- admin@remerge.org
We build communities of peace by accelerating belonging and flourishing.
Communities and cultures are formed by the way we see and act toward our neighbors over time. When we view others with suspicion, our values and practices will reflect that fear resulting in social divisions, vulnerable people groups, and dysfunctional communities. Racism, poverty, social isolation, environmental abuse and corruption are evidence of this distrust and disfunction. The good news is that God, through Christ, is reconciling the world to Himself, joining our lives together in such a way that we become something new – a new humanity.
We believe that the most vulnerable are a vital part of the community and should be welcomed at the table; that community-building includes tearing down dividing walls & creating trusting relationships; and that greater impact is made by diverse, cross-sector networks
We are created by God, through His Word, for community. Beneath community lies God’s deepest purpose: to unite all things in Himself (Eph. 1:10). We are made for this. To be created is to receive our life as a gift and to take our place in the world under God, as creatures among creatures rather than masters of our own making. The content of God’s creating Word is love, which weaves all that exists into a single tapestry, each thread bearing inherent worth and called to mutual service. When sin tears that oneness apart, God acts to restore it: in Christ, God is reconciling all things, mending what was broken so that, as Christ prayed, we might all be one (John 17:21). We join God, by following His active speaking through the Spirit, in the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18–19); our action in the world is nothing other than participation in this work of making one. Because we are finite and created for the other, God moves us toward the other without condition, especially at the edges of death and wherever people are cast out of the belonging and flourishing of creation. Dignity, communion, and shalom are the names we give to lives caught up in God’s one, creating and reconciling love.
Everyone bears God’s image and therefore possesses unearned, inherent worth (Gen. 1:26–27). To affirm another’s dignity is to receive them as God receives us, imperfect yet beloved, and to treat them accordingly in speech, compassion and practice. Affirming another’s dignity also means accepting them as gifted by God with something meaningful to contribute to community. To deny the opportunity to participate and contribute is to deny dignity. To withhold your gift is to devalue your and my dignity. This pattern of worth and gift is not humanity’s alone: all of creation is called good by God (Gen. 1:31), and every part of it carries both inherent dignity and something meaningful to offer the rest of creation. To affirm dignity, then, is to honor not only our neighbors but the whole community of creation we are given to tend and to receive from. We give particular attention to those whose dignity is routinely denied by the world: the stranger, the vulnerable, and the marginalized.
God creates us for communion (with God, with one another, and with all creation), so relationships are never incidental to our work. Reconciliation names God’s healing of what sin has torn apart (Col. 1:19–20), and our participation in that healing through truth-telling, acts of justice, and renewed fellowship. Joining lives is never one-directional: as we enter the lives of others and welcome them into our own, we are all changed: our assumptions challenged, our hearts enlarged, our understanding deepened. So we make space for those who join with us, widening the table so that each person can belong, be known, and help shape the community in turn. Because culture, practices, and systems are always shifting, this work is complex, ongoing and often messy; yet as we join lives, God continues to form us into a more faithful and “beloved” community.
Scripture’s vision of shalom (Psalm 85:10-11; Isaiah 32:16-18) is more than the absence of harm; it is the presence of right relationship with God, neighbor, self, and all creation, the wholeness God intends for a world fractured by sin and suffering. So we care for the whole person (body, mind, and spirit) and for the broader conditions that shape life together: place, peace, connection, prosperity, beauty, freedom, and safety. Because every life is held within interconnected systems, any solution aimed at one part must account for the whole, including the flourishing of the creation we share. And because shalom is shared, well-being is never something we dispense from above; we receive it even as we tend it, trusting that God alone makes all things finally whole.
These convictions are not abstractions; they take shape in how we work. The practices that follow (collaboration, discovery, honor, and generosity) are dignity, communion, and shalom worked out in our daily labor together.
Because lives and systems are interconnected, community building is never solitary work. We partner humbly with those already laboring in a place and with the people and communities we serve. We share both successes and failures, practicing mutual accountability rather than competition. We operate as a “team of teams” across programs and roles, investing in one another, challenging one another, and celebrating together (I Cor. 12:7,11-12). We avoid choices that shift undue burdens onto teammates, partners, or those we serve.
We pursue solutions that strengthen belonging and flourishing (for people and for the creation we share) as we contribute toward building communities marked by peace (Jer. 29:7). We begin by listening deeply to understand the true challenges before us, then we direct our energy toward wise, workable responses. We trust that God is not absent from stubborn problems and that faithful creativity is possible. We therefore use a human-centered, systems-aware approach that includes many perspectives, especially those most directly affected and most vulnerable, along with leaders across the sectors that shape (and are shaped by) the issue.
Our words and our commitments alike are powerful and accountable before God. We aim for integrity, so that our speech, our actions, and our promises agree: no cutting corners, no deception, no manipulation. We speak truthfully, compassionately, and directly, seeking both clarity and love (Eph. 4:15); we keep our word, and we honor what is entrusted to us (others’ time, work, and trust), stewarding it faithfully. When we recognize that we have caused harm, acted from bias, or that our practices are no longer faithful or effective, we take responsibility and pursue repair and change with urgency.
Because God gives generously (James 1:5), we practice generosity with our time, attention, resources, and knowledge. We invest in teammates, partners, and those we serve so that others are strengthened and able to succeed in work and in life. As we grow, we share what we are learning, knowing that doing so helps others flourish and also deepens our own understanding as we remain open to being taught.
We seek to mature spiritually, growing in love, wisdom, faith and hope even as we sharpen our skills and understanding. We embrace experimentation and receive failures as teachers, trusting that God forms us through both success and refinement. Because the world is dynamic, today’s solution can become tomorrow’s obstacle; so we cultivate a posture of continual learning, repentance, and renewal (Proverbs 1:5). And because lasting growth is spiritual before it is strategic, we pursue it at a sustainable pace, attending to our formation as carefully as to our impact.
Rather than making work an idol or the measure of our worth, we practice regular rhythms of rest and reflection (Exod. 20:8–11; Matthew 6:33) to re-center our lives on the worship of God and the fullness of life. Sabbath reminds us who we are and why we serve; it slows us enough to notice God, neighbor, and the present moment. With this orientation, our work becomes a form of faithful play, done with seriousness and devotion yet without self-importance. Sabbath also reaffirms that the world, and our work within it, belongs to God, not to us; so our rest extends outward, to one another as we refuse to shift our burdens onto others, and to creation itself, which we release from relentless use (Lev. 25:4). Resting in this way loosens our grip of control and unhealthy attachment, prevents both burnout and apathy, and frees us to work diligently, rest truly, and keep healthy relationships, boundaries, and priorities.
In 1999, Kurt Salierno founded a ministry serving the homeless called “Church on the Street.” Using the parking lot of SafeHouse, the ministry hosted a meal and worship service each Thursday. Though the services provided a regular structure, the foundation of the ministry was spending time building relationships and doing life with those experiencing homelessness. Over the next decade, the ministry received broad ecumenical support; invited volunteers and interns to support and run programming; and hosted numerous student mission teams.
In 2008, the financial crisis wreaked havoc on the global economy. Church on the Street was experiencing its own organizational crisis. A transition in leadership ensued, and Andy Odle was brought in as executive director in July 2008. Andy was a former staff member with Church on the Street who had recently completed doctoral studies in Scotland. Andy accepted the position under the auspices of working out the application of his doctoral studies which examined homelessness and poverty from a theological perspective and offered a critique of the response of both the church and public policy strategies. The organizational focus shifted towards community building, exploring what creates poverty and division, and how to address it. This led to the emphasis on reconciliation, which continues to guide the organization today.
Embracing the importance of proximity and joining lives, the organization relocated to downtown Atlanta next to the Peachtree & Pine shelter. The initial strategy took the form of neighborhood walks, in which Andy walked the neighborhood and got to know his neighbors, especially those on the streets, simply to form relationships with them. As trust was built, opportunities to respond to these friends’ needs arose. Convinced of the need for others to understand the humanity of those different from them, Andy started to share about his life intentionally befriending people with experiences and stories different from his own. This led to interest from others who wanted to experience this kind of life. In late 2008, the first official program, “Saturday on the Street,” was launched to provide an opportunity for people to engage and have fun with people that were different than themselves. These differences were most visible perhaps in socio-economic or housing status, but also in race, religion, and location.
Church on the Street began to build partnerships with organizations and faith-based ministries located around the same area. Pastor Paul, founder of the Dream Center, offered free office space to help the organization re-establish itself. When the lease to this space expired, St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church (now Ponce Presbyterian Church) housed the organization and provided fertile ground to begin to experiment with community building. It was there that the Center for Practical Theology was launched, which allowed for the development of workshops, a conference, and the reimagining of “mission trips” into Immersion Experiences. These new experiences upended the traditional model with a clear focus on learning from and developing innovative solutions with our local community.
In April 2015, the partnership with St. Paul’s dissolved, and the team relocated programming to a local park and began to work out of Centerform. Centerform, was a coworking space and innovation hub focused on furthering social good, which provided a place to reflect on the lessons learned over the first years of growth. During this time a new innovative strategy and organizational model was developed. Soon after, the decision was made to make a more permanent home in Sweet Auburn, a neighborhood with a vibrant history of civil rights activism and flourishing but that had been dissected and deflated in recent decades.
To sustain and grow the rekindled organization, a new Board of Directors was assembled. This group provided a deeper span of expertise, as well as accountability and oversight in the implementation of the more robust and agile community building strategy and organizational structure. In October 2016, the organization rebranded. The new name, “Remerge,” was chosen to reflect both the continued centralization of joining lives (re-merging people from different walks of life), while also freeing the organization to experiment and iterate around community building strategies beyond traditional homeless ministry and poverty alleviation programs.
In November 2018, the Community Building Studio was opened at 340 Auburn Ave NE, officially housing the organization in the heart of the historic Sweet Auburn neighborhood and kicking off a new era in the organization. Coffee hours and community coloring events were offered at the space to continue to connect lives in organic ways. Giving Grace, a network of neighbors helping neighbors addressing critical needs and to stay in community, was expanded. The Community of Reconcilers was created to help faith-leaders network and collaborate on racial reconciliation projects. ColorATL joined the Remerge family to activate artists committed to community-building and to provide art resources for vulnerable populations. In 2019, the Sweet Auburn Community Museum was opened in the Studio. This dual gallery/museum was introduced to share the life and story of the neighborhood, not just the key actors that this neighborhood produced. In addition, the space was used to host neighborhood events and conversations with a particular focus on the inclusion of the most vulnerable. In this space, neighbors from a variety of means are welcome to engage in and contribute to planning and the thriving of the neighborhood.
New educational and innovation programs, including the Reconcilers’ Playbook and design workshops, were introduced to equip and support entrepreneurs, churches, nonprofits and other organizations in launching their own community-building strategies. Today Remerge continues to innovate in its offerings and to provide a space that supports reconciliation and collaboration that leads to belonging and the flourishing of the neighborhood.
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Remerge is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
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