Rooted in resilience, Poston Community Baptist Church transforms a site of injustice into a home for healing
VALLEY FORGE, PA (11/25/2025)—The Poston Community Baptist Church stands on land that witnessed much injustice and displacement. The Poston incarceration camp—officially known as the War Relocation Center, which housed just under 18,000 Japanese American inmates during World War II—was built on the Colorado River Indian Tribes’ reservation land, historically the Mojave territory. The imprisoned Japanese Americans were ordered to construct a large irrigation system there in order to make the land arable.
After they were released in 1945, the U.S. government invited Navajo and Hopi families from northern Arizona to relocate to Poston. When they arrived there, the camp was being dismantled. The Hopi and Navajo moved directly into the camp barracks, initially living in the same structures where the Japanese Americans were confined before. Amid this double displacement, the Poston Community Baptist Church was founded to provide spiritual direction to the new community.
“My mother was a part of that [relocation process],” said Pastor Shawn Thompson, the current leader of the Poston Community Baptist Church, which is a partner of American Baptist Home Mission Societies. The community around it includes Native American, Hispanic, and a small number of white residents. But the church itself is predominantly Native American, made up of descendants of the original Hopi and Navajo families who founded it. The current church building was dedicated in 1952.
Thompson, who is Hopi and Akimel O’odham, has led the church since 2013. He grew up in the congregation and serves bivocationally as both a schoolteacher and minister. He now ministers to the community across generations. The congregation is about 40 people strong. It consists mostly of adults in their 40s-50s, with a handful of youth and children. Pastor Thompson accepted his call at a low point in the church’s history. “When I came back, there was no one here,” he said. “We were kind of like in limbo, kind of struggling. The attendance was maybe ten. Today, we have a steady group of people coming in.”
The church has long been a place where the Poston residents gather. Its Thanksgiving dinner, open to everyone in the region is an important ministry that nourishes and strengthens the community. Volunteers from the town help with preparing and serving the food. In small, rural places, togetherness is vital; in Poston, farmers share food to ensure no one is left without, and the church is a part of this network of mutual care.
“If something needs to be done, it needs to be done,” concluded Thompson, echoing Paul, who wrote, “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all.” (Gal 6:9-10) To support ministries like Poston Community Baptist Church that nourish their communities, give to ABHMS here.
By Rev. Dr. Anna Piela, ABHMS senior writer and associate editor of The Christian Citizen
