Working draft. Not reviewed by counsel, Sam, or Jeff. Do not circulate yet.

The Field's Edge Village · Midland, Texas

The Missional Program

Calling, not housing.

Ten neighbors coming out of chronic homelessness. One Christian household living among them. Not running a program. Not managing anything. Staying.

What It Is

One home in every neighborhood

The Field's Edge Village is a permanent community for men and women coming out of chronic homelessness. Each neighborhood holds about ten single-occupancy homes for neighbors, and one missional home for a Christian household.

That household does not run the Village. They do not manage operations, carry case files, or enforce policy. They live there. They learn names, share meals, give rides, pray, and disciple. They are still there in year two, which is the entire point.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.John 1:14, ESV

The primary purpose is the proclamation and lived witness of the gospel. The Field's Edge works on the real problems that come with homelessness, and those problems are real. But the deepest need of every person, housed or not, is reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. The missional household is how that need gets met in the ordinary hours.

Homelessness is a poverty of relationships. Most of our neighbors did not end up on the street because they ran out of money. They ran out of people. Missionals are the people who stay.

What a Missional Household Does

Discipleship first, then everything else

Discipleship and witness

  • Serve as the assigned weekly one-on-one discipleship contact for neighbors in the Sojourner Program.
  • Speak plainly and graciously about Christ. Call neighbors to repentance and faith. Pray with them and for them.
  • Take part in Village Bible study and the Thursday cookout each week.
  • Walk neighbors into a healthy local church. Invite, drive, sit with, introduce. Church membership for a neighbor is the goal, not attendance at our events.
  • Model an ordered Christian household in front of people who have rarely seen one.

Presence in ordinary life

  • Meals shared, and meals out. Movies, local events, a birthday.
  • Rides. Help navigating a court date, a doctor, the benefits office.
  • The unremarkable hours, which is where trust is actually built.

Presence in hard seasons

  • Crisis, relapse, grief, hospitalization, and the end of life.
  • Companionship, prayer, and Christian hope. Over time, missionals become a form of extended family for neighbors who have none.

What missionals are not responsible for

This list is as binding on The Field's Edge as anything we ask of you. It is in the agreement, and it is a standing item at every quarterly review.

  • Running Village operations or making administrative decisions
  • Case management or professional counseling
  • Crisis response, security, or after-hours duty
  • Enforcing policy or disciplining neighbors
  • Handling anyone's money, benefits, or medications

Escalate rather than absorb. Staff hold the structure so you can hold the people.

The Cost

Read this part twice

Missional residency is not a housing arrangement. It is a costly calling, and we would rather you hear the cost from us now than discover it in month nine.

  • Relational privacy is gone. You will be known, and you will be interrupted.
  • Hard things happen next door. Relapse, mental illness, legal trouble, grief. Neighbors here have died, and more will.
  • Two years, minimum. About 85 percent of nights in residence.
  • You pay a monthly program fee.The Field's Edge provides no salary, stipend, or housing allowance. Your household carries its own income.
  • You hold no authority over Village operations or over any neighbor.
  • Some of it will not work. People you love will leave, relapse, or disappoint you. You will stay anyway.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.Philippians 3:8, ESV

This is not merely endured. It is embraced, as a way of displaying the love of Christ and sharing in His sufferings for the sake of others. It is also not martyrdom. We build rest into the agreement on purpose, because we want faithful presence over years, not a heroic burnout in eighteen months.

What The Field's Edge commits to you

  • A protected Sabbath. One full day a week, and a stated evening most weeks, honored by staff and neighbors.
  • A monthly one-on-one with the Director of Ministry, for care and honesty, not for reporting.
  • A quarterly household review that starts with your marriage, your children, and your sleep, not with your output.
  • One funded retreat or renewal day each year.
  • A direct line to Neighbor Care staff for anything beyond friendship.
  • Honest guidance about fit, including when the honest answer is that the season is ending.

How We Discern a Calling

Four witnesses, and we wait for all four

A calling has an inward side and an outward side. We do not take a household's word for it alone, and we do not substitute our judgment for God's. We look for four witnesses to agree.

1

Your own settled conviction

A desire that has been tested and has lasted, not a stirring after one moving Thursday night. We ask for it in writing.
2

Your church's confirmation

Your pastor recommends you, and your congregation commissions you and sends you. How are they to preach unless they are sent?
3

Fruit already visible here

Missionals are not recruited off a website. You have already been present long enough that neighbors and staff know you by name.
4

Our leadership's affirmation

The Director of Ministry, the Executive Director, and the Neighbor Care Manager all say yes, or you wait.

If any one of the four is missing, we wait. Waiting is not a no. More households are told not yet than are told no, and neither is a verdict on your faith or your family.

Who this is for

  • Married couples, with or without children
  • Couples discerning a long-term call to missional life
  • Single adults with demonstrated maturity, stability, and a clear calling

Every adult in the home applies, is approved, and signs on their own. No adult comes along as a dependent. The determining factor is not household size. It is whether the household is ready to live faithfully and consistently in this community.

What we are looking for

The character described in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. Above reproach, self-controlled, hospitable, gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money, managing your own household well, well thought of by outsiders. Not perfection. Maturity. Every missional is a sinner saved by grace, and we are all still being made new.

What rules a household out

  • Active substance use, addiction, or recent relapse
  • Unwillingness to submit to a local pastor's authority
  • Ongoing sexual immorality or unrepentant relational sin
  • Criminal activity or significant legal jeopardy
  • Current church discipline, or loss of membership
  • Inability to affirm our Statement of Faith sincerely
  • A calling centered on rescuing people, or on being needed, rather than on Christ
  • A marriage under visible strain. The Village finds the cracks.

The goal is not to exclude broken people. It is to place households who are themselves growing in gospel maturity and accountability, so that they have something to give.

The Pathway

About three to four months, and we will not rush it

0

Be here

Volunteer regularly for at least six months. Cookouts, Bible study, Glean Up, rides. This is not a hoop. It is how witness number three happens.
1

A conversation

Sit down with the Director of Ministry. You tell him how God has been leading. He tells you the cost. No deadline is set.
2

Application

Each adult writes a calling narrative and completes the packet. Your pastor sends a recommendation directly to us. Background checks are run.
3

Three interviews

Calling and doctrine with the Director of Ministry. Fit and terms with the Executive Director. The reality of Village life with the Neighbor Care Manager. Spouses are interviewed together and separately.
4

Two weeks of immersion

Evenings here, a full Thursday from Bible study through cookout cleanup, a meal you host, a shift alongside Neighbor Care, and a weekend in the home if it is empty. We will not stage it for you.
5

Commissioning

Your church sets you apart and sends you, before your congregation. We come if you will have us.
6

Agreement and move-in

Every adult signs. We help carry boxes. Nothing else is scheduled that day.
7

Ninety days to learn names

No assignments, no leadership, no expectations beyond being present. A review at day 90 decides together whether to continue.

Term and Commitment

The plain facts

Initial term
24 months from move-in, including the 90-day orientation season.
Renewal
Successive 12-month terms, decided together at an annual review held at least 60 days before the term ends. Renewal is affirmative, never automatic.
Presence
About 85 percent of nights in residence, measured each quarter. Work travel, family emergencies, medical needs, and approved absences do not count against it. Self-reported. We do not track your nights.
Program fee
A monthly fee set at our cost to provide and maintain the home, including utilities. It is a program fee, not rent, because this is not a lease.
Compensation
None. The Field's Edge provides no salary, stipend, or housing allowance.
Church
Continued membership in good standing, faithful attendance, and your pastors remain your spiritual authority. We are not your church and will not act as one.
Leaving
60 days written notice either direction, 30 days during the orientation season. We help you say goodbye to your neighbors properly. They have lost enough people without warning.

Why two years?It is the shortest period in which a household can become genuinely known to people who have learned not to trust anyone who leaves. The term is set for the neighbors' sake, not for our convenience.

Questions

The ones people actually ask

+Is this free housing?
No. Missional households pay a monthly program fee set at our cost, and receive no salary from The Field's Edge. If the housing is the appeal, this is not the right fit, and we will say so kindly.
+Do we have to be a certain kind of family?
No. Married couples, families with children, and single adults have all been in view from the beginning. Every adult applies and is approved individually. What matters is maturity, calling, and readiness, not household size.
+What about our children?
Children are not program participants and carry no obligations here. Parents remain fully responsible for their supervision and safety, and every household with minor children completes a Household Child Safety Plan with us before move-in. We will tell you plainly what this environment is. We screen carefully and we cannot guarantee any environment, and we will not pretend otherwise.
+Do we work for The Field's Edge?
No. You are sent by your church and serve as a participant in this program. Your household carries its own income and employment. That independence is deliberate, and it is part of what keeps the relationship with your neighbors a friendship rather than a job.
+Are we on call?
No. You are not crisis responders, security, or after-hours staff. When something is beyond friendship, you call Neighbor Care. You also have a protected Sabbath that staff and neighbors are told about and expected to honor.
+What if it is not working?
We talk about it early and honestly, at the monthly one-on-one or the quarterly review, and your pastor is brought in early rather than last. Either side can conclude the agreement with 60 days notice, or 30 days during the first 90. Seasons end, and ending one well is not a failure.
+Can we visit before deciding anything?
Please do. Come to a Thursday cookout. Come to Bible study. Come several times. Nobody has ever regretted taking longer over this.
+Are there openings right now?
One missional home is currently open, and two more come with the next neighborhoods. Because the pathway runs three to four months after six months of being present, the honest answer is that today is the right time to start being here, whatever the opening looks like.

Where to Start

There is no form. There is a person.

If any of this has been sitting on you, the next step is a conversation, not an application. Write to John-Mark and say so plainly. You will hear back within a week, and if you do not, write again. We would rather be nagged than leave you wondering.

Email John-MarkIf you are a pastor

Before you write, do the thing that matters more: come to a cookout. Thursday evenings. Learn a few names. Then write.

So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.1 Thessalonians 2:8, ESV