You’ve seen it in dozens of Wild West frontier scenarios: The legendary sheriff has tamed the savage, wide-open settlement, and gunplay in the street is outlawed. Broken glass is swept up, a barrel of apples appears on the sidewalk outside the local dry goods store. Almost in the next breath, the families gather to build two buildings: a schoolhouse and a church.

Throughout our country’s history, it has been the foundation of towns and neighborhoods to have a quiet place of prayer. In these buildings, filled by those of many faiths, our shared identity has been forged.

Church has often been called on to fill the role of our  “best neighbor” — entrusted with comforting the heavy of heart, rejoicing in our blessings … with sheltering the lost and giving guidance to the troubled.

In East Dallas, the interaction of church with community is a radiant example of how today, perhaps more than ever, families benefit from this time-honored “shelter from the storm.” Here spiritual leaders step outside the sanctuary walls to tutor at-risk children in our public schools, to  paint houses, to make sandwiches at a nearby shelter. These same churches throw open their doors to host immunization clinics, to collect food and clothing for those in need; they invite dozens of community groups to come inside to meet, plan, argue, compromise and celebrate.

To learn more, the Advocate contacted all places of worship listed in the  East Dallas/Lakewood circulation area (75204, 75206, 75214, 75218, 75223 and 75246) and asked: “How are you a good neighbor to the community?” Here are the responses.

Greenland United Methodist Church
5835 Penrose Avenue
214-378-4195

Our church building may be small, but our hearts overflow with love. We welcome all who will join us as we learn about God while serving our neighbors next door, across town and beyond the border.

We hope you will visit us and see if you, too, believe something special is happening at Greenland Hills. We welcome your inspiration and faithful questions, the many ways you may teach our growing number of children and youth even as we learn from them, and the challenge you may give us to move forward together rather than stand alone.

The doors are wide open at Greenland Hills United Methodist Church. Come worship with us, and share in the love of a very lively and diverse Christian family.

— Ron Peebles, Pastor

Central Lutheran Church
1000 Easton Road
214-327-2222

At Central Lutheran, our understanding of faith draws us deeply to a knowledge and experience of God, yet does not allow us to remain there. Faith pushes us into the communities of our world — rather of God’s world.

“Who is my neighbor?” is answered in a number of ways:

• At Hexter Elementary, a dozen members volunteer as tutors/mentors to Hispanic, African-American, Bosnian, Eritrean and other new-to-the-U.S. students.
• Monday and Wednesday is our low-cost Kid’s Day Out program.
• Grocery/clothing items are collected for disbursal at White Rock Center of Hope, 9353 Garland Road, founded by the late Donagene Christian, Central member.
• Used books are gathered and distributed through the Greater Dallas Community of Churches.
• We have an annual school-supply drive and a Christmas socks/mitten decorated tree for Emanuel Lutheran, near Downtown.
•  Our church members hand make 100+ quilts to distribute yearly for the needy here and as far away as Sierra Leone.

— John S. Hilme, Pastor

Lakeview Christian Church
9100 Diceman
214-324-2441

At Lakeview Christian Church we try to “love our neighbors as ourselves” by reaching out as many neighborly hands as possible:

For 18 years we have been the host site for the White Rock Senior Center, which provides area seniors with a nutritious daily meal and fun activities Monday through Friday.

Since January 1989, we have been the site location for Family Outreach of East Dallas Inc. by providing free supportive and educational services. This center, in cooperation with Dallas Child Protective Services, works to strengthen families and break the cycle of abuse and neglect.

We also provide a meeting place for the Little Forest Hills Neighborhood Association and (for seven years) the Primera Iglesia Babtista Biblica.

Our denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is the oldest protestant denomination founded on American soil, and understands herself to be “not the only Christians, but Christians only.” We are a friendly, caring congregation that genuinely enjoys being neighborly toward each other and to our community in the name of Christ.

— Rick Linn, Senior Minister

White Rock United Methodist Church
1450 Old Gate Lane
214-832-3661

Thank you for the invitation to tell the neighborhood something about our church.

During the month of June, our volunteers in mission painted the home and cleaned the yard of one of our senior citizen neighbors, through the cooperation of “People Helping People.”

Also in June, our church sponsored an immunization clinic that provided for the health needs of more than 50 children in our neighborhood.

June was a busy month. We opened our doors to our children in the neighborhood with Vacation Bible School during the evenings.

We support the White Rock Center of Hope with financial assistance and volunteers.

Our prayer chapel is open daily, and our members feel called by God to serve our community, as Christ calls us to help those in need. We feel blessed with a call to service through worship, education and spiritual growth.

— Michael R. Jackson, Senior Pastor

Good Samaritan Episcopal Church
1522 Highland Road
214-328-3883

Dear neighbors, let us tell you about those people in that little church on Highland Road!

We are committed to Our Lord, committed to hands-on outreach, and committed to each other.

On Sundays we have only one service at 10:15 a.m.; a small “one room” church school at 10:15 a.m.; adult Christian education at 9:00 a.m.; and a nursery

Our outreach is quite remarkable. We collect food for the AIDS Resource Center and have strong volunteer involvement in the White Rock Center of Hope and in the Ferguson Road Initiative. Many persons are involved in making sandwiches (and serving them) at the Austin Street Shelter once a month.

Working with “For the Love of the Lake” (White Rock), we are responsible for keeping the park south of the spillway clean. Our Meeting Hall often is used by community groups for meetings and parties.

We put on a big annual garage sale in the spring. And we get together for fun! Mardi Gras, Christmas and sometimes Hallowe’en. We recently had a church-sponsored Thanksgiving dinner.

— Bill Graf, Senior Warden

Munger Place United Methodist Church
5200 Bryan
214-823-9929

“The Church on the corner” as it is known in East Dallas has been part of the neighborhood landscape since 1913. Munger Place is a neighborhood church with a heart for East Dallas.

Contact 214 Crisis Counseling, Dallas Habitat for Humanity, the East Dallas Cooperative Parish and the Wilkinson Center all began out of our church, with the EDCP (10 helping ministries in East Dallas) and Wilkinson Center (job referral, food and clothing assistance) still ministering out of the church.

For more than 85 years, Munger Place has been a spiritual anchor for our neighborhood in East Dallas. No longer just “a church,” Munger Place United Methodist Church is a community center hosting numerous organizations.

We are a church with a rich heritage, a challenging future and a heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We would love to welcome you, your family and friends to the church “on the corner.”

— Brian McPherson, Pastor, and Stephanie Bekhor, Assistant Pastor

Lakewood United Methodist Church
2442 Abrams Road
214-823-9623

Our church’s mission statement is “to bring the light and love of Christ to families with small children in the Lakewood neighborhoods.” We have seen tremendous growth in our youth program under the direction of Bill Roberts. We hired a children’s minister, Gail Simko, and have several leaders very interested in building a great children’s Sunday School department.

Our church impacts the community in several areas. The Firehouse ministry has an afternoon computer tutorial for Lakewood Elementary students. We house the Lakewood Developmental Learning Center directed by Judy Granger and Holly Rutherford. We also have Spanish classes and contribute to the annual fall “shoe drive” headed by Charlotte Gibson and Carlin Morris in cooperation with the East Dallas Cooperative Parish.

The Lakewood Heights Neighborhood Association meets at our church, and we are glad to have them. We want to become an even greater part of the Lakewood neighborhoods.

— David J. Turner, Senior Pastor

Trinity Lutheran Church
7112 Gaston Avenue
214-327-2729

Our church was organized in 1908 and has been in the Lakewood community since 1961. The church facilities are used by The Learning Tree School, a preschool for families with young children who live in the community. The Gastonwood/Coronado Hills Neighborhood Association meets monthly in the fellowship hall, which is also used as a polling place for elections. A Hispanic pastor, the Rev. Hiram Orea, conducts Spanish-language worship and Bible study on a weekly basis.

The members of Trinity provide a Community Center for relief of human suffering in East Dallas by distributing food to the hungry and counseling for people who are seeking jobs. I am certified with the City of Dallas and Dallas County to provide community service for juveniles who are in trouble with the law.

Trinity is affiliated with Dallas Area Interfaith, a broad-based community organization that strengthens families and communities by providing training and guidance in resolving issues, which affect residents.

— Dr. Harold V. Meissner, Pastor

White Rock Community Church
722 Tenison Memorial
214-320-0043

We are the largest independent church in the world with a special outreach to gay and lesbian Christians, although all people are gladly welcomed to our family. Evangelical in belief, the church body is made up of members from every Christian denomination.

The church sponsors a Sunday “University,” women’s, men’s, singles’, couples’ and children’s ministries, several small Bible Study groups around town, a 50-member choir, and an active prayer ministry. Among its many other activities, our church sponsors a ministry  to people living with AIDS, providing non-food items and pet food to people in need. The facility also houses a 40-church-sponsored emergency services organization called the White Rock Center of Hope.

— Jerry Cook, Pastor

Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist
6414 Abrams Road
214-348-2090

Because Jesus’ commands to love God supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves, are direct laws to Christian Scientists, our love is expressed in these ways:

• A public suite of rooms where anyone can quietly pray, read the Bible and the Christian Science text book, “Science and Health with Key to Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy, is open six days and one evening every week in Casa Linda Plaza.
• Missionaries, called Practitioners, are available 24 hours a day to help anyone realize the Christ-filled power of prayer in their lives.
• Free public talks are given that apply prayer to such subjects as racism, poverty, crime, addiction, abuse, fear, doubt and loneliness.
• We hold testimony meetings Wednesday noon and evening, where proof is offered that Christ heals today.
• We have Sunday Services and Sunday School, where everyone is lovingly welcomed and devout attention is given to inquiries.

— Bonnie Tuel, Member of Five Generations Of Christian Scientists
 St Paul’s Evangelical and Reformed Church
6464 E. Lovers Lane
214-368-7788

St. Paul’s celebrates 109 years of serving neighbors in Dallas, the last 41 years at on Lovers Lane. Founded as a German Evangelical congregation, the church builds upon this history in both worship and service.

In worship, our newly renovated, 2,217-pipe organ transforms the sanctuary into the world’s smallest cathedral.  To recapture our German heritage, we celebrate a traditional German language Christmas service, this year Dec. 5 at 6 p.m.

We also reach out to our neighbors in need, supporting such organizations as the Wilkinson Center, CROP Walk, Greater Lakewood Shepherd Center and Habitat for Humanity, as well as United Church of Christ Mission efforts.

St. Paul’s looks to the future, having just called Phil Hobson to be its 17th minister. Pastor Hobson’s enthusiasm and vision will help the church to find faithful ways to worship and serve into the next millennium.
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An Inspiring Letter

Several months before the Advocate invited area churches to participate in this article, reader Cindy Jones wrote in to tell us about a new program at St. Matthew’s Cathedral Episcopal (5100 Ross Avenue, 214-823-8134). We decided to hold the letter and run it this month; it’s a laudable example of the kind of symbiotic relationship that can exist between active church members and our neighborhood.

Church used to be the most stressful activity of my week. This is because I go to church with my young children. They are making the joyful noise that you hear right after the music ends. They are choking on communion wine. They are being dragged up or down the aisle like a sack of potatoes with a parking brake. They can be quiet but only when they are slithering under pews near your feet. We parents spend all of our worship time glaring, wagging fingers and whispering threats that would stop Slobodan Milocevic.

However, two things happened this summer that guarantee that my future worship experiences will be stress-free.

We worship in East Dallas so that our children can slide down the same green banister that my husband slid down as a kid. We might have worshipped this way stressfully ever after, except that we noticed families with young children were disappearing from our congregation. This was a mystery until I went to visit one of those big churches on the other side of town.

It was like visiting heaven. Here were all of the missing families, blissfully exiting in Sunday School Paradise. I used to wonder what Isaiah meant when he said in the Old Testament: “He will gently lead those who are young.” Now I realize that He has been leading them across Central Expressway to worship at locations where there is a bounce house in every Sunday school room and personal spiritual trainers for parents.

The idea of leaving East Dallas for Sunday school Heaven became more and more inviting — I was this close to crossing Central when two things happened quite unexpectedly.

One is that I met my neighbors. I don’t mean the neighbors who think we should mow our lawn. I don’t mean the neighbors at Minyards or Baylor ER or Starbucks in Lakewood. I met the children who walked to Vacation Bible School from their apartments on Gaston Avenue. I met the children who read at the Bishop’s Day Camp at St. Matthew’s Cathedral. And it was like: “Oh-my-gosh.”

Here I was worrying about which kid-friendly mega-church to transfer to, and I met 100 neighborhood children with no church at all. Children whose very lives are not kid-friendly. Children who soaked up my smiles and hugs and Vacation Bible School lessons like dry sponges.

And I was so surprised.

Volunteering to help save something has always been on my “to do” list, but it was down there with sending my children off to grad school and getting a manicure. I sort of thought I should get caught up with my laundry before I got caught up in the lives of Arlene and Juan and Frankie. And my children got to make friends with children they would not have otherwise met. We can’t leave now.

The second thing that happened is that our church is introducing a Family Service on Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. followed immediately by Sunday School — a 50-minute service that will embrace wiggly boys and crying babies and feature a kid-friendly homily, acolyte, readings by older children, and stress-free worship for parents.

My family will spend stress-free Sunday mornings on this side of Central where I look forward to worshipping with my children without baring my teeth and going to a church where the neighborhood outreach is so conveniently located. And perhaps He will lead a few more of those with young to our new family service.