ABCD approaches have long held appeal to faith based organizations and congregations. This should not surprise anyone. Most faith traditions believe that at some level people are sacred. In other words they hold as a fundamental tenant the idea that each of us is associated with and/or filled with the Divine. So an approach to building and developing community that starts and finishes with the giftedness and potentials of individuals and their groups, rather than their flaws and limitations, is going feel consistent with the values of most faith communities.

At a recent workshop I was facilitating, a participant said I have been turned off by traditional needs-based approaches to poverty because they so quickly fall into us/them paradigms. He is right. The common and charitable approach to ministry, the work of ministers lay and ordained, has been to find them and help them by sharing what we have. The assumption is that they dont have anything to offer, anything for us to gain from, and cant move forward without our presence. The workshop participant pointed out how this ran counter to his belief that in the eyes of God, we are all equal and valued.

The limitations of us/them charitable approaches are well chronicled. From John Mcknights The Careless Society to the increasingly popular book by Corbett and Fikkarts When Helping Hurts, we have no shortage of examples of how good intentions, applied with charitably, can hurt communities and individuals more than help. This happens, in part, because the interactions and connections are defined by labels and helper v. needy roles.

ABCD approaches offer people of faith an opportunity to connect with their brothers and sisters on a mutually beneficial basis, under the assumption that both parties have something to offer each other. By building community around our the sharing of our mutual and unique gifts and talents, we build a community more reflective of people connected to Creation and the Divine.

What has been your experience with ABCD and faith communities? Either intentional or otherwise?

updated by @ron-dwyer-voss: 10/24/16 04:45:35PM

For ABCD in Faith Communities I commend Cincinnati Jesuit George Wilson's book Clericalism: The Death of Priesthood (see Google Books for large excerpt). George describes cultural scripts, to be passive in Church contexts, which lay people inherit.

This dynamic and theological reflection is parallel to McKnight's critique of over-professionalization in service-producing institutions and weak communities.

Currently collaborating with faith-based partner as lead applicant on Promise Neighborhood planning application under new invitational priority 8, Engaging Families through Adult Education.

Communities First Association is a national network of Regional Intermediary trainers and coaches who engage churches in their neighborhood transformation story using ABCD approaches. Currently residents (including parishioners from more than 650 churches) are working to transform over 400 neighborhoods nation wide in our network. Please visit www.communitiesfirstassociation.org to learn more. A few interesting tensions from 10 plus years of training and coaching:

1. Churches self-interest (fill the pew) almost always trumps other possibilities in the early stages of involvement. The isolation of churches in a neighborhood form each other is almost always very high at first. When they actually work together for neighborhood benefit, the walls start coming down.

2. There are people in most churches who are willing and eager to participate in a neighborhood redemption story even if the congregation does not own the work

3. The dna of church engagement is almost always stronger and more ABCD compatible when the first energy is from outside the church and the church is invited to bring what ever gifts they want to what needs doing.

Thank you for this detailed reply. I will certainly access the link referenced in note.We appear to have a different context than referenced in your note. We have a community where parishersthat have moved out of the neighborhood continue to be attend, supportand advocate via one church that has become very influential in facilitating neighborhood revitalizationon behalf of current residents. I am very much interested in your line of thought initem #1.We have proposeddevelopmentof an advisory council that includes current residents along with parishers fromthesmaller congregations.

Hi, I facilitate a strength-based approach called Community life competence. I also moderate another Ning community which aims to connect facilitators of different asset based approaches. We too are exploring the relationship with faith based organisations and how FBOs are taking lead in community. Here is the sub-group http://aidscompetence.ning.com/group/saltandinterfaithlearninggroup

I look forward to learning from this interesting discussion.