Great Harvest Church Planting

Samuel Sarpiya, Rockford, IL Community Church pastor and church planter, joins On Earth Peace staff

Samuel Kefas Sarpiya has been hired to a six-month contract as part-time nonviolence organizer for On Earth Peace. His responsibilities include community organizing in Rockford, IL, and nonviolence leadership coaching for congregations and community groups around the country. “Samuel is expanding On Earth Peace’s capacity, so we can work more intensively with local violence reduction and peacebuilding projects. His organizing in Rockford is a model we’d like others to know about, and we’re excited to support it,” reported On Earth Peace program director Matt Guynn.

Sarpiya is the coordinating organizer for Rockford Partners for Excellence, a group formed in November 2009, which addresses issues of poverty and racism through creative community leadership. The group formed in the aftermath of a police shooting in August 2009.

Sarpiya continues his work as a church planter in the Illinois/Wisconsin District of the Church of the Brethren, planting the Rockford Community Church, a multicultural, peacecentered congregation that Samuel initiated in April 2009.

Sarpiya previously served as a missionary with Youth With A Mission (YWAM University of the Nations) and Urban Frontiers Mission. In YWAM, he served as Course Facilitator, Community Development Program Coordinator, Computer System Administrator and Delegate to the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), as well as the UN Council on Indigenous Peoples Affairs. With Urban Frontiers Mission, Samuel served as Evangelism & Missions Director, helping to pioneer different urban ministries all over West Africa. Samuel is a Nigerian-born South African national. He lives in Rockford, IL, with his wife and three daughters