What is your current ABCD context and what is your interest in connecting faith communities to ABCD?
ABCD and Faith Communities
Hello Wendy,
You are way out of my league. We have only two churches that we did workshops at and have found the churches to be very receptive but the individual leaders to be very apprehensive. They seem to feel that doing anything that is out of the ordinary is too much. They can't seem to get pass "what we did in the past" I have read about some successful churches but have not experienced this yet. We also started a webinar series only to have three church leaders to attend the first one and the attendance dropped to one on the second webinar. So pat your self on the back you are doing a grand.
Here is something I think would interest you:
Thinking about ABCD in faith community building, I appreciate the pastoral work of Mike Mather and DeAmon Harges. They have worked as pastoral ministers from Broadway United Methodist Church, in urban Indianapolis. Two videos describe their fruitful approach and interesting results:
1.) http://bit.ly/1O5ec46 (YouTube): Making the invisible visible |DeAmon Harges | TEDxIndianapolis (0:10:30)
2.) http://www.abundantcommunity.com/home/authors/parms/1/which/mike_ma... (Abundant Community website) Follow link tovideo of Mike describing ABCD engagement uncovering "Adelita's Gift" (0:04:29). This ABCD pastoral accompaniment resulted in self-employment growing into a developed small business. This is also know as "Smart Network Weaving."
Such ABCD for self-employment and small-business development is also illustrated in Ohio in the work of Appalachian Community Economic Networks (AceNet). See a third, longer video:
a.) AceNet's former Dir. June Holley, in akeynote conference address to the Center for Small Towns (YouTube, 0:30:56) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V86KoCtLmo
b.) June's Network Weaving Handbook describes this community development approach: http://www.networkweaver.com
Also here is a discussion on Connect/Share>Conversations:
Are any of your ABCD practicing groups members or affiliated with ccda.org member organizations?
Are there churches that operate 501 (c) (3) "Community Development Corporations" as a part of 'Urban Ministry'?
Dear D Michale Blackie,
Thank you for your interest in my subject matter - ABCD for Pastorals.
None of our ABCD practicing groups members or affiliated with ccda.org member organizations.
However, I am keen to learn about this partnership for future collaboration in promoting ABCD and other development endeavors.
Regards,
Greetings Brother ABCD Practitioner!
Thank you for your response. There's a treasure of information about CCDA on their website, ccda.org and many, many books (ebooks as well) about using ABCD in "Christian" communities. CCDA practices the elements of ABCD as well.The foundations of CCDA come from the work of (Dr.) John M. Perkins, and his living and pastoring in the poorest Americans at the time in the state of Mississippi. (In the 1960's era).
Here, In Philadelphia (PA, USA) A group in the city aligned with the Mennonite Church runs a successful community center and programs. http://occcda.org
I hope you and others find this helpful.Serving In The City,
D. Michael Blackie, Organizer/Facilitator
ONE Feltonville
Follow on Twitter: @GoWestYoungMan1 #ONEFeltonville #ABCD
However, you have inspired me to get back on the horse and keep trying Churches need ABCD training.