CCRN Apartment Ministry
Research Sources, Interviews, and Artifacts.
Phase II Interviews
Phase II Interviews
Pastor Jesse Mendoza
Interviewee: Jesse Mendoza
Position: Pastor and former Apartment Life Cares Coordinator
Date: Jan. 18, 2023
Location: LifeSpring Church, 37603 28th Ave S, Federal Way, WA 98003
Recording Media: Audio
Abstract: In this interview, Jesse shares with me the most important lessons he learned in his two years of apartment ministry. He and his wife lived on-site at a local complex, held events regularly to meet people, built relationships, and made themselves available. They quickly entered into deep conversations with residents, and were able to minister to spiritual needs, provide comfort for those facing deep pain, and helped many people through difficult times. Jesse honestly and humbly spoke of how he and his wife became an important part of the lives of the people they helped. And this, in turn also led to increased demands on their time, their emotions, and their hearts. Jesse shares many of the nuts and bolds of the ministry, and also the cost in terms of the strain and toll the ministry took on their lives.
Reflection: Listening to the audio of this interview a year after it was conducted, I was struck by how instructive and, in a way, prophetic Jesse’s insights were to me as I prepared to enter into apartment ministry. The lessons on the importance of building rapport with the manager (and specifically how to do that), the demands on one’s time this ministry may exert, and the weight of the needs of people in the hearts of the minister, are all things that became clearly evident and in need of addressing if the ministry was to be fruitful and sustainable.
These lessons became the motivation and impetus for creating the Community Caring Resource Network, rather than functioning only as the Apartment Chaplain at Boulder Park. This may seem counterintuitive. If being the Chaplain to an apartment complex was going to be a major undertaking with weighty demands on time and emotions, how would forming and directing a whole new ministry in addition to functioning as the Chaplain of the apartment complex mitigate the risk of becoming overwhelmed with work and stress?
This question will be addressed further in the Reflection and Analysis page of this website, but for now, we refer the reader to the words of Jesus recorded in Luke 14, “Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it? Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This man could not finish what he started to build.’”
Notable points from this interview.
- Jesse and his wife have lived in apartments since they moved to the US from Belize.
- High turnover in apartments sometimes makes it difficult to get to know your neighbors.
Discovered that churches often had difficulties reaching those in apartments.
- As a pastor, when he and his church tried to reach out to a local apartment complex, they were prevented from hanging door-hangers on apartment, the response was: nothing personal, but because of the ‘whole fair housing act and how that works.’
- They joined Apartment Life and became Cares Coordinators in Edgewood, WA.
- The conditions during COVID changed the shape of the minsitry dramatically, but also opened up a lot of opportunities for conversations with neighbors.
- During the lock-down, people were hungry to talk to others, but could not get out as much, so walking the apartment complex became the place for conversations.
- Many great conversations and opportunities for ministry to hurting people.
- The commitment of 6-8 hours per week quickly became double that and more.
For a program to succeed, connect with people, and have them utilize the program it took between 12 to 15 hours a week.
- sending emails
- reaching out to people
- walking the community
- meeting people in the common areas
- preparing events
- Any apartment program has to operate according to the fair housing act, so you can’t do things just for Christians.
- We did a wine and cheese tasting event. ← that was our most well attended event, so we did it again.
4th of July ← we served burgers and hot dogs, well attended.
For many events, the focus was around food ← but there would be conversations around the food.
- Reception to “spiritual conversations” and discussions of faith were well received, and when he asked if he could pray for someone, not once did someone say “no.”
- Checked in with the apartment manager every week. This was important for knowing who was going through some kind of struggle.
- Taking notes to remember conversations was a very important part of the process, and being able to circle back to people, in specific ways, was impactful to them.