Community connection is key to service
By Melanie Hess
When Joel and Leslie Gerber said they were thinking about a service term, they got some funny looks. They weren’t typical service workers; they were a young married couple with a child and full-time jobs in rural Kansas—not young adults fresh out of college or retirees with time on their hands.
But the strange looks were few and far between compared to the outpouring of community support for their plan. When the Gerbers decided to serve with Dwell, a joint program of Mennonite Mission Network and Presbyterian Church USA, their congregation, Pleasant View Mennonite Church, was full of encouragement.
“Some fellow church members have been critical in encouraging me in this direction and I would not [have applied] if it wasn't for them,” said Joel Gerber.
Dwell is a part of DOOR, a program that began in Denver and came out of a desire to “see the face of God in the city” by helping people to see how God is at work in urban areas around the country.
There are two ways to enter the Dwell program: one is to come to the city for a year or two of service and life in community. But Dwell also encourages local young adults, who often have more traditional jobs, to come live with the service workers in intentional Christian community as “tentmakers” in their own backyards. Residents of Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Hollywood, Miami and San Antonio have the opportunity to live in community through Dwell.
Coming to the city
Joel and Leslie Gerber and their 11-month-old daughter, Cora, moved into Dwell’s Capitol View house and began their term of service in early September.
Joel and Leslie were both teachers in Harper, Kan., but the desire for a change prompted Joel to think seriously about service, something he’d been considering for years. He convinced Leslie to apply to international and U.S. service programs, even as they looked for other job opportunities. In the end, the fact that they had a small daughter and a second child on the way narrowed their possibilities considerably. But the Capitol View house in Atlanta had room for a family.
“It was a good time for us—we had already missed our opportunity to do service straight out of college, but it was something that Joel had always wanted to do,” said Leslie. “We said ‘Cora’s not in school yet, so let’s take this opportunity to go now before we need to stay in one place.’ ”
The community made a difference for the Gerbers—it was their church family who helped make service seem like a real possibility.
“A lot of people from our church have done service for many, many years, most of Joel’s family has done service, and there were three others my age who are doing international or U.S. service for multiple years. It’s just something that they do,” said Leslie. “When we mentioned making a job change, people came to us and said ‘why don’t you think about doing service.’ I think that’s maybe what put the bug in our ear to apply. There are so many people that have done it and have had great experiences.”
The Gerbers continue to get support from the members of Pleasant View—in the form of encouraging emails and financial gifts, since Dwell program members raise part of their own support.
As for their service placements, Leslie works for Neighbors’ Abbey, a church in their neighborhood, where she does administrative work and works with a mentoring program at a local middle school. She helps with a life skills class for middle school girls and also helps match them with mentors from their own community.
Joel works at homeless men’s shelter and as a “gardener in residence” at a charter school. His farming background allows him to share his knowledge about growing food and composting with children who haven’t had experience with agriculture. Recently he spent an afternoon pulling weeds with kindergarten-age boys.
Their new community living situation is a change for the Gerbers, who’ve spent the past three years living in a farmhouse in “the middle of nowhere.” But the practical aspects of their community living—not having to cook every night, not having an entire house to clean, and readily available baby-sitters—are a benefit, said Leslie.
They’re also taking advantage of life in the city, an adjustment that hasn’t been as difficult as they expected. “Living right in the middle of the neighborhood is a great way to meet people,” said Leslie. And being within walking distance of some of Atlanta’s many parks helps them find inexpensive and fun things to do with their daughter.
Finding life in community
Tommy Flynn represents the other way to serve through Dwell. He is a long-term resident of Atlanta and a nurse who has lived in the Grant Park house for the past two years.
“The local young adults are the anchors,” aid Jannan Thomas, DOOR Atlanta’s city director. “They’re here for multiple years and they’re able to really build relationships and provide consistency.”
After a few years in more formal church ministry, Flynn was looking for a way to live his faith in a different way. He was interested in the community and connection that Dwell could provide.
“I really felt a lack of fulfillment in the strict Christian ‘systems’ we have offered to us from the church,” said Flynn. “There are small groups, Sunday school, and service opportunities, but barring certain extremes like long-term mission, you don’t really get many opportunities to live your faith day in and day out and struggle through some of the really hard questions that come along with it.”
For Dwell house members in Atlanta, living together intentionally is an important part of their spiritual and intellectual growth.
“We meet every week for dinner and discussion, whatever falls on that night,” Flynn explained. “We also have nights for celebrating things like Advent, exploring different Christian practices and learning about social issues like gentrification, racism, the sex trade, poverty, hunger and our response to them.”
When Flynn first joined the house in 2008, community questions revolved around chores and logistics—the basics of setting up a household. As time went on, Flynn says, they had to deal with more intense conflicts and questions.
“Conflict is one of the key elements of living in community—it’s easy to avoid unless you’re actually living together,” said Flynn. “You either stop talking to each other or deal with it somehow. It’s pushed everyone in the community to work with others in love and understand others better.”
Every year there are new Dwell participants. “Turnover every year changes the feel of the house, because everyone brings their own contribution, personality and vision,” said Flynn. “Every year we take a different direction and get new energy.”
The community also serves as support as members go out to their jobs or service placements, giving encouragement and strengthening each other.
“The communities serve as families, even though they’re not biologically related,” said Thomas. “It’s amazing to see just how supportive they are of one another and how they can be brothers and sisters in Christ to one another.”
In Atlanta, those who come for a service term are placed through connections with the Presbyterian Church, but there’s also a strong connection with Atlanta Mennonite Fellowship, who owns the Dwell house in Grant Park. Dwell members were living in the Grant Park house with others when the house was known simply as AMF’s hospitality house. When AMF began to revisit the mission of the house, they saw that the Dwell vision fit their hopes for what the house would be, said Thomas, and Dwell and AMF decided to partner together.
“We’re part of the ministry that AMF has in the city, through their house,” Thomas said. “So we like for the church to be involved in things that happen in the house—game nights and music nights—informal connections that we try to keep open.” In addition to inviting AMF members to be a part of their hospitality nights, some of the Dwellers go work on the farm connected with the church.
Flynn said the lessons he’s learned from living in community are going to remain with him for the rest of his life: communication skills, leadership, and care for others.
“I’m going to take with me a more profound ability to love more people, perhaps all people, because we’re put in this house together—we don’t pick each other,” he said. “God picks us and we just end up together. We have to learn how to love people we don’t normally have to relate to.”
