection of multiple identities: diasporic Samoan, Christian, urban, and multi-generational. Participants will engage in regular conversations, referred to as “Talanoa,” and participate in a shared learning journey. This process will include ongoing discussions within the group and with others through both Zoom and in-person gatherings, a literature review of Samoan and Pasefika spirituality, Christian formation and practices, and theology, as well as a learning trip.
A member of one of the first Samoan families to move into the Seattle area, Lina is senior pastor at Lake Burien Presbyterian Church. She has served in urban ministry for more than 30 years, working with World Vision and urban youth development. She has also been involved with Street Psalms since its early years.
Congregations and Communities grants provide support for urban pastors, churches, faith-based community organizations, and theological institutions to share resources, ideas, and practices for life-giving ministry in cities across North America. Typically, we invite those who have not previously had access to resources or grant funding.
The Affinity Working Group initiative aims to provide time and space for HUB learning network members to engage in focused ways with others interested in a similar topic and questions around ministry in the city. We anticipate working group members to explore, deepen, and assess their own vocation, urban context, and church life; gain clarity about vital questions and issues in a particular focus area (eg. youth, arts, etc), and learn from group members’ lived experiences and other sources of knowledge and wisdom.
