DALLAS (ABP) — Joel Pulis, a Baylor University graduate now living in Dallas, was recently featured in People magazine for leading his church in a relatively new and singular mission: to reach poor people with mental disabilities.
Pulis, 33, refers to his flock of 50 at The Well Community not as a congregation but as a community of believers. His says his ministry focuses on being “a family, a people” for those suffering from brain dysfunctions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
The Well Community began in 2002 with help from a grant from the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Pulis, who grew up attending the nearby Cliff Temple Baptist Church, has no specialized training for helping those with mental illness, but, after graduating from college, he soon realized there was a need for just that.
“We felt Cliff Temple could reach middle-class Baptists. The well metaphor drove us … to look at the people, not the church,” Pulis said. He was a minister to young adults at Cliff Temple before starting The Well.
Pulis found that a high percentage of Dallas residents with brain disorders live in Oak Cliff, Cliff Temple's inner-city ministry area. Most live in public housing apartments or in overcrowded boarding homes.
The Well is first and foremost “a place where they know someone cares about them,” Pulis said. About 40 percent of the congregation is white, 40 percent is African-American, and 15 percent is Hispanic. Asians and Native Americans make up much of the rest.
Cliff Temple provided use of its fellowship hall and classroom space for a ministry area on Saturdays. The Well now rents space from the church in the community life center, which offers area for support groups, Bible study, recreation and vocational training. A café and a clothes closet are part of the community's outreach as well.
Other churches are taking part, too. Dallas-area Sunday school classes from Park Central Baptist Church, Park Cities Baptist Church and Forest Meadow Baptist Church have prepared and served meals for community members.
Pulis, who has been featured in the Dallas Morning News and CliffDweller magazine, says the community is not designed to give clinical help to members but to provide a support system of friends. According to a 2004 article in the Baptist Standard, the Well Community is the country's only faith-based organization focused exclusively on low-income people living with mental illness.
The need is great. According to the Mental Health Association, Texas has 2.6 million mentally ill adults, many of whom have annual incomes of $10,000 or less.
Because they have trouble connecting to reality, individuals with mental disabilities often exhibit peculiar or inappropriate behavior that offends and repels many people.
“They are disenfranchised from themselves because they are not connecting to the world,” Pulis said. “They are psychiatric orphans … pushed away by family, either by something they did or because others don't understand.”
People with mental disabilities become spiritual orphans for the same reasons. They are uncomfortable in a standard church service, and traditional congregations often are uncomfortable with their participation.
Pulis and his staff do what they can to make everyone comfortable. Housing is a Well Community priority — the ministry helps individuals find suitable apartments, and it currently operates one home for seven men. According to the Dallas Observer blog, the community operates on a budget of $190,000, which comes mostly from private donations.
The small budget seems not to inhibit the church's effectiveness.
“There are many who had come looking for a hand-out who are now ministers themselves,” Glen Schmucker, the pastor of Cliff Temple, said. The two congregations worship together a couple of times each year and partner in children and youth programs.
“They are wonderful people and have overcome many stereotypes,” Schmucker said. “They are very much a part of our identity, and we are a part of theirs.”
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— Hannah Elliott contributed to this story.