Why We Exist

Staff

Joel Triska

Executive Director / Faith & Formation

I like most sports, love reading and teaching theology, and am almost always in the mood for Mexican food.

Rachel Triska

Executive Director / Operations & Finance

I enjoy running, reading the classics, and expressing my inner child by playing with my 2-year old daughter.

Tanner Hockensmith

Director of the Cultural Center

I enjoy exercising, MMA training, and September through December I think only of hunting.

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John & Jamie Stanley

Deep Ellum Kids Directors

Initiatives

Initiatives are projects engineered by Life in Deep Ellum to creatively support and celebrate the culture of Deep Ellum and urban Dallas. These initiatives form a composite picture of the cultural center and its ethos.

Inititiatives

Community Partnerships

Along with the initiatives of Life in Deep Ellum, the cultural center also builds strategic partnerships with other organizations who hold similar goals of community development. By providing space, the cultural center and its partners receive mutual encouragement and support while the community receives new services and programs.

Super Yoga Palace (link)

Love Heals Counseling (link)

Life Out of the Box Chiropractic (link)

Lindsey Joy Photography (link)

Muscle Memory Dance Theatre (link)

Eyegate Media (link)

ArtLoveMagic (link)

Service Partnerships

The faith community regularly partners with other established organizations to serve the poor and the marginalized of our city. Whether it is fund-raising or physical labor, the faith community extends these opportunities to all in order to share the burden of fighting the effects of poverty.

Exodus Ministries (link)

The Stew Pot (link)

Dallas Comunity Lighthouse (link)

Convoy of Hope (link)

Faith Community

The faith community of Life in Deep Ellum is about “developing God’s community while serving ours.” As a people devoted to Jesus and anchored in the Scriptures, they serve as the energetic core of Life in Deep Ellum.

The Gathering: Sundays at 11am in the Cultural Center.

Life Groups: Wednesday/Thursday nights at 7pm in various homes.

Values: He answered: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind." Luke 10:27

Relationships (“heart”): We believe that everyone is in process and so we strive to partner with others on that journey. We also believe that everyone needs to be loved. We express these beliefs by building community through Life Groups, the Gathering, and encouraging people to foster authentic relationships with others.

Growth (“soul”): We believe that everyone has “issues.” This fuels our desire to provide a safe atmosphere for brokenness and healing. We also wish to provide space for growth through our Life Development programs which are designed to empower people to live healthier lives. In all honesty, we believe that everyone needs Jesus. We call him Savior because we have come to see we need saving.

Service (“strength”): We hold in tension our need to be loved with our conviction that everyone also needs to love. Our icon of the umbrella man speaks to our desire to serve – sacrificially holding the umbrella over others rather than ourselves. We express this belief through Community Partnerships and Service Partnerships. It is our conviction that the Church is the only organization that exists primarily for the benefit of its non-members.

Creativity (“mind”): We believe that everyone has incalculable worth. Therefore, we apply much effort to creative thinking so we can help connect people with their purpose. Through teaching, projects, and partnerships, we exercise our imaginations to dream up new and innovative ways to forward God’s plan for restoration.

Beliefs: We hold to the Apostles’ Creed as a unifying statement of faith along with our commitment to the authority of the Holy Bible, which serves as our sacred Scripture.

Apostles' Creed:

We believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell, on the third day rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, and he will come to judge the living and the dead;

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Holy Bible:

We give the Christian Scriptures ultimate authority in determining right beliefs and practices. Written by the hands of humans, we believe that the Holy Spirit inspired its words and guided its communal acceptance over the centuries.