Constructing Community
How a New Team Member is Laying Fresh Foundations.
“Go Pack!” Lauren Gilbert is an ardent NC State fan and alumnus. She was born and raised in the small town of Denver, North Carolina, and she moved to Central Florida two years ago.
Lauren’s working life during and since college has been full of unique and somewhat “random” experiences, but they have all had one common theme: they’ve centered around caring well for others and creating community. Lauren is someone who cares deeply for people, and she allows that God-given passion to drive her work in diverse ways.
Lauren has been a barista, a senior-care employee at the height of the pandemic, a student minister, a wedding venue worker, and more. The experiences that most impacted and shaped her were her roles as a summer camp counselor and support leader and her work in ministry. In both positions, Lauren grew in her love for working with people, and she began to discover her calling for building and structuring community.
Her summer camp experience came over five summers during and after college. They were long and exhausting, but Lauren thrived in her roles there.
She loved creating spaces for these kids to “just be kids,” playing and exploring in the outdoors; for one week a year they could delight in their kid-ness in new ways. For Lauren, an especially impactful week of camp each year was one that was dedicated to kids in foster care. This was one of the hardest weeks for Lauren and the other counselors, but it furnished a special place in her heart for vulnerable kids. She was learning and growing in her knowledge of God’s own desire to “move in close to those who are vulnerable.” In a broader sense, her purpose to love and care for people well was emerging as a central theme in her life and work.
Following her graduation from NC State and subsequent move to Florida, Lauren got involved in leading a group for young adults at her church, University Carillon. Having experienced rich Christian community during college through Cru, a popular campus ministry, she understood the blessing and the necessity that it is. She began to lead others into community using her ministry experience and her heart for people. She assembled structure and cultivated spaces that promoted connection and life-giving relationships. It was becoming clear to Lauren that God wanted to keep using her gifts in impactful ways. She just never could have foreseen the wild ride it would be.
When she moved to Florida, Lauren had never worked for a nonprofit, yet she soon felt certain that God was calling her to work in donor relationships.
She was working remotely for Asbury Seminary in their spiritual formation department but soon felt that a change was on the horizon. There was an undeniable sense that the Lord was putting donor relationships on her heart. A year ago when she saw that C127 was hiring for a position that would focus on administrative support and some donor relationships, things began to make more sense. Eagerly and immediately, Lauren applied. She was invited in for an interview soon after, and it went well. She connected naturally with Betsey and Rechaud, and answers to their questions seemed to come readily. Lauren left the interview buzzing with hopeful excitement.
For as much as things were beginning to come together and make sense for Lauren, they came crashing down when she found out she did not get the job. It just didn’t add up. Why would God give her such a specific calling and open the door to her dream job, only to close it in her face? Disappointed yet resilient, Lauren picked herself up and kept going.
Fast forward a whole year, and a C127 instagram post caught her eye. They were hiring! It seemed like a strange thing to apply again, and the fact that the position was advertised as part time only, while she needed full time work, was also surely working against her. Even still, Lauren remembered the excitement and purpose she had felt the year before, and she stepped forward in faith. Soon after applying, she got a call from Rechaud Bell. He thanked her for applying and said he remembered her from the previous year. He made sure to clarify, however, that the position would be part time and only. So she stepped out in faith and went ahead with the interviewing process.
Lauren was driving to work weeks later when Rechaud and Betsey called, and she hesitantly picked up her phone. She took a slow deep breath and braced herself, expecting another rejection. “Lauren,” he said in a serious tone. “We want to offer you the job.” Stunned, Lauren sat there silent with one hand gripping tightly on her steering wheel and the other pressing the phone to her ear. “And that’s not all,” said Rechaud. “We’ve decided to make the position full-time.” With those words, Rechaud unwittingly wrenched open the floodgates. Tears of joy and gratitude flowed down Lauren’s face as she exclaimed her excitement! It all made sense now, finally. She felt the unmistakable awe of God bringing his part of His plan full circle. Along with this calling coming full circle to the opportunity to live into it, Lauren’s passions and skillset met with an organization that would benefit greatly from them. Her gifts for creating community and structuring spaces of connection are already enriching and energizing the C127 community as we fight for vulnerable children.
More than an organization, more than a nonprofit or a workplace, Commission 127 is a community. We are a community that seeks to establish, build up, and support other communities: those of families, churches, and cities. The truth that undergirds our entire vision is that kids belong in families. Vulnerable kids’ belonging to the community of a family is essential to their development because God made them to need it. While the need to protect children by keeping them in families is especially urgent, our need for community does not fade when we grow up. We all need one because we were created to be together.
What makes our work successful at C127 is that we create community for foster and adoptive families. We invite them into our “C127 Family,” and we equip church bodies to wrap around them and invite them into friendship with them. Certainly one of the most significant challenges for these parents is the isolation they face. With vulnerable children to care for and therefore a lack of time to pursue friendships, they begin to feel profoundly alone. Working to bring families into loving communities with hearts to care for them is certainly the essence of what we work to do.
Lauren has been a part of our team for about two months now, and her passion for community is powering the terrific work she is already doing. Development Specialist may not sound at first like a job title that an energetic people-person would thrive under, but in Lauren’s eyes her work is laying the foundation for rich and effective community to grow. She explained that her role is about helping to create the environment and the connections for community to exist. In her work with donors, Lauren is enabling C127 to continue impacting lives, protecting kids and strengthening families. She pointed out that although the Development Specialist role is not one that entails a huge amount of face-to-face work, she is also excited and well suited for the more behind the scenes work that enables everything else to happen.
We are thrilled to have Lauren Gilbert on our team; we look forward to seeing our C127 community grow and thrive because of her tremendous work. Welcome Lauren!
