LOS ANGELES (Mennonite Mission Network) – Two years ago, a short prayer by Shelton Oakley Hersey, a former DOOR Hollywood board member, led the program’s search for “a person of peace.”
This person would be a connecter – across cultures, classes, countries of origin, and faith backgrounds. DOOR Hollywood was looking for one who might take leadership in La Casa de la Comunidad (The Community’s House). The house is the result of a more-than-30-year partnership between the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, the local community, and young adult service participants from Mennonite Mission Network and the Presbyterian Church USA.
People in the DOOR (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection) community in Hollywood hoped that a local neighbor would step up to be that person. They searched for someone who reached out to the neighborhood kids that visited regularly.
It was also important that the “person of peace” pay attention to any effects that charity might have on the community. “While significant exceptions exist, urban ministry in the United States has often looked like suburban church folk hauling teams downtown to ‘fix the broken city,’” said Matthew Schmitt, DOOR director in Hollywood. “DOOR celebrates the ‘face of God in the city,’ and works at unpacking this tendency, always urging the question, ‘What if we highlighted that good ideas and good practices originate in the minds of city folks as well as suburban folks?’”
In 2011, Brittney Witt came as a Dwell participant. Dwell is a year-long service opportunity with DOOR for participants to explore urban ministry as a vocation. Witt’s primary mission was to be a Neighborhood Partnership Coordinator, offering a listening ear and organizing outreach opportunities within the neighborhood.
Witt sat with neighbors and asked what mattered to them. “She helped to establish a spirit of paying attention and resisting assumptions,” said Schmitt.
But when she said goodbye to her DOOR experience, hopes that she was the “person of peace” disappeared.
In August 2013, Schmitt and Marvin Wadlow Jr., assistant director, were writing a joint program report. Wadlow had originally been hired to establish the DOOR Discern program, a summer service internship program that hosts week-long service groups. In his role, Wadlow helped develop the ministry leadership skills of the Discern participants. In Hollywood, local Discern interns were Latino. Wadlow, an African American, and Schmitt, of European descent, constantly asked, “What does it mean to develop young leaders outside of our cultural background?”
When reflecting together, they realized that each person in the neighborhood chooses to be that “person of peace,” in the way they relate to each other – regardless of background. “Matthew and I maintaining a healthy working environment is not easy, and it’s not hard either,” wrote Wadlow. It takes reconciliation, he wrote, “and taking account of what our cultures have brought to the table, what they’re responsible for, and how they react differently.”
After reading the reflection, Schmitt and Wadlow realized they were asking the wrong questions. Instead of searching for one person to work on issues of peace and understanding, they believed that God wanted to develop a people of peace.
“It is Odalys. It is Christian. It is Arthur. It is Kevyn. It is Wendy. It is Madee. It is Kyle. It is the familial bond between them,” said Schmitt. “It is the shared histories; the new stories; the good, bad, ugly and beautiful of La Casa de la Comunidad; and all the hospitality. It is all the people they will inspire.”
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact news@mennonitemission.net.
