Low-income mentally ill people find hope at the Well_110804

Posted: 11/05/04

Low-income mentally ill people find hope at the Well

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DALLAS–Joel Pulis ministers to a previously unreached people group–lower-income people with mental illness.

As pastor of the Well Community in the north Oak Cliff section of Dallas, he is answering a calling he felt as a teenager to minister in that area.

Pulis grew up in Cliff Temple Baptist Church and returned there as minister to young adults after he graduated from Baylor University. He served in that position for more than two years before leaving a conventional ministry position to become the leader of the Well Community.

He said the Well Community grew out of an uneasiness he felt when meeting the needs of some of the people who live near Cliff Temple.

“They would come in, and I would give them food or bus passes, and I would invite them to come to church on Sunday. I would tell them that they would be welcomed, which they would to a degree, but I knew not really. I would tell them that they would feel at home, but I knew they wouldn't,” Pulis admitted.

Pulis began leading a congregation for the lower-income people surrounding the church whose backgrounds would not allow them to feel at home with the mostly white, middle-class congregation.

The focus of the ministry soon turned to the mentally ill, however. While he has no specialized training in dealing with mental illness, he feels God has given him the skills necessary to lead that congregation of “friends.”

“I have a degree in sociology from Baylor and a great upbringing from my parents that always led me to help others, but this is really something God has done.

“When we started the Well, we didn't intend to focus on the mentally ill–just the community at large. But God took us in this direction fairly quickly, and when God directs you, he gives you the abilities you need to answer his call,” Pulis said.

He said the Well Community is not designed to be any type of clinical help to its congregation, but rather provide relational things–friendship, a listening ear, a caring spirit.

Pulis said his research has shown the Well Community to be the only faith-based organization focused exclusively on low-income people living with mental illness.

That isn't because no need exists. According to the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, “approximately 19 percent of the population aged 18 to 64 will experience some diagnosable disorder, excluding substance abuse disorders, during a lifetime.” That's about 330,000 people in Dallas County.

The United Way of Metropolitan Dallas estimates more than 49,000 people with severe mental illness live in Dallas County, and more than 70,000 live in the region.

The Mental Health Association in Texas estimates 2.6 million adults in the state were mentally ill in 2003.

Couple that with the national survey by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill that “more than half the respondents with mental illness had annual incomes of $10,000 or less,” and there is a great opportunity for ministry.

Most churches are not prepared to minister to this people group.

“The majority of these people have been turned away by other churches. I think this is understandable because their illness can evidence itself in ways that can be disrupting to patterns of the traditional church, but we're offering them an opportunity to worship because of our understanding of their illness,” Pulis said.

“This is a huge people group here in Dallas County, and most churches don't have any programs to reach these people,” he continued.

Attempting to meet that need earned the ministry the Baptist General Convention of Texas' 2004 Genesis Award for innovative community ministry.

The Well Community was started in January 2002 with a church-starting grant from the BGCT. A number of individuals from other congregations have become involved in the ministry as well. Sunday school classes from Park Central Baptist Church, Park Cities Baptist Church and Forest Meadow Baptist Church, all in Dallas, have prepared and served meals to the congregation of about 50. While several of the groups now serve once a quarter, there still is room for more volunteer groups, Pulis said.

Park Central also recently presented a dinner theater to raise money to begin the process of finding the ministry a location to be used for weekday activities.

He said the ministry needs donations of personal care items, bus passes and “just anything that we can pass on to our friends.”

The Well Community meets at Cliff Temple on Saturday nights, after meeting for the first year on Sunday mornings.

“That change has really helped us, because so many of our people take psych medications that make them drowsy in the morning hours,” Pulis explained.

Most of the Well Community members live within a mile and a half from Cliff Temple at one of several boarding homes for the mentally ill.

“It's important to note that being mentally ill is not the same as being mentally retarded, and that our people are not homeless. Those are misconceptions that people have,” Pulis said.

Some people have lived in the same boarding house for more than 20 years, he noted. Typical illnesses found among the congregants are schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder.

While some of the congregation's growth stems from the move from Sunday morning to Saturday evening, a second component is that the group has gotten comfortable enough with the ministry to begin inviting friends, he added.

“These people have a real community. They see each other at the clinics and things, and they are beginning to invite others to join us,” he said.

To some degree, people with mental illness have similar problems to the rest of the population, “they are just a little more raw,” Pulis said.

“While others may have a shell to cover their problems, these people let theirs show a little more.”

For Pulis, that is not always a bad thing.

“We had a first-time visitor raise her hand and ask that we pray she would get off drugs. That doesn't happen in a lot of Sunday school classes where first-time visitors will be that open,” he explained.

Pulis hopes the dream of securing a nearby home for a community center for mentally ill residents soon will become a reality.

“We would like to have a place where they can come and find a sense of belonging and purpose,” he said. Activities would include recreation, as well as educational and spiritual programs.

Pulis would prefer that these people be able to find a more traditional church where they would feel at home and where they would be accepted by everyone, but he said he realizes that is not the current reality.

“I would prefer that there was no segregation and everyone worshipped together, but I also would prefer that they worship rather than not, so if a niche church like this is necessary, that's what I want to provide for them,” he said.

Pulis said he is glad to look out over a rainbow of faces each Saturday evening.

About 40 percent of the congregation is Anglo, 40 percent African-American, 15 percent Hispanic and the remainder a variety of people groups, including Asians and American Indians.

He said their educational levels range from college-degreed to illiterate.

“I'm proud we can attract that kind of diversity,” he said.