"What is the most pressing issue that we, as people of faith, should be working on in our community?"
The question was simple to understand but difficult to answer, and that was precisely the point of this congregational listening session.
A community partner had asked our congregation to identify the issues we felt most needed the collective response and advocacy of our county's communities of faith. Our congregation named nine distinct priorities, ranging from affordable housing to health care to advocacy for victims of sexual assault on college campuses to the removal of the Confederate flag from all government property in the county.
All nine were important, deserving substantive and sustained Christian witness. But given limited community and congregational capacities (the limitations of time, if nothing else), we had to prioritize further.
The facilitators invited each of us to vote for our top two issues, and affordable housing and health care emerged as the most pressing challenges for our community.
Yet as soon as the voting process ended, our unease set in.
Read more from Nathan E. Kirkpatrick » |
| IDEAS THAT IMPACT: COMMUNITY IMPACT
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A pastor who has served church and community for more than 20 years in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood shares what she has learned about sustaining a ministry of community development.
Read more from Patrice L. Fowler-Searcy» |
Your supporters might want to see immediate results. But your role as an institutional leader is to focus conversations around long-term impact and vision.
Read more from David Odom »
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| | CONTINUE YOUR LEARNING: UPCOMING WEBINAR |
Effective Financial Oversight by Boards and Finance Committees with Mike Batts August 17 | 2:30 p.m. ET
This Church Network TeleWeb presentation will address financial oversight by boards and finance committees, including liquidity, cash flow, financial position, compliance, and internal controls. Participants will discuss simple and efficient ways to assess critical financial information, including: Determining the most significant areas of financial oversight that a board or finance committee should ensure are covered;Discuss an effective approach for ensuring that the board and / or finance committee gets the information it needs in a timely and useful format;Evaluate overall risk management in ministry settings. Learn more and register » |
Community Ministry: New Challenges, Proven Steps to Faith-Based Initiatives by Carl S. Dudley
In an era of "faith-based initiatives," congregations increasingly find themselves in the business of establishing and supporting community ministries -- daycare for infants and toddlers, respite care for elders, and programs for housing rehab and home repair, tutoring, and social justice advocacy. In this volume, Carl S. Dudley revises and updates his earlier book, Basic Steps toward Community Ministry, which Loren Mead called "the most valuable book on parish ministry I've seen in a decade."
Learn more and order the book » |
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