Disciple: Mission Endowment Spotlight: Growing into Community
Johnson Service Corps expands
By Summerlee Walter
In 1998, Margaret Johnson, a long-time member of Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill, passed away, leaving her entire estate to the church. Johnson, while faithfully attending the church for decades, had kept to herself, so her gift came as a surprise. The church had no idea how much she might have saved during her years as a librarian at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and Johnson left neither a hint nor any instructions regarding the use of her gift. The church was free to use the estate, which all told consisted of a few hundred dollars and some property, to meet whatever need it identified.
The congregation as a body entered a period of discernment, and, in an example of Galilee ministry before we as a diocese started talking about it, decided to extend its already strong outreach among young adults at UNC to those who had already graduated. The church decided to adopt the service corps model, and Johnson Service Corps was born.
Johnson Service Corps (JSC) was founded as a servant leadership development program with service to the Chapel Hill community and intentional community living within the furnished JSC house as the basis of participants’ experience. Starting as a ministry of Chapel of the Cross, it became a separate 501(c)3 in 2005 and a founding member of the Episcopal Service Corps in 2008.
“Every Episcopal Service Corps site has a specific charism, and at JSC, that’s servant leadership,” Sarah Horton-Campbell, executive director of the Johnson Service Corps, explained. “It’s an immersive, intensive experience in becoming a servant leader.”
The formation occurs through once-per-week meetings and regular corporate prayer and worship. House members receive a shared food budget (in addition to small personal stipends) and make joint decisions about ordering their common lives during business meetings and thrice weekly community meals. Outside of the house, they work at nonprofits and meet regularly with mentors who help them in their personal discernment. JSC welcomes members from ecumenical – and theoretically interfaith – backgrounds, but all members participate in a program of Christian formation.
GROWING PAINS
The staff at Johnson Service Corps underwent a strategic planning process in early 2014 and identified a few areas in which the program practice did not fit directly within the program’s mission. Members of the corps were supposed to be experiencing the broader community in the place they live and serve, but, with corps members interning in Durham, half of the participants were not experiencing full immersion in either the Chapel Hill or the Durham community.
“In order for corps members to understand the theology of place that extended to the community in which they are working, we either needed to get smaller and focus just on Chapel Hill or get bigger and open a house in Durham,” Horton-Campbell said.
Leaders also discerned a need to expand the fall servant leadership course and add a vocation and money course in the spring that could be offered beyond members of JSC.
“We wanted to offer courses that are accessible to those young adults and offer that formation to a broader group of young adults,” Horton-Campbell explained.
Opening a second house and expanding formation offerings required funding, and in the fall Horton-Campbell decided to apply for a Mission Endowment Grant to allow JSC to hire staff to accomplish those goals.
The Durham community starts in August after a year spent building infrastructure – hiring staff, locating a house and recruiting partner organizations. This fall, five young adults will live in each house, with a goal of six per house in August 2017. The new classes will roll out in the spring, and Horton-Campbell and her staff are already planning ways to invite participation from the broader community.
The expanded capacity from the grant will allow JSC to form even more servant leaders.
“We’re of the mindset that this is really valuable curriculum and materials that are good for the intentional community but should also be shared with our partner organizations and the broader community,” Horton-Campbell explained.
JSC will also be able to share a greater number of servant leaders with the community. Of those who graduate the program, one-quarter enter the ministry, one-quarter work with nonprofits and most of the rest become educators, counselors and medical professionals.
“This year of spiritual formation and intentional community at JSC has shown me the impact and strength in sharing my story,” graduating corps member Ashley Reid reflected. “Walking my journey this year was definitely hard at times, but I discovered I found my own strength and hope in God when I shared my journey with my community. As a result our community got stronger as we shared more of ourselves.”
TIPS FOR INTENTIONAL LIVING
While most of us will never live in an intentional community of the sort Johnson Service Corps members experience, the basic principles of servant leadership they practice can be incorporated into everyday life. The three main pillars of servant leadership - communion, compassion and co-creation - are already familiar to most Christians.
According to Horton-Campbell, these three components flow in a loop, feeding into each other to form a complete picture of servant leadership. Contemplative spiritual practices of communion, like contemplative prayer, saying the Daily Office or using prayer beads, connect one to God and keep one grounded. From this communion with God flows the ability to have compassion and be in communion with others. From that place of compassion flows the ability to co-create with God and others for justice and peace in the world.
These foundations of servant leadership can be incorporated into daily life in many ways. Setting aside time for prayer, practicing listening to hear, not to respond, and getting involved with a volunteer organization or social justice cause constitutes communion, compassion and co-creation without requiring dedication to an intentional living community.
“Incorporating their own contemplative or inward practice, practice of compassion and practice of co-creation - that’s what we hope for all of our alumni to keep doing as they go on to do what they’re going do,” Horton-Campbell explained.
It is a model we can all follow.
Learn more about Johnson Service Corps at johnsonservicecorps.org, and keep on eye on Please Note for more information about the spring vocation and money course. The fall servant leadership course meets on Fridays, 9:15-11:30 a.m., September 9 – November 4. Registration information is available on their website.
Summerlee Walter is the communications coordinator for the Diocese of North Carolina.
Tags: North Carolina Disciple
