Dave Yoshida jokingly compared The Giving Circle Church to its “Gingerbread Communion Christians,” a practice they started over Christmas using gluten-free, all-gender gingerbread people as communion bread.
“It’s hilarious when you get to raise its body and break it down,” he said. “It’s a pretty good understanding of what we’re like – we are very literal; we take this very seriously, but we’re also really fun.”
Yoshida along with Evalani Pandaraoan and Jessica Kawamura founded the Honolulu church in 2023, drawing from a United Church of Christ model they had experienced on the Mainland and wanted to bring back home.
The Giving Circle Church offers a Sunday worship potluck without a traditional sermon or salaried pastoral team that has since attracted about 20 members including Anna and Joel Hamaguchi, who “were also there from the very beginning,” he said.
Yoshida is a devoted church volunteer who holds a master of divinity degree and works as a master sommelier. He added, “We’ve been meeting for two years now and are still growing into our sense of who we are as a community.”
Part of its identity will be formed by a series of community-focused events set for this year. In January, Chicago-based storyteller and pastor Rebecca Anderson will facilitate a workshop teaching participants of all ages and skill levels “how to tell our stories better, even if just for ourselves,” according to eventbrite.
The event is open to the public and will run on Jan. 18 from 3 to 5 p.m. at Makiki Christian Church’s lower social hall, which is located at 829 Pensacola Street in Honolulu. On Jan. 23, there will be a chance to share those stories in front of a live audience from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Aloha Beer Co. in Kakaako.
“We want people to have a good time and develop a new skill in storytelling. True stories save lives,” Yoshida said. “We aim to do good to the community and implement more community engagement.”
Also in the queue for 2025 is a tax preparation clinic and opioid addiction and mental health intervention training, he added.
Behind the name
The terms “giving circle” in the church’s name are literal and intentional, too.
“In our bylaws, we are required to give at least 51% of our gross income to outside of the church, so we’ve been doing that via grants,” Yoshida said.
He noted, The Giving Circle Church receives approximately $40,000 annually, $5,000 of which goes toward non-grant expenses like rent and fees. Since 2023, six organizations across the Islands have been awarded a total of $45,400 – which was 85% or more of total church giving year-over-year. Past recipients include The Hawaii Workers Center, Hoa Aina O Makaha, Molokai Child Abuse Prevention Pathways and more.
“It forces our congregation to become aware about what the needs of the community are,” he said, adding that they often help solicit applications from nonprofits and are involved throughout. “We’re a church because we’re hoping that process of giving will change the people that come to church, as well.”
Yearly grant applications are due in June and awarded in the fall. For more information, click here.
“Circle” in the church’s name “reflects how we hope to lead ourselves with decentralized leadership,” Yoshida said. Worship services planned by different members of the community incorporate sacred text readings paired with poetry, music and visual arts, among other means of interpretation, in addition to a potluck, or tradition of breaking bread together.
The Giving Circle Church promotes equal justice and peace and is open and affirming to LGBTQ+ members. Its mission is to embody faith as “a catalyst for greater acts of love, justice and compassion,” per its website.
“Our backgrounds represent the full spectrum of Christian faith, but we agreed it was more important that a church shared a unified practice of serving the local community, rather than a unified set of beliefs; after all, Jesus’s commandment to love our neighbor directs the ways that we treat one another, not the doctrines that we confess,” its website notes.
CONTACT
The Giving Circle Church
Mailing address: PO Box 894486, Mililani, HI 96789
Email: info@givingcirclechurch.org
Services: 1st and 3rd Sundays at 5:30 p.m.
Address: Makiki Christian Church
829 Pensacola Street, Honolulu
Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
