From the Deacon’s Bench

My reflection on how and why I serve at The Beloved Community at The Trees.

After moving back to Durham two years ago, I felt lost. “Now what am I going to do with my life?”, I asked myself.

Call it coincidence or the Holy Spirit’s answer when Phillip Bass called me, invited me to coffee, and shared with me his vision of a new type of “not in a church,” church.

This concept sounded so radically new and exciting! I knew plenty of people who experienced the trauma or shaming of church. Some walked away because of past pain. Others walked away because of busyness, disillusionment, or just not feeling connected. As Phillip described this new community, I realized that church was never meant to be a burden, a shaming place, or a checkbox on one’s weekly task list.

His vision reflected why faith still matters, not a guilt-trip kind of exclusionary institution, but a way of clarity, healing, and support to the many people feeling lost, broken, or rejected.

Wherever people are on their faith journey - curious, skeptical, returning, the Beloved Community offers a safe space to explore how faith might fit into one’s life again, or for the first time.

The Beloved Community at The Trees was established to be a place of belonging to all people, but especially to those who have been hurt by the church. It offers a source of spirituality to grow, and a place to serve, and support each other and those in our broader community.

In a beautiful wooded setting, The Beloved Community at The Trees offers a space for worship and reflection allowing spiritual renewal - not in the absence of doubts, but in the loving presence of God - right in the middle of our questions, our grief, or our numbness. Here we can safely share and reconstruct our relationship with God and each other much like the early Christians worshipped. 

I no longer feel lost, but found with purpose with a closer relationship with God having personally witnessed healing and spiritual growth at The Beloved Community at The Trees.

Faithfully Submitted,

Dan