Community Fellowship
Saturdays at the Outreach Center — meals, supplies, bus tickets, ID help, and the kind of unhurried welcome that’s hard to find anywhere else.
ComFe is the front door to nearly everything we do.
Before a shower can restore dignity, trust must be established. Before a bus pass can help someone reach their destination, a conversation must uncover where they hope to go. Before a birth certificate can be obtained, someone must be willing to sit beside a neighbor and walk through the process together.
Every program inExcelsis offers: Dignity on Wheels, Winter Safe Haven, Street Sanctuary, and others, depending on the relationships formed around a shared table on Saturday mornings. ComFe is where those relationships begin. Week after week. Conversation after conversation. Trust built through Radical Hospitality.
A Saturday morning that feels like a living room
From 8:30 AM until noon every Saturday, the inExcelsis Outreach Center transforms into the kind of unhurried space our unhoused neighbors rarely find anywhere else.
A hot meal at a shared table
“Many of today’s volunteers and team members were yesterday’s guests.” The line between serving and being served is intentionally thin. That’s not an accident. That’s the point.
The Boutique
A curated, dignified clothing and essentials boutique where guests “shop” for what they need — for free — with the help of trained team members. Open the first and third Saturdays.
Bus passes and practical help
Metro bus passes for the rides that connect our neighbors to work, treatment, and family. Thousands distributed each year through our Outreach Center — the single most consistent service ComFe provides.
Help with the paperwork that opens doors
At our Resource Table, trained team members help guests obtain birth certificates, IDs, SSN cards, certificates of homelessness, and referrals to housing, healthcare, and treatment partners.
Conversation, craft workshops, prayer
Volunteers and guests share tables, conversation, and craft workshops. For those who wish, a brief reflection on Scripture is offered during Bible Exploration alongside the meal — never required, always optional.
Most of all: welcome
“Many of today’s volunteers were yesterday’s guests.” The line between serving and being served is intentionally thin. That’s not an accident. That’s the point.
ComFe runs every Saturday except the last of the month, when our team is out in community with Dignity on Wheels and Street Sanctuary. A few Saturdays each year are reserved for signature events — see below.
How a Saturday morning unfolds
Every Saturday follows the same gentle arc — predictable enough that returning guests know what to expect, unhurried enough that nothing feels rushed.
8:30 AM
Visitor and volunteer orientation
Volunteers and any visiting partner groups arrive for a brief orientation to the day, the dignity standards, and the lane structure.
8:45 AM
The team huddle
Host lead gathers everyone — regular volunteers, visiting groups, staff — for a few minutes of welcome, lane assignments, and a moment of prayer.
9:00 AM
ComFe begins
The Outreach Center ‘officially’ opens. Coffee is poured. Conversations begin. ComFe settles into its rhythms across the rooms. In the fellowship hall, conversations move from logistics into life. In the Resource Hub, trained volunteers help guests apply for IDs and reach referral partners. In the Boutique (1st and 3rd Saturdays), guests choose clothing and shoes — no proof of need, no quota. On 2nd Saturdays, workshops gather a smaller group around a shared activity. During the DoW shower campaign, the Mobile Shower trailer is onsite as well.
10:00 AM
Bible Exploration and a meal at the table
The room pauses for a brief moment of Bible Exploration — a passage opened together, no longer than 35 minutes. Then lunch is shared: most weeks sponsored by a visiting partner group or generous supporters. Each table is given a number, like at a banquet, and called one by one to the serving line. Visiting groups serve alongside our regulars.
NOON
Cleanup and Close
Bus tickets are distributed while the team cleans up, debriefs briefly, and shares what they noticed. Returning visitors leave already planning their next visit. Doors close.
ComFe runs every Saturday except the last of the month, when our team is out in community with Dignity on Wheels. A few Saturdays each year are reserved for signature events — see below.
Multiple lanes, one place, warm welcome
“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” — Genesis 28:17
The fellowship hall
Coffee and pastries, breakfast on the tables, a brief Bible Exploration before lunch, and a family-style meal served table by table. The room where strangers become neighbors and neighbors become friends.
The Resource Hub
Team members and trained volunteers walk with guests through applications for IDs, birth certificates, and the documents that knot up access to housing, work, and care. We sit with people. We pray when requested, and encourage together. We follow up the next week.
The Boutique
Guests choose clothing, shoes, and household basics one at a time, walked through the racks with a companion volunteer. No proof of need. No quota. Just a dignified shopping experience.
The Boutique
Guests choose clothing, shoes, and household basics one at a time, walked through the racks with a companion volunteer. No proof of need. No quota. Just a dignified shopping experience.
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!” — Isaiah 55:1
Workshops at the table
Once a month, a smaller group gathers for a creative or skill-building workshop — a chance to make something with hands, learn something new, and sit alongside a volunteer who has time to teach.
Dignified and hot showers
When the Mobile Shower trailer is onsite for the campaign season, guests can also take a hot shower, change into clean clothing from the Boutique, and be received with the same dignity inside as out.
Learn more about Dignity on Wheels →
Some lanes are not staffed by visitors
The Resource Hub — where guests get help with birth certificates, IDs, certificates of homelessness, and referrals — is staffed by trained team members only. Visiting groups may observe respectfully from a distance and ask the host lead general questions, but do not handle guest paperwork. This protects our guests and the relationships our team has built with them.
What runs which Saturday
1st Saturday
ComFe · Boutique open
2nd Saturday
ComFe · Workshops
3rd Saturday
ComFe · Boutique open
4th Saturday
Community Street Outreach
+ Mobile Shower onsite during DoW campaign season
+ The last Saturday of the month: team is out with DoW; ComFe is closed.
When partner groups serve alongside us
Throughout the year, churches, schools, corporate teams, and faith communities join us for a Saturday at ComFe. The schedule below shows confirmed visiting partners for upcoming Saturdays
June 20, 2026
First Baptist Church of O’Fallon, IL
July 11, 2026
O’Fallon Church of Christ
Aug 08, 2026
West Hills Church
Sept 09, 2026
Concord Trinity United Methodist Church
Want your group on this calendar? Bring your church, school, corporate team, or organization to a Saturday at ComFe.
What ComFe looks like in numbers
The figures below come from our operational bus passes census — the canonical record of who came to ComFe and how often. Because every guest receives bus passes, this dataset is our most reliable count of the program’s reach, volume, rhythm, and consistency.
7,210
Bus passes distributed
This year, 7,210 one-way MetroBus tickets have been given out so far. An average of 401 every week. The single most-requested form of practical help — rides to work, treatment, court, family.
Three ways to be part of a Saturday
Volunteer, give, or bring your group. Every Saturday at ComFe is the result of dozens of decisions like the one in front of you. Pick the one that fits.
Saturday volunteer roles
Saturday volunteer roles range from kitchen support to host of the day, craft workshop leaders to clothing room assistants. We place volunteers in lanes that fit their gifts and our needs. Many of today’s leaders started as one-time Saturday volunteers.
Fund a Saturday
A single Saturday meal costs inExcelsis an average of $375 when not sponsored — feeding every guest and every volunteer in the building. That figure does not include bus passes, hygiene supplies, the lights, or the team preparing the room. Monthly donors are the reason we can promise a guest we’ll still be here next week.
Bring your group to ComFe
Bring your church, school, corporate team, or organization to serve alongside us on a Saturday morning. Whether you’re providing lunch for 75 to 80 guests or serving in lanes without a meal, every visit deepens the work.
Feed the guests. Free the budget.
Lunch is served every Saturday, no matter what. When a partner group or generous individual sponsors the meal, every dollar we would have spent on food becomes a dollar for IDs, birth certificates, bus tickets, and the documents that open real doors for the people in this room. A single Saturday meal costs inExcelsis an average of $375, enough to feed every guest and every volunteer in the building.
Churches, universities, and community organizations
ComFe is sustained by the partners who serve alongside us — sending volunteer teams, providing meals, hosting clothing drives, and supporting the work financially. Below are the organizations that have joined us:
PARTNERS LIST (alphabetical):
Want to join this list? See Take Part below — or contact us at serve@inexcelsislove.org to start the conversation.
The Saturdays that anchor the year
Three times a year, a Saturday at ComFe expands into something bigger — an event where the community ComFe has built can show up in fullness, and where we welcome larger numbers of visiting partners and supporters.
Fourth of July BBQ
Summer · 7th annual in 2026
A cookout-style celebration extending beyond the Outreach center to neighboring sites like the Peter & Paul community campus — a meal, a flag, and a Fourth of July that feels like a family reunion.
Thanksgiving Banquet
Thanksgiving Banquet
Our gathering of gratitude, a full Thanksgiving meal served around extended tables, with neighbors, volunteers, partners, and friends-of-the-work all welcomed as one community.
Joy To The Lou
Joy To The Lou — Christmas gift giving
A Christmas gift-giving initiative for our unhoused neighbors and the families we serve. In 2025 we delivered 200+ Christmas gifts at a $40-per-gift budget, during our Christmas celebration at the Outreach Center.
Welcome Home
A bridge ministry
When a neighbor moves from the street into stable housing, Welcome Home walks alongside them through the first weeks of resettlement. Our Welcome Home Crew is the relational continuity that follows ComFe friendship into a guest’s first real address.