In recognition of National Clergy Appreciation Month, Ingrid Friesen Moser explores how community dispels loneliness, renews hope and supports pastor and congregational well-being.
Ingrid Friesen Moser has been the wellness coordinator for The Corinthian Plan since 2010. She is a graduate of Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Foods and Nutrition, Dietetics, and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana, where she earned her master’s degree in Christian Formation. She is a member of Southside Fellowship, where her husband, David Moser, serves as pastor.
It’s better to have a partner than go it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. And if one falls down, the other helps, But if there’s no one to help, tough!
Two in a bed warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night.
By yourself you’re unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped.
– Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, The Message
I recently spent an evening in a community garden full of weeds and overgrown berry bushes. Ten volunteers did an hour’s worth of work. The main task, in my mind, was maintaining access to fresh food for those in need. Turns out, it was a reminder that solutions to most of life’s problems are within reach.
In challenging times, when we are discouraged or overwhelmed, community can renew us.
In the days following, I started to see events around me through a community lens:
- The concerned parents joining forces to set boundaries with electronics in their kid’s friend group. They realized it would be easier to enforce limits with their children if they did it together.
- The 20-somethings that jumped into action at the sight of an invasive lanternfly. They worked together to capture, eradicate and report it – and reached out to the local city environmental department to support community education efforts.
- The single adults that were looking for a way to meet people without using an online dating app and gathered in large numbers on a Saturday morning to remove invasive species at a local park.
- Two congregations coming together to offer meals and financial support to help a family with stifling medical and adoption expenses.
- A summer camp with full-to-capacity attendance because, it turns out, kids and youth like being together — outside, singing, eating meals around tables, learning about what it means to follow in the way of Jesus and playing games — as a camp community.
When I am most discouraged, I realize I feel alone.
Data cited by the U.S. Surgeon General consistently finds that roughly 50% of U.S. adults experience measurable levels of loneliness. A 2022 report from the Barna Group found that 65% of pastors feel lonely or isolated.
A 2025 Harris Poll, conducted on behalf of the American Psychological Association, found that 69% of the people surveyed needed more emotional support in the past year than they received.
Sweaty, dirt under our fingernails, freeing food from the grip of weeds and overgrown bushes, 10 of us made more progress than I thought possible that evening in the community garden.
Where are you noticing the power of community turning despair into hope and healing into reality?
How might you join in?
Who might you invite to join you?
The Corinthian Plan believes in supporting healthy communities. Our Cultivating Pastor Wellbeing tool is a resource all MC USA churches can use to see where energy might be well spent in your community. October is a great month to take this up. It is National Clergy Appreciation month. Make it an annual tradition to assess where health and wellbeing is most needed in your congregation and with your leadership.
