Words'nTone

I attended Crown College (formerly called St. Paul Bible College) outside of the Minneapolis area in Minnesota.  I graduated in 1984 with a B.A. in Theology and went on to graduate studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in So. Hamilton, MA.  I have pastored and taught at a Christian college since these graduations and now find myself serving the economically vulnerable through a Community Action Agency called NEON, Inc. in Norwalk, CT as the Director of Finance & Planning Services.  Although a leap, it is really not that fair to take the step from good theological training to helping the poor.  My alma mater, Crown College, has picked up on this leap--they call it “market place ministry"--and have asked me to send them some material for a future article in one of the school’s publications.  Not sure exactly what they are looking for, I kinda wandered about between describing what I do to why churches ought to consider similar approaches to ministry, in particular attacking the issue of poverty.  Here is some of what I sent them.

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Over 4,000 low-income and economically vulnerable families walk through our doors to find help with everything from food to rent assistance, from childcare and preschool to job search, and from energy assistance to alterative incarceration.  I work at a Community Action Agency in Norwalk, CT as the Director of Finance & Planning Services.  Our agency’s mission is to help at-risk populations to ameliorate their personal and employment crises and to provide resources to move them toward self-sufficiency.

Our agency, Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now, Inc, like over 1,000 Community Action Agencies scattered throughout all 50 States, came into existed through President Lyndon Johnson’s landmark 1964 Economic Opportunities Act and his “War on Poverty.” For over forty-years our agency, better known as NEON, has offered area low-income and economically vulnerable populations a wide range of services and programs: Head Start and pre-school, energy assistance, employment and training, alterative incarceration services, financially literacy skills training, English as a Second Language, comprehensive case management, and occupational skill training.  Our agency, like so many other Community Action Agencies, has a strategic plan that includes goals to be a quality organization, to engage the community to end poverty, and to actually help move families out of poverty.

I remember hearing over and over when I was a young Christian that change for change sake is not good.  Then while teaching at Prairie Bible College (probably sometime in 1991), I heard Leith Anderson say that change is good, even if it’s just for change sake.  At that point in my life I began to agree—just like a garden that isn’t turned over every once and a while, the nutrients don’t get stirred up and in, and oxygen doesn’t get shifted around (poor illustration, but you know what I mean).  But in the end, really there is no such thing as change for change sake—the dynamics of going through the motions of change always produce something; it has some affect on the status quo.  Something changes.  People change.  Lives change.  But I would add that it is important to decide what outcomes are desired first, so the change is designed to bring about those outcomes.

Over the last few years I have heard tossed around the phrase, “Making a Case for Change.” And now, through a strategic planning exercise that our agency has undertaken, we are making a case for change, specifically change that “ends poverty” in our community.  A big goal?  Absolutely!  Each year for the last ten years I have put together community need assessments, which translated into community action plans, which had goals and outcomes to help families with a range of support and resources (e.g., jobs, skill training, childcare and preschool, medical assistance, etc.).  This past year our agency took a good look at the needs of the community and began to produce a 10 and 3 year strategic plan that seeks to engage the community to end poverty in our municipal region.  The process was simple: 1) Look at the data—the demographics, the longitudinal studies, crime, graduation rates, unemployment, employment skill requirements for jobs in the area, languages, cultural backgrounds, etc.; 2) Develop a case for change from the data; 3) Craft a vision in light of the data—what do you want your community and agency to look like?; 4) Develop a method and strategy to bring in stakeholders—staff, the community, clients (some rather call them customers, participants, students, even citizens), municipal leaders, business leaders, other human services providers, etc.; 5) Develop goals and outcomes; and of course, implement the change and leadership development process and a means to measure the outcomes.
I have often said that my job, although not directly a vocational “church” ministry, is indeed a fulfillment of the presence of the Kingdom of God.  My role in the agency mission has been to design, implement, and monitor programs that help low-income people become less dependent on assistance and move toward self-sufficiency—more than just charity.  Most, if not all, my co-workers and colleagues in the social service and workforce development world (here in Connecticut) know that my passion and hard work on behalf of the most vulnerable among us is an outworking of my faith.  The Gospel Jesus came to preach to the poor was the Gospel of the presence of God’s Kingdom, the invasion of His rule and reign into the life of this world, into our communities.

I have always advocated that churches, likewise, should also learn to develop community needs assessments and input the findings into a church action plan with outcomes that help move people out of poverty.  Churches should be on the front lines when it comes to making a case for change.  But I fear the change we desire is more related to “number growth” (head counting), a bigger church budget, a bigger church building…the list goes on.  The church, of all social entities or institutions, is to exist for others.  Granted a component of church life is the nurture and development of Christians, but the command to “Go into all the world and make disciples” implies that the church community was not to be buiding-centered, but to be a disciple-making entity with the goal of going out into the world.  I am learning everyday of churches and church communities that are moving or have moved into this new (really old) direction of engaging their communities to end poverty.  My interests is in how the church—i.e., a local church—can be a people who make a case for change and develop leaders (i.e., disciples) who have a vision to make that change, especially as it relates to the church’s association and role in social action toward the poor.  The church should be asking itself, “How do we make a case for change in ending poverty in our community and how do we engage the community in ending poverty?”

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