Pete Kelly on Seeking Shalom in Apartment Buildings

The Embedded Church Podcast

In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy talk with Pete Kelly, the CEO of Apartment Life. For many reasons, Eric and Sara Joy are really excited to share with listeners this timely conversation. (Side note, Pete Kelly did visit Tacoma just two weeks after the episode was recorded and confirmed that Tacoma is way cooler than most cities in Texas -- this is Eric's note <--- [SJ would like to note that Eric is trying way too hard to make his city look cool] ).

Over the past decade or so, there has been a renewed and encouraging interest in loving our neighbors within the Christian community. There have been some really helpful resources providing a persuasive call and practical suggestions for how Christians can engage their neighbors. Most of these resources understandably are focused on how to love your neighbor when they and you both live in detached single family homes. In these kinds of settings there are all sorts of organic ways to slowly build relationships with your neighbors.

But the question of how to engage neighbors when they (and/or we) live in apartment buildings remains. This has proven to be a much tougher nut to crack. Apartment dwellers don’t have yards or driveways where they can naturally connect with others around them. Fortunately, Pete shares how the team at Apartment Life has been working on this issue for a long time and have come up with some really interesting and effective strategies for building relationships with and among the apartment dwellers in our cities. What makes their ministry model especially compelling is that it also works as a business model. Many apartment building owners contract with Apartment Life because it helps them avoid costly turnover by retaining residents.

This is an important and timely conversation in light of the fact that we are undergoing a significant demographic shift right now and more and more people are eschewing the single family detached home in favor of higher density multifamily settings. As Christians motivated to seek the shalom of our neighborhood learning how to serve our neighbors in multifamily settings is going to be increasingly important.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Apartment Life

Missional Living Curriculum developed by Apartment Life

Videos featuring Apartment Life

- Atheist Property Manager Plants a Church

- From Dead End to New Hope

- AL Team and Church Planters

- Iranian Neighbor Accepts Christ

Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery

My Vertical Neighborhood: How Strangers Became a Community by Lynda MacGibbon

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Affordable Housing

- Belonging

- Density

- Hospitality

- Missional Theology

- Mixed Income Neighborhood

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative