Jenny wasn’t raised in a faith tradition. Her parents had been raised in the South in more conservative Christian traditions. While they were politically active and generous, both rejected the religious traditions they came from because of the hypocrisy they had experienced in church communities.

When her mother suddenly passed away, Jenny began caring for her father, who had Alzheimer’s. She navigated the loss and grief largely on her own. “My world had grown small,” she explains, “and I recognized I needed something in my life.”

By the time she moved to Sonoma County two years ago, she felt ready to find community. Driving Highway 116, Jenny kept noticing Community Church’s signs and flags and eventually looked it up online. Attending a church felt intimidating, especially because she wasn’t familiar with church culture, but she went anyway.

From her first visit, the warmth of the welcome made it clear she had found a place she needed to be. “Ben’s sermons resonated with me, and I felt a renewed connection to Jesus’s teaching” Jenny says. “It felt good that the congregation welcomed everyone, even those with questions.”

Jenny’s sensitivity to others was shaped early. Because of a hearing impairment she has had since birth, Jenny was bullied for wearing hearing aids, and stopped using them until after high school. Those experiences deepened her awareness of what others carry, and her career became rooted in social justice work.

While living in Portland, Jenny worked with Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest. Their values of community, simple living, social and ecological justice, and spirituality connected her to liberation theology and influenced her thinking. Through them, she saw the church’s capacity to be a force for good.

At Community Church, she found those same values alive. Members connected her with the North Bay Organizing Project, which is now an important part of her life. The church’s unanimous vote to become a sanctuary church was especially meaningful. “That the church would show up in this way to support our undocumented neighbors,” she explains “and that the church has a Faith in Action team to support actions in the community, is central to my commitment to Community Church.”

The meditation group, Outreach Committee, Faith in Action team, and the church’s wider commitment to justice have all deepened her connection here.

Today, Community Church has become a central hub of Jenny’s life, something other activities revolve around. “Since coming to the church, I’m open to experiencing and trusting in a way I haven’t been in the past,” she says. “I see a change in myself that’s hard to put in words, but I feel more open. I pay more attention to an internal voice. I still grapple with what God is, but have moments of peace and expansiveness like I had as a child.”

“I can’t imagine navigating the fraught, challenging times we’re in” she adds “without the supportive community and the grounding of growing in my faith with others at the church.”

People long for connection. For Jenny, Community Church is a place to connect with like-minded people who care about others and are focused on living with purpose and hope.

Written by Anna Citrino