Community 4:12

5th Annual Celebration Generosity

Over the past 4 years, COMMUNITY has allocated $1.75 million to the work of four missional ministries . . . the NewThing Network, Frontline Ministries in the Philippines, our work in Haiti and Africa, mostly in partnership with World Relief, and the work of Community 4:12.  And this weekend, we will host our 5th annual Celebration Generosity.

I love this weekend and the generosity it inpsires.  To be honest, it is also a bit stressful, because my entire year's budget is determined by what Community 4:12 receives in designated gifts on this weekend.  I've never been particularly concerned about the money . . . God has been amazingly faithful in providing the resources we've needed for the work He's led us to do.  But, I'd be lieing if I didn't say I harbor a bit of human anxiety heading into the weekend.

Here's a snapshot video of some of the things we were able to do as a result of last year's Celebration Generosity. 

Everything we do, from Gift Marts to tutoring, to having space to run clinics and programs is fueled by the funding that comes in this weekend.  Our hope this next year is to continue our various programs and events and to:

• provide at least 150 kids in East Aurora and Joliet with tutors and mentors,
• continue supporting Emmanuel House in East Aurora by helping at least 4 low-income families begin the path of moving into homeownership and out of the cycle of poverty,
• sponsor Gift Marts in Aurora, Joliet, and Chicago to raise thousands of dollars to support educational initiatives at our partner schools.

 In addition to that, three new things we are dreaming about for this year are:

• Beginning a ministry in Chicago that will allow our two campuses to come alongside low-income families and individuals in the city through partnerships with World Relief and other organizations.  
• Increasing involvement in our Parent Mentor program to at least 50 parents in Aurora and Joliet.
• Creating an East Aurora Restore Team of at least 10 families that are committed to living in East Aurora and working relentlessly for community development.  We will not create deep, significant, and lasting impact unless we have families living in the neighborhood and doing life in partnership with the community, so that will be a big focus for us this year.

If you attend COMMUNITY, I hope you will join us this weekend and consider supporting the work of Community 4:12, and/or any of the great causes.  If you aren't able to join us, you can make a donation on-line; just specify in the comments which Team (Community 4:12, NewThing, Haiti, or Philippines) you'd like your donation to go towards. 

Restoration Depends on Incarnation

If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time.  But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.  –Australian Aboriginal Activitst, Lila Watson

 

Since 2003, Community 4:12 has been working in East Aurora with the goal of creating a model of community development and restoration that can be replicated in other communities.  We’ve established programs around educational and housing challenges that many under-resourced neighborhoods face and have replicated some of those in Joliet.  A large part of our strategy has been to mobilize Community Christian Church attenders to come and serve in lower-income communities.  While this has been effective in many instances, it has not created a model that depends on truly coming along side and partnering with the people in the neighborhoods where we work.  And we believe that significant and lasting change absolutely depends on that type of incarnational ministry.  So this year we are launching a new effort in East Aurora to help us better achieve our hope of truly uniting people of different races and cultures and economic backgrounds to restore communities.  I am very excited about the launch of this new East Aurora Restore Team.

 

The East Aurora Restore Team will be made up of 10 - 15 Christ-following families living in the focus neighborhood in East Aurora.  These will be families that have relocated to the neighborhood from more affluent communities, and families that have lived in the neighborhood for years.  This Team will exist to engage deeply and relationally in the neighborhood, to identify community assets and challenges, and to work with people inside and outside the community to tackle those challenges. 

 

In my next post, I will introduce the 5 families that are committed to launching the East Aurora Restore Team.  All of us are people who have intentionally moved to East Aurora to be part of community restoration efforts.  We have been praying for several months that 3 – 5 more families would feel—and respond---to God’s call to join us.   Would you join us in praying for that?  And if you have any sense that God may be tugging at YOUR heart to consider a missional move, or to be part of a focused incarnational ministry team, I invite you to join us for dessert and to hear more about the vision and dreams of this Team.  We will meet at Community Christian Church, Naperville Yellow Box Campus, on Monday evening, February 13^th at 7:00 pm.   Leave a comment, or send me an email at kirstenstrand@communitychristian.org and let me know if you’d like to join us or want more information—no commitment or obligation, just come and learn!

Choosing a Justice Cause

It has been so long since I've posted . . . hopefully I'll do better in 2012.  In the meantime, this post on Dave Ferguson's blog is too good not to share!

Lifting Families Out of Poverty Through Homeownership

 
Homeownership is one of the biggest "hand-ups" you can give to help lift a family out of the cycle of poverty.  Community 4:12 is replicating the Bryan House model through Emmanuel House to help families in East Aurora become homeowners.

Homeownership Builds Successful Children (compared to children of renters of the same age, income & race):  Children of homeowners are:  25% more likely to graduate high school; 116% more likely to graduate college; have higher math & reading scores.

Homeownership Builds Wealth for Low Income Families: Homeowners are 12 times wealthier than renters of same income, age & race; and accumulate an average of $44,000 in home equity in first 10 years of homeownership.

Homeownership Builds Stronger Communities: Homeowners are 28% more likely to repair or improve their homes; 15% more likely to vote; and homeowners will live in the same community 4 times longer than renters--providing both community & family stability.

Thy Bryan House model allows families to rent an apartment for 12 - 18 months.  The rent they pay during that time is re-invested for them so that at the end of their lease, they have enough money saved for a downpayment on their own home.  We aim to acquire more than a dozen apartments in East Aurora in the next year that will be used to help families break the cycle of poverty.

Join us for the Bryan/Emmanuel House Silent Auction on Friday, November 19th at 7:00 pm at the Yellow Box in Naperville to help us raise money for the purchase and upkeep of apartment buildings in East Aurora.  A great way to buy Christmas presents AND support a life-changing cause!

 

Transform the Community or Transform the Church?

Community 4:12 has come to the point in its journey where it is time to evaluate what it is going to take to move us to the next level of deep community development work.  We've been working with some wonderful people at Aspen Group to help walk us through that process.  One of the questions they asked us last week when we met was whether our primary goal is to transform the community of East Aurora or to transform Community Christian Church & its attenders.  From the beginning 7 years ago, the goal has been to do both.  Bob Lupton cautions that at some point, those two goals begin to compete with each other.  I am still deeply committed to working towards both of those goals, and believe both of them must happen, but have been feeling that tension for awhile.  Sometimes the things that are most impactful for a mostly white, suburban, upper-middle class congregation are not what is most helpful for an under-resourced community.  Introductory service projects, one day events, and non-relationship building activities that are so important for helping people start the journey of engaging with people of different cultural and economic backgrounds, are not always so helpful, and can even be detrimental to empowering people in an under-resourced community to be agents of change and transformation.

One of my greatest joys is helping people to start and continue the journey of discovering what it means to love the poor and care about justice issues.  And an equally great joy for me is watching a low-income, non-English speaking mom who feels like she has nothing to contribute learn that she CAN make a difference at her child's school and in the community.  Those two don't have to be mutually exclusive, but they both take a lot of time and energy and intentionality.  And that's where the tension comes.  In a world of limited time and energy (at least my world!), where do you focus the attention?

I'm not willing to give up on either one, but I know I need a lot of guidance and wisdom that can only come from God's "aerial perspective" about how to be about both.  So, I am at the annual CCDA conference this week trying to learn from others further along on this journey and to hear God's voice about how best to be an empowerer of the "poor" and an agent of change for the "rich."

Kids Hope Mentoring

Kids Hope is a phenomenal mentoring program that we started doing at Brady Elementary School last year.  We'll continue and expand the program there this year, as well as start one in Joliet.  The Naperville Sun ran a nice article about the program today.  District 131 in East Aurora would love to have the program at each of their elementary schools.  If you are part of a church in the area and would like to partner with a school, let me know!

Summer Mom's Group

There are 15 of us meeting every Friday morning this summer for fun, relationship building and leadership development.  These are all women who are part of our Parent Mentor program during the school year who agreed to commit to meeting every Friday in June and July.  The moms bring their kids and the teenagers watch the little ones and earn community service hours that they need to graduate.  We sat down our first week and planned a summer schedule, with different moms agreeing to lead different activities.  Today, Edna took the lead in planning a Zumba class.  Most of the women speak only Spanish, but we are finding things we can all do together so language isn't a barrier.  Next week, two of the moms will teach the rest of us Mexican Stitching.  We will make soap one week, gift bags another, baking another . . .I'm so impressed with the variety of skills these women have to offer.  I hope that starting in the fall we will be able repeat a lot of these classes and open them up to other women in this community and from Community Christian Church as a way to promote building relationships between people from our two very different communities.  In the meantime, I am really enjoying spending time with these ladies (even if it does mean making a fool of myself---I didn't know bodies could move in so many different ways!  Quite different from the classical ballet training I grew up with!)

Hard Lessons & New Opportunities

It has been a challenging few ministry months for me as I have had to face some hard realities about the ministry I lead.  As painful as the lessons are to learn, I am exceptionally grateful that God has shed light on these things now so that we can redirect our course.  I am hopeful and eager to see the opportunities God will provide as we seek to love the poor as He would.  Here are some thoughts I recently shared with my Community 4:12 Leadership Team.  I am sure reactions to this post will vary widely, but I want this blog to accurately reflect my journey . . . the successes and the hard lessons, as painful as they may be.  Comment if you'd like, but please not to affirm me or Community 4:12.  I see the successes Community 4:12 has had, but now it is time to look a little deeper and recognize some of the weaknesses.

 

I have had to face a harsh reality over the past few months.  It is not a reality I am proud of, and definitely not a reality that I want to be touting as a model we want to reproduce.  Something has to change in the approach we are taking with how Community 4:12 operates in under-resourced communities.  It is not going to be easy, and I am not exactly sure where to begin to make the changes, but they have to happen.

 

When we were first starting Community 4:12, there were three pieces of advice I heard from a number of CCDA folks:

• To really make an impact, people will have to relocate to the community you are serving.
• You have to commit for the long haul, even though you shouldn’t expect to see significant impact for at least 10 years.
• To create sustainable change, you have to develop indigenous leaders.

 

Six years later, how have we done on those 3 things?

• One family has relocated (granted the housing market may have effected that, but still not so good)
• We have made a long-term commitment. (that’s good)
• Can count the number of indigenous leaders we’ve developed on one hand. (unacceptable)

 

We have not succeeded in inspiring people to relocate.  The ramification?  We have developed very few personal relationships with people in this community.  The majority of Community 4:12 volunteers would say they do not have a relationship with anyone in this community.  And those that do, would most likely identify a child.  The ramification of that?  We have developed almost no community apprentices or leaders.  The ramification of that?  This community is dependent on us to continue the services we provide.  Six years into this process, nothing has been turned over to indigenous leadership.

 

Why is this?  That’s what I’m trying to discern, and here are some of my thoughts:

• It hasn’t been a high enough priority on my part as the leader.  I have failed in this regard.
• The few times we’ve tried, we’ve given up, because “our people” don’t tolerate the lower standards and less structured/organized approach of the community.  It is easier and “better” and we know it will get done when we do it ourselves.
• “Our people” live too far away (even though is only 15 minutes, it is worlds away) to invest in getting to know people in the community.  So, when we think of people to ask to do things, the only people we know well enough to ask are “our people.”
• “Our people” want quick, easy ways to contribute.  They want to have a good, efficient, polished experience, and they want to see big numbers.

 

So, why does this matter?

• We have very few adults from the community coming to our East Aurora campus.  Why?  At least in part, I believe, because we don’t have real relationships with people.
• “Our people” are starting to get frustrated and disappointed by the reality that the community is starting to “expect” things from us . . . Christmas gifts, school supplies, winter coats, big events, and free food.
• If we left tomorrow, not a single thing that we started would continue.  After six years, that is not acceptable.

 

So, what are we going to do about it?

• PRAY.  Thank God that He has graciously blessed this ministry despite our often unhelpful strategies.  And pray for guidance and direction about how to do things in a way that is more consistent with the values and principles we preach.
• Take a step back and be willing to stop doing some things that we’ve always done . ..  at least in the way we’ve always done them.
• Make developing indigenous leaders and building relationships a higher priority than creating great experiences for Community attenders.
• Communicate and over-communicate that that has to be our priority, so Community knows that if this is really going to be about the 20%, then it can’t be about us and doing things “our way.”
• Know that people aren’t going to like our new approach.  It won’t feel as good.  It won’t be as easy.  It will take a lot longer.

 

Community 4:12 needs to have a “come to Jesus” experience.  We need to reevaluate our strategies, our goals, our motives.  It will be challenging to create a ministry that effectively impacts both Community and the communities we serve.  We have done a pretty good job over the years of impacting our own community.  But, has it been to the detriment of East Aurora or Joliet?  Not entirely, but if we continue down the same path, I believe we could wind up an example in the book “When Helping Hurts” (we probably actually could already be an example, but I have faith that we can redeem that).

 

2009 Highlights

 
So many C412 memories from 2009.  Here are the first 10 that come to mind (in no particular order) . . .

1. Obe Arellano officially joined the staff at Community Christian Church as the LONG awaited East Aurora Campus Pastor.  Bilingual campus launches on January 10th!
2. Rick Guzman joined the Community 4:12 staff as the director of the new not-for-profit we will be starting to help take our community development work in East Aurora to a whole new level.
3. Maria Lopez joined the Community 4:12 staff after serving as a Parent Mentor for 3 years as my apprentice and as our assistant extraordinaire at the Lighthouse in East Aurora.  We could not run that place or our events without her!!
4. The Parent Mentor program expanded from 4 schools to 6 schools and from 25 Mentors to 40 Mentors.
5. Obe and his wife (and East Aurora Campus Kids City Director), Jack, launched Kids City Tuesdays and StuCo at the Lighthouse, serving 50 - 70 kids each week.
6. Through the kids at Kids City and StuCo, we began to meet parents and families and had 180 people at our Community Thanksgiving Dinner and 220 at our Christmas Las Posadas party---all preparing for the campus launch . . . on January 10th if I didn't mention it.
7. We held the 2nd annual Celebration Generosity offering at Community Christian Church, raising $125,000 for Community 4:12.
8. In partnership with 3 other churches, we sponsored a Feed My Starving Children mobile food-packing event at East Aurora High School.  This allowed over 200 students, who are often the recipients of service, to be the servers . . . providing meals for thousands of meals for children in impoverished countries.
9. In partnership with over 100 churches, schools, businesses, and organizations, we sponsored 3 Christmas Gift Marts (2 in Aurora, 1 in Joliet), collecting 14,000 toys, serving over 3,000 people, mobilizing 1,500 volunteers, and raising over $20,000 for 6 elementary schools.  
10. We truly began to embrace and practice the key principal that will help make community restoration possible . . . partnership.  Only when all segments of society . . . churches, schools, government, businesses, not-for-profits . .  come together will significant impact be made.

And that is my biggest prayer for 2010 . . . that together with many others, we will be part of making a tremendous IMPACT in the lives of under-resourced people and communities locally and globally.

Christmas Hand-up

 The past few weeks have been a bustle of activity as we prepared for 3 Christmas Gift Marts this year . . . one in Joliet and two in East Aurora.  Here's a summary of how things went:

• Over 14,000 toys: 3,600 toys for the Joliet Gift Mart + 10,500 toys for the Aurora Gift Marts = Christmas for thousands of children!
• 1,500 Volunteers:  300 volunteers in Joliet; 1,200 volunteers in Aurora. It took every one of you to pull off these events!
• Over 3,000 People Attended Marts:  750 people attended the Joliet Mart; 1,750 people attended the Aurora Mart at Bardwell and 1,000 at the Aurora Mart at Brady.  Thousands of happy people who experienced the love of Christ this Christmas!
• Over 120 Partnering Organizations:  Churches--Orchard Valley Community Church, Good Shepherd Lutheran, Wheatland Salem United Methodist, Hope Tabernacle, Warehouse and others.  Schools--countless elementary, middle, and high schools sponsored toy drives.  Businesses--Walmart, Starbucks, Caribbou, Crate and Barrell, Coke, Hub Group, and many, many others.  It is this kind of unity that makes God smile!
• $20,074 Raised for Schools:  $4,349 for AO Marshall and Park Elementary Schools in Joliet.  $15,725 for Bardwell, Brady, Rollins, and Beaupre Elementary Schools in East Aurora.  All to support school improvement initiatives that limited school budgets won't support!

My pre-event challenge to the volunteers this year was to use the event as a chance to look for the richness, beauty, and blessing in the people attending the Gift Marts, rather than looking at their physical poverty, which is what we so often focus on.  I really want us all to embrace an idea I heard recently that everyone is rich, and everyone is poor.  We just need to retrain ourselves to look for the wealth, not the poverty. 

My son reminded me of that this year when we were collecting toys for the Gift Marts.  He didn't like how we referred to the children in East Aurora as poor.  These are his friends we were talking about, and he does not see their poverty.  To him they are kids that share life with him, that he has fun with, and that endure the same pre-adolescent challenges that he does.  He knows that many of them do have financial challenges, but that is not how he identifies them or thinks about them.  I am thinking that God probably looks at them more like Erik does, and that's how I want to look at them, too.