Community 4:12

Christmas or Heat?

16,000 toys at approximately $10 each.  $160,000 worth of toys.  That's what we need in the next month in order to fully stock our 3 Christmas Gift Marts this year (2 in East Aurora, 1 in Joliet).  If I think about it in that way, I start to panic a bit.  That's a lot of money and a lot of toys . . . almost double what we collected last year.  But, when we debated whether or not we could add a 3rd Mart this year, to nearly double the number of families we could reach, it felt like it was not an option not to.  Every day I see kids and families here in East Aurora who are struggling to pay the gas/utility bill or to put gas in the car or keep their phones turned on.  They aren't starving, but the stress of just day to day survival is exhausting.  And there is no money for "extras."  Or, there probably shouldn't be.  But like all of us, when life gets to be too much, we resort to doing things that make us feel better . . . even if we "shouldn't" spend on the money on fast food or going to a movie or a new toy.  Parents want to provide Christmas for their children.  And they will often put themselves in serious financial jeaopardy to do that.  The Gift Mart provides a way for parents to have the dignity of providing Christmas gifts for their children without sacrificing a month of heat or hot water or paying the rent.  It is a very difficult time, but so many of us are lightyears better off than the families I see every week.  So, it felt selfish and faithless to say that we couldn't help provide Christmas for an additional 800 families.   Thanks to several other churches and businesses and schools, we do hope to stock our Gift Marts this year.  But, then, I was reminded this week that even then, we will only be serving families from 4 of the 12 elementary schools in East Aurora---all of which have poverty rates over 70%.  If you'd like to help provide toys or join us in serving at one of the Gift Marts, go to www.communitychristian.org/giftmart.

Annual Inspiration & Challenge

There are few things that both inspire me and challenge me the way the annual CCDA conference does.  I am here in Cincinnati with some great friends and partners in ministry and the past 24 hours have given me so much to process.  Last night Dr. Soong-Chan Rah challenged the whole principle of relocation---why does it always have to be the "rich, white folks" moving into the "poor, ethnic" communities?  What kind of power dynamic does that set-up? He also challenged those of us that say we are committed to multi-ethnic ministry to make sure we are being mentored by people that are not of the same race/culture.  Dr. Perkins' bible study this morning was packed with wisdom about making  obedience to God our only focus and priority.  "Coach" Wayne Gordon asked us all to consider if God might be regretting calling us to ministry based on our pride or other areas of sin in our lives.  Ouch.  Workshops inspired me to be more intentional about involving youth and the people of our community in creatively advocating for change.  And tonight I got all choked up listening to Jim Wallis talk about the power of synergy and the movements for social change that have resulted from Christ followers banding together to fight for the things that Jesus cares about.  Another great day planned for tomorrow and then on Saturday Obe and I will present a workshop about creating a Micah 6:8 church community that "acts justly, loves mercy, and walks humbly with God."

Parents United in Action

Meet the 2009 - 2010 Parent Mentors.  We have 40 of them this year (up from 23 last year), working at 6 different schools in District 131.  For a very small annual stipend of $1,000, these women will serve 10 hours/week at their children's schools as teacher's assistants.   We know from previous years that these women will become school leaders over the next nine months, and their self-confidence will blossom.  Some will be motivated to go back to school to get their GEDs or learn English or computer skills.  And all will be deeply loved and appreciated by the kids and teachers they work with day after day.

Decision: Distraction

I've had many people asking about my decision regarding applying for the School Board since I wrote the last post.  So, here is the letter I shared with my C412 Leader Team that explains my decision:

Thank you all so much for your prayers as I have worked through the decision whether or not to apply for the open School Board position.

I have decided not to apply.

There were many factors and conversations that went into my decision, but one of the most significant was a re-reading of Andy Stanley’s book, “Visioneering.”  Over the past week, I have been reminded of my original calling---to be a voice for the poor within the church and to unite people around a mission of restoring under-resourced communities.  Neither of those things do I believe will be best served by me pursuing a School Board position.  

Stanley has a section about “distraction,” and talks about how the biggest distractions to accomplishing a vision are often the biggest opportunities.  After 2 ½ hours at a Board meeting last night, I am more convinced that the influence/authority gained by being on the Board would not outweigh the distractions (and potential detriment to some of our work).

I know that there will be some who are disappointed with my decision, but I believe our influence and authority must continue to come from our good works in the community, and not from any position I might hold.

So, as Nehemiah might say, “Let’s get back to building the wall!”

Opportunity or Distraction?

I have a big decision I need to make in the next week or so.  I've been wrestling with it for the past two weeks, and am still waiting for God to give me that neon sign telling me what to do.  The group pictured here is the current District 131 Board of Education.  One of the members recently resigned, and so the Board needs to appoint a replacement.  I have been asked by several members of the administration to consider applying for the position.  This opportunity has been presented to me before, and I always felt that it was not the right thing for me to do.  But, for whatever reason, this time, I don't feel at peace about turning away so quickly.  So, I have spent the past couple of weeks praying, talking to principals, district staff, the retiring Board member, community members, and my team trying to discern whether this is an opportunity God is putting before me "at such at time as this," or if it is a tempting distraction that could hinder/impede the work we are doing in the community.  I have come up with a long list of reasons why I should not pursue it, and an equally long list of reasons why I should.  I haven't struggled with a decision this much since we grappled through the whole "do we relocate to East Aurora or not" dilemma.  In the end, God did give me great peace about moving.  But, I didn't have a deadline I was up against, so I had the time to wait for God's direction.  This time, I do have a deadline.  I am praying that God will give me peace about one direction or the other before the deadline.  But, if He doesn't, should the default be to take the risk or not?  I'm going to choose to believe that He will make it clear . . .but I must seek Him and wait.  Neither of which is easy for me to do!  

A Heart for the Community Conference

CCDA is partnering with Community 4:12 to offer a 1/2-day-training based on a new book co-edited by John Fuder and Noel Castellanos entitled A Heart for the Community: New Models for Urban and Suburban Ministry.
 
In the workshops we'll look at the biblical basis for working with the poor, learn about Christian Community Development, and focus on Kingdom-enhancing Partnerships.

September 26, 2009.

9 am to 1 pm.  Click here for more information and go to www.ccda.org to register!

Starting the year off right---with school supplies & prayers

All 500 students at Brady Elementary school had all the supplies they need on the first day of school.  And each one of them will have someone praying for them throughout the year.  Teachers don't have to shell out hundreds of dollars of their own money to make sure kids have the basic supplies.  And on top of it all, Brady raised over $2,000 to help purchase additional classroom materials.  There is so much we still have to learn about effectively partnering with schools, but this is one model I think we have gotten right---after six years of trying a variety of ways to equip students with supplies at the beginning of the year.

We have developed a fabulous partnership with Carlson.  They work with us and the teachers at Brady to create grade appropriate supply kits so that the average cost of each kit is $25 (younger grades are less, older grades are more).  We then solicit sponsors from Community.  Each sponsor pays $25/child and then they are given the names of their sponsored child(ren) to pray for throughout the year.

Carlson delivers the prepackaged kits to the school over the summer.  As students register, the school collects $5 - $8 as a supply fee (a price most parents can afford).  The child's name is put on a grade appropriate bag and then before school starts, all the bags are delivered to the appropriate classrooms.  This past Saturday (2 days before school started), we hosted a huge party at the school with a BBQ, outdoor band, and kids' activities.  Students could come to the school, visit their classroom & meet their teacher, see their supplies and celebrate the start of a new year.  Then when they arrived at school for the first day today, their supplies were there waiting for them.

One of the best parts of this model for me is that we don't have to spend dozens of hours collecting, sorting, transporting, and storing supplies as we have in the past--only to wind up with tons of pencils and paper and few of the right color folders that teachers request.  Carlson makes our job so easy, and sponsors find that $25 is actually cheap compared to what they used to spend when given a list of supplies to purchase.

We think this model is one that any church could do.  In fact, we'd love to find enough other churches in the area to be able to provide supplies for kids that receive free/reduced lunch at all 12 elementary schools in East Aurora (which at Brady is almost 100% of the kids).  Let me know if your church would be interested in learning more about how to replicate something like this at an under-resourced school near you.  And we are still about a dozen sponsors short of our goal, so click here if you'd like to sponsor a child and receive a name of someone to pray for this year!

"The Poor" Serving the Poor

I spent the past two days at East Aurora High School at a mobile Feed My Starving Children food-packing event.  Great organization that provides meals for starving children around the world.  East Aurora HS implemented a brand-new service graduation requirement this year for incoming freshmen, and they wanted to kick it off with a huge service event.  Unfortunately, it costs about $17,000 to bring an event like this to a school/church . . . not a price an under-resourced school district can support.  So often the kids in this community are the recipients of service, so a few of us thought it would be great to help give them an opportunity to serve the "poorest of the poor."  So, four Naperville churches pooled resources to sponsor this two day event.  It was a fantastic experience.  658 volunteers (mostly high school students) packed 102,600 meals that will feed 281 children a nutritious meal a day for one year.  I thought the Beacon news did a great job of capturing the event.  Click here to read it.  

Random Thoughts from Leadership Summit 2009

Spent the past two days being inspired and challenged at the Willowcreek Leadership Summit.  Some great speakers, and for more details on what some of them had to say, check out Dave Ferguson's blog.  But here are some random thoughts churning around in my head . .  .

• "A leader's main job is to mobilize, connect, and support." --Gary Hamel
• "Relationships trump vision" and "the third culture leader leads from the fringe" and "obedience is more important than passion" --Dave Gibbons
• "How we perceive Africa is how we respond to Africa."  "We need to change the way we portray Africa---look at it as a country of entrepreneurs and opportunity."  "The best kindness you can show is helping Africans help themselves."--Andrew Rugasira
• Wess Stafford's story and how he has used what Satan intended for evil to change the lives of millions of children through Compassion International.
• Bono's praise for how the church has responded to the global crisis of poverty and Aids over the past three years since he first criticized us for doing nothing at a previous Leadership Summit.  We still have a long ways to go, but we are making progress.

75 percent philosophy

Love this quote from A Heart for the Community edited by John Fuder & Noel Castellanos,  A truly diverse congregation where anybody enjoys more than seventy-five percent of what's going on is not thoroughly integrated.  So that if you're going to an integrated church you have to be prepared to think, 'Hey, this is great.  I enjoyed at least seventy-five percent of it,' because twenty-five percent you should grant for somebody's precious liturgical expression that is probably odious to you; otheriwse it's not integrating.

That sure is a different mindset than the typical "church shopper" mentality where we going in looking for the place where I can "get most fed."  Maybe we need to be a little more willing to eat some "spiritual food" that isn't our preferred pizza and chocolate.

By the way, John and Noel will be at our Lighthouse office in Aurora on Saturday, Sept. 26th for a 1/2 day CCDA mini-conference based on this book.  If you're interested in attending, let me know!