ABCD and Faith Communities

Michael Mather
Michael Mather
@michael-mather
14 years ago
7 posts

My name is Mike Mather and I'm pastor at Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana in the U.S. I was writing to ask what folks are doing in their faith communities to apply and use the principles of ABCD in their settings. And I'm asking if anyone has questions about it that we could share with one another about.

For example - we are playing with this in what we do with the young people and adults in the neighborhood around our church building. We have hired young people and adults from the community during the summer for the last two years to go around and talk with their neighbors. They do three things: 1) Name the gifts, talents, blessings and dreams they hear in the lives of people (they actually literally write them up on the walls and share them with each other); 2) lay hands on people and bless them (if they don't mind); and 3) connect them with other people who care about the same thing. This was a big step from running classes in everything from Bible Study to poetry to math to recreation that we used to do. We are trying to build community on the gifts and connections of the people around us. That's what we are trying. And it brings forth lots of questions.

For example - we are struggling with how to keep up with all the things that we see and hear about. It's overwhelming. But mostly in a good way. But any thoughts?


updated by @michael-mather: 10/29/16 07:43:10AM
Stan Rowland
Stan Rowland
@stan-rowland
14 years ago
3 posts
I am Stan Rowland with Neighborhood Transformation and we are all about equipping churches to assist neighborhoods out of poverty and people to maturity in Christ. We are working in 12 North American cities with anywhere from 5 to 15 churches in each city to do this in nearby neighborhoods they are working in.

I am looking for good stories on ABCD in action where churches are using ABCD with neighborhoods. I teach ABCD as part of our equipping but have not found many stories where churches are using ABCD outside their four walls.
Stan Rowland
iLL Holiday (Casey Bridgeford)
iLL Holiday (Casey Bridgeford)
@ill-holiday-casey-bridgeford
14 years ago
1 posts
Hello,
I am Casey Bridgeford. I have started an asset map of my fellow church members. I am now feeling nervous on what the best way to connect people will be. Does anyone have any format and structure ideas for connecting members?
Michael Mather
Michael Mather
@michael-mather
14 years ago
7 posts
We have a community organizer we call "The Roving Listener" - De'Amon Harges - who helps identify the gifts, talents, dreams and passions of our neighbors. For example he identified lots of gardeners around our neighborhood. He then started getting them together with one another - for no reason except that he trusted that something good would come from it ("have conversations and have faith" is one of our mottoes). We hired two youth from the neighborhood to interview the gardeners and find out what they were growing and whether they were interested in selling what they are growing. They then talked with congregations (mainly choirs and sunday school classes in congregations) as well as neighborhood businesses and not-for -profits to see if they would be interested in buying from their neighbors and if so - how would they want to get the produce? Out of that has come a commitment from a local hospital to have the gardeners of our low-income neighborhood provide a farmer's market at the hospital in the summer of 2011 (the hospital has invested $40,000 in the effort).Another story - just starting to unfold - is that de'amon also identified a lot of bakers in our parish (both in our neighborhood and outside of it). One of the church members who lives outside of the neighborhood is having everyone over to her house this Sunday afternoon (the 24th) to meet one another and share what they are doing.We will also have a group getting together around economic development (de'amon identified a lot of folks with this passion) in November.That's a couple stories from our place (there are more).
Michael Mather
Michael Mather
@michael-mather
14 years ago
7 posts
There are lots of different models for this that I have seen. Church of the Savior in Washington, DC has been doing some interesting things around this for 50 years. But what I would say would be most helpful in our experience is to experiment - and to start with people you feel confident will be "easiest" (for lack of a better term).But we've had a lot of luck in terms of simply building community with inviting people to come together who share common interests. It's beautiful. Nothing bad has happened with that, from what we've seen.
Josh Bowling
Josh Bowling
@josh-bowling
14 years ago
2 posts
Stan, Mike and iLL,
Here is a little piece that Chris Smith, who is a member of my church and the editor of Englewood Review of Books, has put out that does a good job of telling our story. It is called "Growing Deeper in Our Church Communities: 50 Ideas For Connection in a Disconnected Age!"

http://erb.kingdomnow.org/growingdeeper.pdf

Josh
Michael Mather
Michael Mather
@michael-mather
13 years ago
7 posts
As a graduate of Drew University Theological School I'm glad to hear about the connection to this good work.
April Doner
April Doner
@april-doner
13 years ago
54 posts

De'Amon's the man!!! And you too Mike. Sorry, this is a totally non-substantial answer but just gotta shout out my love for you guys and Broadway. Hope to visit and learn some more again soon!!!

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