Introducing Our 2024 Signature Mission: Jerusalem Farm Cultivates a Better World from Kansas City’s Northeast
Many are drawn to Village Church for our past, current and future commitment to mission. The impact from “the Mission Church on Mission Road” extends internationally, across the nation and southern border and especially in our local communities.
Each year, the Mission Committee looks for an organization that serves our neighbors in profound ways, one with a particular project or need which our annual Signature Mission dollars could serve well. At its June 10 meeting, the committee voted to award the $80,000 grant to Jerusalem Farm (JF). The Village Session approved Jerusalem Farm as our 2024 Signature Mission at its Aug. 5 meeting.
Jerusalem Farm is a Catholic intentional community in northeast Kansas City built on the four cornerstones of prayer, community, service and simplicity (jerusalemfarm.org). They strive to transform the lives of residents and those around them through service experiences, sustainable living and home repair.
“This spring we had a chance to see Jerusalem Farm, learn the unique ways they are doing God’s work, and meet the amazing people behind it,” said Mission Committee co-chair Carrie Craig. “I think all of us came away truly inspired and excited by how Village can help them expand their important mission.”
a farm in kc?
Traditionally, the Mission Committee chooses Signature Mission recipients that address hunger, homelessness or education. However, Jerusalem Farm doesn’t land in any defined category. Suffice to say, they align with the Matthew 25 initiative embraced by Village Church and its three focus areas:
- dismantle structural racism
- eradicate systemic poverty
- build congregational vitality
The ethnic and economic diversity of residents in neighborhoods served by JF is perhaps greater than anywhere else in Kansas City. Yes, Jerusalem Farm is a Catholic intentional community, but Jordan and Jessie Shiehl founded it with catholic intentions (the Greek word means: “through the whole,” “universal,” “all inclusive.”) They strive to love others as Christ modeled and services are provided to anyone regardless of any religious belief.
So how does Jerusalem Farm do the good that is theirs (and ours) to do?
Home Repair – Full- and part-time staff and volunteers provide free or low-cost/low-interest home repair to fellow residents in the Pendleton Heights, Scarritt Renaissance, Indian Mound, Lykins, Sheffield and Independence Plaza neighborhoods. Homes stand in every condition imaginable, from dilapidated and abandoned to newly restored or rebuilt.
Code Violation Assistance – Like many urban neighborhoods they once avoided, pockets of the Northeast are increasingly attractive to developers. When homes aren’t up to code in some way, developers are often the first to report them, knowing the owner is likely elderly, on a fixed income, and probably can’t afford to pay the fines that build up. Jerusalem Farm provides the necessary materials and labor at low or no cost to the resident.
Tool Library – Jerusalem Farm recognizes the inherent human dignity in each unique individual. Many residents have the ability to improve the homes they live in, or to repair a faucet or furnace their landlord won’t. They just need the right tools, literally. The community tool library makes those tools available to anyone who becomes a member, at whatever fee they can afford ($0-$40 per year).
Northeast Community Land Trust – You might call this Jerusalem Farm’s own “signature mission.” They set up
a private nonprofit corporation to acquire properties, rehab them, and help local low-income residents to purchase them. The goal: ensure long-term affordable housing is always available in the area. Village Church’s Signature Mission grant will fund the next home Jerusalem Farm plans to acquire.
community to the core
Based at 5th and Garfield, Jerusalem Farm holds weekly Community Nights (March-Nov.) where anyone is welcome to join staff, volunteers and residents for homemade food and conversation. Almost all the menu consists of produce grown in the ever-expanding community garden or small livestock raised on nearby premises.
As you can imagine, the community garden depends on work from scores of volunteers. So does every part of Jerusalem Farm’s ministry. That means Village Church members can get involved in many different meaningful ways beyond our Signature Mission financial gift.
“Jerusalem Farm is a community dedicated to serving the common good,” Jordan and Jessie state at the top
of their web page. “We are a community that practices hospitality, nonviolence and solidarity. We welcome all individuals to serve with us in unity toward the common good and we serve all people without distinction.”