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Eisele comes to the hospital as often as she can, and most often on her ‘‘day off” each Monday. She is one of 23 outside clergy of various religions who have full access to the hospital, said Ismael Gama, director of mission and pastoral care services at Washington Adventist.

For Eisele, it is a duty she has taken on as her church’s pastor for congregational care, which includes visits not only to the church’s neighboring hospital, but also the homebound.

‘‘The value of visiting is that it’s a very essential part of the pastor’s ministry. There are people unable to come out to church, and we don’t want people to feel that they’re valued only when they’re seen present,” said Wendell Osborne, an elder at Sligo for the last three years who has been a member of the Takoma Park church for more than 35 years. Osborne said Eisele drove herself all the way to Baltimore when he was in the hospital last year, and paid several visits to his home in Takoma Park when he returned.

‘‘The members of the church, they are family. We treat them just like blood relatives,” he said.

Directing worship services is one small piece of church leaders’ work. Most of their time is spent pursuing their individual interests and missions, or representing the church outside its walls.

‘‘To me, the church is not so much a building, or a physical place as much as it is a group of people sustained by the spirit of God,” said the Rev. Mark Greiner, pastor at Takoma Park Presbyterian Church. ‘‘Especially important is that the church is loving and caring of people who may not be able to come to services.”

Greiner spends much of his time outside the church on ‘‘house calls,” or visits to the sick or elderly members of his congregation. He compares the visits to ‘‘church in miniature.”

Deacons and elders from the church make the visits as well, often with an offering of Holy Communion, a common practice among many denominations. At Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Takoma Park, it is the Eucharistic ministers who visit the homebound with communion.

‘‘It’s a little bit less true in Takoma Park, where people are so open, but often we live in a culture where people are so isolated from one another,” Greiner said.

Coping with grief of others

Even with what Eisele considers the healing power of prayer, surrounding themselves with difficult situations — death, divorce and crisis — is not always easy for church leaders.

‘‘It’s difficult, especially when you know a person is dying, especially when that person is very dear to you,” Eisele said of visiting the chronically ill. ‘‘I have a wonderful, supportive family. You need a balance in your life.”

The Rev. James Todhunter, a senior minister at Christ Congregational Church in Silver Spring, said his involvement working with the homeless came when he learned of the hundreds sleeping in the area’s parking garages. While it was a difficult problem with no immediate answer, Todhunter has since assisted in the development of several initiatives to eradicate homelessness, and made himself a fixture at Shepherd’s Table, a Silver Spring soup kitchen.

Greiner, who served as pastor for more than nine years at a Long Island, N.Y., Presbyterian church before moving to Takoma Park, remembers an especially difficult time for himself and his congregation after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Thirteen from the town he served died that day, he said, and many more were touched in some way.

Greiner called the weeks that followed ‘‘striking,” and a teaching moment where the church learned to come together with others in the community.

‘‘Oftentimes, we find hope in being together,” Greiner said. ‘‘Tragedy isolates, but being together we find hope, and the differences that divide us are no longer so apparent.”

An activist role

Todhunter has used his role in the church as a way to raise awareness of issues that need more attention. As a result, he has become a mouthpiece, albeit unofficially, of his church, and a vocal contributor to discussions of the area’s redevelopment and cultural landscape.

In the last 10 years, Todhunter has served on two citizen advisory boards that examined the development in Silver Spring, and has served on several panels dealing with sexual orientation and the role of sexual education in school curricula.

‘‘I try to recognize that whatever I happen to be involved with in the community really has a connection with our mission as a church,” he said.

For Eisele, what she chooses as her mission is simple, and centered around Bible passage Isaiah 50:4: ‘‘The almighty Lord will teach me what to say so I will know how to encourage the weary. Morning after morning, he will wake me to listen like a student.”

‘‘They’re not just members of our church. They’re people like us with concerns and joys,” Eisele said. ‘‘Being with them ... it’s a real tangible way to feel like you’re in a church family.”