A Neighborhood Church and Its Place on East Broad
Broad Street Presbyterian Church sits on East Broad Street in the King Lincoln and Bronzeville neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, where it has been a church home for thousands of families since 1887. The congregation describes itself as a multi-generational Christian community that seeks to provide a safe place for spiritual rejuvenation and service to the world. People know Broad Street, often called BSPC, for the breadth of its neighborhood ministries as much as for its Sunday worship. A working food pantry, an emergency rent and utility program, a racial justice initiative, immersion trips to the U.S.-Mexico border and to Peru, a community garden, a farmers market, and a home repair crew all flow out of the same building that holds two traditional services each Sunday morning.
The church is intentionally inclusive, LGBTQIA+ affirming, and openly anti-racist. Its Session has affirmed the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s church-wide anti-racism policy and reaffirmed a Statement of Inclusion originally approved in 2000. Visitors will hear this welcome put plainly in the language the church uses to introduce itself: BSPC joyfully invites honest questions, takes it so seriously that it seeks the deeper meaning of the Bible without being confined by literal interpretations, and welcomes all.
Sunday Worship at Broad Street
Worship is the center of life at Broad Street. Two Sunday services are offered each week in the same building, both traditional in character, with choirs, hymns, scripture, sermons, prayers, and a children's time. Communion is a regular part of the rhythm: it is celebrated every week at the early service and on the first Sunday of each month at the late service.
The 8:30 a.m. service takes place in the Courtyard. It is described as shorter and more intimate, with a smaller congregation, weekly communion, congregational singing, and a family table up front. The 10:30 a.m. service is held in the Sanctuary. It usually features the choir leading hymn singing and offering an anthem, along with special music from a variety of instruments, a scripture reading, a sermon, prayers, and a children's time. Family tables again sit up front, signaling that children belong in worship rather than apart from it.
An online service premieres each Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. on the church's YouTube channel, and occasionally the late service is livestreamed at 10:30. The online service includes a Bible reading, a relevant message, a time for children, and music from some of Columbus' musicians. The services are recorded and remain available to watch any time, so people on the other side of the country or the world can worship with Broad Street on their own schedule.
The building is fully accessible, with bathrooms on every floor. The church is one of the few downtown Columbus congregations with its own parking lot, a large lot behind the building with a clearly marked door to the main entrance. Some people dress up for worship, while others arrive in jeans, and the congregation is friendly but never puts anyone on the spot. Newcomers will not be asked to introduce themselves in worship.
Children and Youth Belong at the Family Table
Children are not separated from worship at Broad Street; they are welcomed into it. The church describes its children's ministry as inclusive and supportive, offering opportunities for children from infancy into elementary school to learn about faith, serve others, and build lasting friendships. There is no traditional Sunday School. Instead, the children's ministry has been reimagined around monthly opportunities to play, volunteer, and explore the Bible during or after church, online, and at home. Younger children and their families have a dedicated family worship space near the front of the sanctuary with tables and new activities each Sunday. Children once a month slip out of worship for a children's experience. Babies and toddlers sit with their parents, and gliders are available.
The church's children and youth committee wrote and approved a Gender Inclusion Statement for Children and Youth Ministry, which the Session approved in 2025. It affirms that every young person is a beloved child of God and that Broad Street is a safe, welcoming, and affirming environment where all children and youth of every gender identity and expression are fully included in the life of the church.
Middle and high school youth have their own space. Youth Group meets seasonally after worship for lunch and conversation, drawing young people from more than twelve different school districts around the city. The most formative experiences, however, are the overnights at local retreats and longer trips to camps such as Massanetta and Montreat, as well as visits to global mission partners in Peru and Mexico. Confirmation is set aside for seventh and eighth graders to dive deeper into what their faith means to them and to reflect on their beliefs and the beliefs of the Christian faith. Associate Pastor Brittany Porch, who also serves Indianola Presbyterian Church with her spouse, leads this work.
The Broad Street Food Pantry
The Broad Street Food Pantry is one of the largest outreach efforts of the congregation and operates out of the east wing of the church at 760 East Broad Street. Its mission is to honor neighbors by serving as a reliable source for ingredients to create healthy meals, providing food for bodies, relief to minds, and nourishment for souls.
The pantry is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. and closes promptly at 10:30. Drive-through service is offered Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with shoppers waiting in their vehicles while volunteers bring food out. On Wednesdays, everyone shops in person. The pantry closes for major holidays and, in bad weather, only when a Level 2 or 3 Snow Emergency is declared for Franklin County. In 2024, the Broad Street Food Pantry provided food to 18,513 households, a 22 percent increase from 2023, serving on average 182 individuals a day. Each month it delivered meal kits to over 400 senior and working families who cannot come to the pantry in person.
More than 85 percent of the food in the pantry is purchased from the Mid-Ohio Foodbank or local retailers, so cash donations help stretch dollars toward the most nutritious items. Donations of unexpired shelf-stable food and fresh produce are also welcome. Items especially needed include pasta, cereal, canned vegetables, fruit or beans (no garbanzo beans), and winter comfort foods such as canned soup, hot cocoa, instant oatmeal, and mashed potatoes. Volunteers assist neighbors in the choice pantry and at produce festivals, and high school students can earn service hours there.
COMPASS: Keeping Neighbors Housed
COMPASS, the Congregational Outreach Ministries Program of Assistance and Social Service, was founded in 1982 as an outreach ministry of Broad Street Presbyterian Church in partnership with other faith-based organizations. For more than forty years, COMPASS has assisted individuals and families in Central Ohio with one-time emergency financial assistance for rent and utilities, working to prevent homelessness and promote self-sufficiency by providing direct short-term financial help and targeted referrals to community partners.
Due to funding rules, COMPASS serves only residents of Franklin County and Columbus. Walk-ins are not being accepted at this time. To request assistance, neighbors email compass@bspc.org or leave a message at 614-429-5979. To be eligible, applicants must have a source of income, a late rent or utility notice because of a financial hardship, documentation of that hardship, and must not have received COMPASS assistance in the previous twelve months. Assistance is available only once per year, and eligibility does not guarantee that help will be approved. In recent reporting the church celebrated the fact that 597 neighbors were not evicted and over 232 families did not have their heat or water unexpectedly shut off in a recent year, work the church says continues through a partnership with the City of Columbus Resilient Housing Initiative.
A Letter of Apology and a Racial Justice Initiative
Broad Street has been involved in advocacy for justice for as long as most members can remember, working on homelessness, gun violence, immigration, affordable health care, fair trade, energy policy, racial equality, and public education. The Session has committed the church to listening and learning before acting and to showing respect for the views of others in that work. As followers of Christ, the congregation affirms that racism is not compatible with Broad Street's values, policies, and practices.
In the spirit of that commitment, BSPC's Session recently sent a letter of apology to Bethany Presbyterian Church, a neighboring historically Black congregation, acknowledging historic and present harms. Bethany's Session received the letter with gratitude, shared it with their congregation, and sent back a gracious response. Both letters are shared publicly as part of living into the gospel's call to truth, love, and repair.
The Racial Justice Initiative operates around four objectives: increasing congregational conversation on race-related topics, improving racially just outcomes within church life, influencing racial justice in the near neighborhood, and addressing racial injustices that are institutionalized or culturally supported. The Session has committed the church to ongoing anti-racism education for children, youth, and adults, to considering vendors and suppliers owned or controlled by people of color, to recruiting and developing a diverse staff, and to partnering with the broader community.
In January 2026, the Session also adopted a Statement on Immigration Solidarity, calling on federal immigration agencies to cease enforcement tactics that rely on fear and intimidation and committing to listening to and honoring the stories of those most impacted, challenging rhetoric rooted in fear and falsehood, reaching out to elected officials, and engaging across difference with honesty and humility.
Global and National Ministry
Broad Street has a particular commitment to long-term partnerships beyond its neighborhood, described as such. For more than 25 years, the congregation has been in relationship with partners in Peru, most recently in 2026. Mark Adams and Miriam Maldonado are Presbyterian ministry partners serving in Agua Prieta, Mexico, in the binational ministry Frontera de Cristo, working in immigrant and migrant support, just trade coffee, children's enrichment programs, women's empowerment, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Jenny Valles and Jed Koball serve as Presbyterian partners based in Peru, with Jed coordinating work across the Amazon, the Andes, and the Southern Cone, and Jenny coordinating the Young Adult Volunteer program in Peru and across Latin America.
The church has shifted from mission trips to immersion experiences, traveling not simply to deliver help but to listen, learn, build meaningful relationships, and understand the local context. A Peru immersion experience takes place every four years, with the next trip in 2030, and a U.S.-Mexico border immersion experience also takes place every four years, with the next in 2028.
Broad Street also supports the Marion Medical Mission Shallow Well program, which promotes access to clean water; Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the emergency and refugee program of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); IMCK Good Shepherd Hospital, a 160-bed facility in Tshikaji in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and the PC(USA)'s Special Offerings, which support racial justice, gender justice, peacemaking, global witness, ecumenical and interfaith relations, disaster, hunger, poverty, and ministry with children, youth, and refugees.
The Broad Street Garden and Farmers Market
On the church's grounds, Leslie Joseph leads the Broad Street Garden, with monthly service days on third Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon and occasional Sunday morning sessions. Children with a parent and other interested people of any age are welcome to dig in and garden in community. The 2025 harvest from the garden topped 572 pounds of produce for the food pantry.
Three Sundays a year the parking lot transforms into the Broad Street Farmers Market, with seasonal dates in July, August, and September from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Local growers and small food businesses bring fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and other locally grown foods. Featured growers have included Te'Lario Watkins II of Tiger Mushroom Farms, Christina Allen of Food Leads, Guy Emmons of Guy Smiley's Market, and Shawn Duffy of The Garden for All, a six-year-old project that donates every harvest to local food pantries and is working toward 50,000 pounds of produce for Central Ohio pantries.
Community Life, Small Groups, and Music
Small groups are a primary way members at Broad Street get to know each other and grow in faith. They include a weekly Bible study on Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m. on Zoom led by Pastor Amy Miracle that helps her prepare for preaching each week, a Sunday morning Bible study at 9:30 a.m. in the Parlor led by Karl Wetherholt, and a monthly Bible study led by Pastor Palmerton using the Presbyterian Horizons Bible Study. Pizza and Prose gathers monthly on the fourth Friday evening in members' homes around rotating discussion leaders. Dine with Nine forms small groups of five to seven adults that meet monthly for meals, with new groupings to keep expanding the circle. The Red Tent Society packages feminine hygiene products for the Food Pantry, usually meeting on the third Sunday after church. The Funeral and Memorial Team coordinates cookies and receptions after services. God's Treasures has been a long-standing group for developmentally disabled adults during the school year.
Stephen Ministry is another core expression of care. Stephen Ministers are congregation members trained to provide confidential one-on-one care to people facing a crisis or life difficulty. The caring relationship lasts roughly three to six months, and conversations are kept confidential.
Music is central to the congregation's worship. The choir rehearses on Thursday evenings and sings at the 10:30 a.m. worship from September through May. Director of Music Ministry William Boggs chooses and prepares music that speaks to the human experience. Organist Jim Hildreth, who has served Broad Street since 1987, plays an organ with a wide range of tonal colors and a recently purchased Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Piano that allows an even broader repertoire, from Bach, Mendelssohn, and Franck to African-American spirituals and newly published hymn settings. The music program also features talented instrumentalists during worship.
The Home Repairs Team
Broad Street's Home Repairs Team is made up of people who enjoy fixing things and making a difference. The team only takes on repairs that create a safety or security risk in the home, such as a loose railing or rotted steps, and may handle minor electrical or plumbing work though the volunteers are not licensed in either. Labor is free; the homeowner must own the residence and pay for purchased materials in cash or check after the work is done. The team does not work on rentals.
What the Church Believes
The church's beliefs are rooted in a confession that God is a God of power and mystery and love who actively seeks a relationship with every person. Broad Street believes that God's love, reflected and revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, is the most powerful force in the world. It believes that nothing can separate a person from God's love, that God offers new beginnings and second chances, and that God takes initiative in lives in challenging and comforting ways. The church's values are rooted in Jesus' command to love God and love neighbor.
The Statement of Inclusion, originally approved in February 2000 and reaffirmed by the Session on April 25, 2022, reads: In celebration of the God-given diversity of creation, and the unconditional welcome extended to friend and stranger alike by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Broad Street Presbyterian Church welcomes into its fellowship all who desire to be a part of this community of faith. Each of us comes to God in the same way, unconditionally loved and accepted. All are invited to the celebrations and ministries of Broad Street Presbyterian Church, including participation in all services of worship and the availability of pastoral care, as well as opportunities for fellowship, education, and service. The church seeks to honor and affirm persons of every gender identity and sexual orientation and to create a community where the gifts of all people are welcomed and utilized.
Leadership and Pastoral Team
The Reverend Amy Miracle is Pastor and Head of Staff. A lifelong Presbyterian, Amy grew up in Dayton, Ohio, attended Princeton University, earned a Master of Social Sciences in Irish Political Studies from Queen's University Belfast, and earned a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She previously served as associate pastor at Central Presbyterian Church in Denver and as senior pastor and head of staff at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Des Moines. She has a particular love for helping people deepen their relationship with God and for the practical work of caring for neighbors in need.
The Reverend Ann Palmerton is Associate Pastor for Care and Discipleship. Ann's roots are in Escondido, California; she graduated from Pomona College with a degree in English Literature and from Princeton Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity. Before coming to Broad Street in 1995 she served as an associate pastor at Point Loma Community Presbyterian Church in San Diego and as interim associate pastor at Indianola Presbyterian Church in Columbus. She delights in seeing God at work in big and small ways, in growing faith from trust as tiny as a mustard seed.
Brittany Porch is Associate Pastor for Children and Youth, with a Master's of Arts in Practical Theology from Columbia Theological Seminary. She is a Certified Christian Educator in the PC(USA) and is working toward ordination. She and her husband Trip Porch, pastor at Indianola Presbyterian Church, have two school-aged children.
Tracy Ross is Director of Neighborhood Ministries. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Administration from Eastern Michigan University and has worked for nonprofit organizations throughout her professional career. Kathy Kelly-Long directs the Broad Street Food Pantry. Mary Mutegi directs COMPASS. William Boggs leads music ministry and Jim Hildreth serves as organist.
Come as You Are
Broad Street is one of the few downtown Columbus churches with its own parking lot, and a clearly marked door at the back of the building leads straight into the main entrance. The building is fully accessible, with bathrooms on every floor. Some people dress up for worship, while others arrive in jeans. The congregation is friendly but never puts anyone on the spot, and newcomers will not be asked to introduce themselves in worship. Children of every age are welcome, including babies and toddlers with their parents. There are two in-person services on Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. in the Courtyard and 10:30 a.m. in the Sanctuary, with online worship premiering each week on YouTube.
More than a century and a half after its founding, Broad Street continues to open its many doors to its neighborhood. A car full of food becomes baskets, baskets become meals, and meals become stability, dignity, and relief, if only for a moment. The doors do not stay open on their own. Broad Street invites anyone who resonates with its calling to love God and love neighbor to come see what that calling looks like in this time, in this place.