Photo by Chuckwunonso Angel Dureke of Dureke Productions
Washington City Church of the Brethren has taken a unique approach to create community in the heart of Washington, D.C., with the mantra of “Pursuing peace, justice and wholeness with the location and gifts the people and church have,” according to Hosler.
A team of ministers, including Nathan Hosler, one of the pastors at Washington City Church of the Brethren, extends the hand of God’s brotherly fellowship through outreach.
“The vision and mission are for people in and out of the Church, meeting people where they’re at,” Hosler said.
In addition to weekly Bible studies and Sunday services, the church has a few distinct ministries that Hosler talks about. One is a monthly conversation group for spiritually curious people, who would not typically attend a church service, that started about two months ago.
The idea for the group formed, Hosler said, when a secular acquaintance, who worked with Hosler in Washington D.C.’s foreign policy sector, visited the church, saw its sanctuary, and told to him, “‘We don’t have places like this that are calming or sacred spaces that are assigned for a particular, strictly followed religious ceremony.’”
His acquaintance’s statement made Hosler realize there are people with aversion to the church, who want a space to talk about how they feel about spiritual matters, and believe there are too many expectations for non-believers who visit churches.“You [Christians] need to be more directly and personally connected and also find ways that are invitational,” Hosler said.
Growing up in a Church of the Brethren congregation in Pennsylvania, Hosler was exposed to serving others in a community setting early on. The religious leaders of the community also contributed to it in practical ways. For example, Hosler’s father was both a pastor and carpenter.
The members also worked outside of their assigned roles or titles when there was a need to be filled. One example was teamwork when leaders were not available to perform their duties. “If we didn’t have youth ministers and we wanted youth events, we led them in our home,” Hosler said.
After attending college for ministerial studies in international relations, Hosler traveled overseas to Northeast Nigeria and Germany as a volunteer to serve communities connected to Church of the brethren. After returning to the United States, Hosler and his wife, Jennifer Hosler, were deciding whether to network in New York or Washington D.C. A minister, who had worked with Hosler in Nigeria, proposed the idea of starting a church plant at Washington City Church of the Brethren to give it “young energy.” He has been one of the pastors there since March 2012.
Photo by Chuckwunonso Angel Dureke of Dureke Productions
The Peace, Art and Community Room has also been a great source of outreach, according to Hosler. The room was once a soup kitchen. Now, it has been converted into a place to engage the public. On September 21st, the church held an art exhibit with the themes of gentrification, immigration and migration that, Hosler said, produced a “fruitful outcome”.
Another ministry, the Brethren House, houses volunteers who arrive to serve the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area.
These ministries have been helping the church get closer to overcoming the challenge to fill up the church space. The church was small when Hosler first started pastoring, with only 10 regular members and a leaky roof.
Overcoming the “crisis mode” the church was in when he became one of the pastors was paramount to fighting the statistics of churches closing in the Washington, D.C., area, Hosler said.
Photo by Chuckwunonso Angel Dureke of Dureke Productions
“In the past decade, 40% of churches closed in Washington, D.C.,” Hosler said.
A way to remedy this problem is to understand doing the same thing as in the past does not always bring the result of change you want, Hosler said.
“You must do new things and get rid of old things,” Hosler said.
Hosler’s advice to people who want to start unconventional ministries is to keep in mind that “There needs to be a balance between creativity and hard work.” He mentions how it can be hard to figure out when a church needs to work harder to grow or try something new instead. If a church elects to try new ideas, there needs to be a plan.
First, the proposed idea must start out as an “experiment” to be assessed, Hosler said. The experiment also needs to be sustainable with consideration to the church’s size, location and what skills the members possess.
If you want to support the Washington City Church of the Brethren, you can volunteer with contact groups they work with. You can find any events or activities on the church’s events page or sign up for their newsletter. Donations to the church’s ministries can be found on their website’s donation page.
Desiree is a creative and grounded individual who seeks to learn about new things. She graduated in the spring of 2024 with a degree in Ecology with ties to theater, art, creative writing and ethnic diversity communities at her college.
