A few months ago, an interesting set of circumstances crossed my path with Brandon Mott, a founding member of datHouse, an intentional community in Indianapolis. Brandon met several years prior as Anderson University students, when both of us went on a trip to the Simple Way in Philadelphia, where we met Shane Claiborne, who has certainly influenced both of us in different ways. When Brandon and I reconnected, it just so happened that I was looking for housing at the time and that he had space and the willingness to take on another housemate. So I moved in. Brandon and I recently sat down to talk about some of the things he and his friends are family are doing in Indianapolis's Bates-Hendricks neighborhood.
Chris: Thanks for agreeing to do this, Brandon. Several years ago we participated together on this trip to the Simple Way. Can you tell us a few ways in which that trip still influences you?
Brandon: Sure. The summer after that trip, Derek and I worked together doing remodeling. Outside of work, we were spending some time with homeless people. We began to realize that churchy ministry was losing its life for us. We read Shane's book, The Irresistible Revolution, and we started seeking a more intentional, communal way of doing ministry, which we've been trying ever since.
Chris: What's the significance of your name, datHouse?
Brandon: The letters "d," "a," and "t" represent the Greek words "Doulos," which means servant, "Agape, which means love, and "Tapeinoo," which means humility. Derek (one of Brandon's friends and founding datHouse members) came up with it while studying the Scriptures. We thought it sort of connected the dats for us, if you will.
Chris: What are some of your best memories from the neighborhood in which you all live?
Brandon: I'll give you two. One time, we loaded up the bed of a truck with a bunch of "rescued" Hostess snacks and decided to distribute them to the neighborhood. So we drove around, throwing snacks to people we saw, and shouting "Jubilee!" We even went to the city pool, but a park ranger wasn't very pleased with our antics and told us to get out of there. A second memory that comes to mind involved us and a bunch of kids in the pouring rain. We all just went out into the flooding streets in our shorts and goofed around. We were getting sprayed by cars that drove by, but we didn't even car. I had a broken arm at the time, so I covered my arm with a plastic bag before I went outside.
Chris: I heard someone recently refer to you guys as the closest resemblance to the early church in Acts that they have seen. Is that sort of the vision?
Brandon: I would disagree that we're really all that close, but it's certainly a great compliment. Our goal is to be like Jesus, and perhaps the early Church is the best example we have of people who tried it out.
Chris: On a wall in your house, you have little sayings written down that mean something to you. One that caught my eye was "Mending is better than spending." After living with you guys for a couple months, I can definitely see you guys trying to live that out. Can you tell me why that's so important to you?
Brandon: It's something I pulled from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Except in the book, the saying was much different. We want to go against the world on this. We want to turn trash into treasure. So we model houses with hands and tools, and we rescue food from dumpsters.
Chris: Tell me a little more about the remodeling projects.
Brandon: We want to purchase cheap neighborhood houses, fix them up into livable conditions, and them give neighbors who may not otherwise ever have the opportunity to buy a house live in them on a rent-to-buy basis.
Chris: Thanks a bunch, Brandon. Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing how datHouse moves forward in the future.
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