Paul Stewart

Happy Fourth!

Happy 4th of July from the Stewart family!

ENLACE's Approach

Ron Bueno, ENLACE’s Executive Director, believes that the church is the answer to poverty alleviation in El Salvador. He has written brilliantly about his commitment to equip local churches to transform their communities. Over the next few days I will repost some of his thoughts here and consider how this may apply to the church in America.

QUESTION 5: WHAT IS ENLACE’S APPROACH TO HELP CHURCHES THAT DESIRE TO TRANSFORM THEIR COMMUNITIES?

ENLACE’s approach is an intuitive, fluid, and dynamic process. It is a process that is adapted to every church and community’s unique history, vision, resources and opportunities. The process is fluid and dynamic because each stage builds from and contributes to one another. It is general framework more than a rigid methodology.

The six general steps of our approach are as follows:

Discovering your church. In the first stage ENLACE helps the church to discover who they are as a congregation. During this stage the church leaders identify attitudes that might impede them from reaching out to their community. They evaluate their current mission and vision statement and organizational structure. They also begin to appreciate the skills and capacities of their leadership and identify resources available in their congregation. Although this stage continues throughout the entire process as a church learns more about itself and as new members join the church, the initial stage usually lasts between 3 to 6 months.

Organizing to serve. The second stage involves aligning a church’s resources with their mission and vision. In this stage the church leaders work on reformulating their mission and vision statement and aligning their programs and departments to the mission. In this stage the church begins to identify and train servant leaders to connect to their community. In some cases a committee or team is organized to lead the community transformation process. This stage can last from 3 to 6 months.

Listening to your community. In the third stage church leaders begin to connect to and understand their community. The church leaders will do a series of activities to develop a community profile. These activities include interviewing formal and informal leaders, meeting with local organizations, and conducting one-on-one informal and formal interviews. Other activities in which leaders are encouraged to participate include walking through their community at different times and days of the week, hanging out at favorite community places, and participating in community activities such as meetings, fairs, or parties. The central emphasis of this stage is for the church to begin to develop relationships with community leaders and organizations and begin to serve together. This stage initially ranges from 6 to 12 months, but continues throughout the relationship.

Partnering effectively with your community. The focus of the fourth stage is to create a common vision for the community and develop the leadership and technical skills required to design and manage appropriate initiatives. This stage involves training church and community leaders to identify, design, manage and evaluate sustainable initiatives. It is also during this stage that we train leaders to mobilize local resources to implement the initiative. The final product of this stage is an equipped leadership team and organizational structure that will manage existing initiatives and identify new ones. This stage ranges from 3 to 7 years.

Incarnating the mission of the church. The emphasis of this stage is to institutionalize the mission of the church in the whole body. It is during this stage that the leadership of the church is encouraged to communicate and celebrate what they are doing with the congregation. The church leadership identifies and trains new leaders, develops new ways of communicating their mission, vision and activities, and hosts church and community events to celebrate transformation. This stage begins shortly after they have started the partnering stage and continues throughout the life of the church.

Replicating the model. In this final stage, church leaders train and equip other local and regional churches to transform their communities. It is during this stage that ENLACE provides church leaders with the materials and methodology to replicate the process. This stage ranges from 3 to 5 years.

Do you think this approach would work in a North American context? Why or Why not?

Day One at the Lake

Does it get any better than this?

What Impedes Churches from Transforming Their Communities?

Ron Bueno, ENLACE’s Executive Director, believes that the church is the answer to poverty alleviation in El Salvador. He has written brilliantly about his commitment to equip local churches to transform their communities. Over the next few days I will repost some of his thoughts here and consider how this may apply to the church in America.

QUESTION 4: WHAT IMPEDES MORE CHURCHES FROM TRANSFORMING THEIR COMMUNITIES

Through my experience over the years of working with churches in El Salvador, I have identified five general reasons why churches do not engage in or drop out of community transformation which are as follows:

COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION IS NOT PART OF THE CHURCH'S MISSION: The first and most important reason why churches do not get involved in community transformation is that it is not central to their mission. Most church leaders understand community service to be an important part of the spiritual formation of their members and an excellent way to announce to their neighbors that there is a church in their area that loves them; nevertheless, they do not believe that the church’s mission is to make a sustainable change in their communities. They define community transformation as a social outreach project but not as change in the relationships, vision and overall living conditions of the most impoverished of their neighbors.

COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION IS SOMEONE ELSE'S RESPONSIBILITY: In different contexts, at different times, the church has found other agents to hold responsible for social change. The church looks to or holds responsible the government, non-profit agencies, para-church organizations or civil society to take care of the long-term needs of its community. Even when they are skeptical of their effectiveness, churches will hold other organizations responsible for transforming their community.

CHURCH LEADERS BELIEVE THEY LACK SUFFICIENT RESOURCES TO TRANSFORM THEIR COMMUNITIES: In many cases, churches see themselves as lacking the sufficient resources (such as money, time, and personnel) to effect long-lasting change in their communities. Many churches see themselves as recipients of assistance or as needing resources themselves and therefore cannot contribute to community transformation. Whereas, other churches believe that it requires extensive, professional expertise or large amounts of money to effect substantive change so do not begin to connect or have an impact in their community.

PREJUDICE: Many churches hold deep ideologies of difference based upon race, ethnicity, class, gender and religion that separates them from their neighbors. Churches hold subconscious and conscious beliefs about the differences between people which inform their lack of action. In some cases, their belief about race or ethnicity affects their relationships and actions toward others. In other cases, their understanding of poverty such as, “people are poor because they want to be,” “or because they are lazy,” prompts a church not to focus their attention on the needs of the poor. Another major reason why churches do not reach out to their neighbors is because of religious differences. Churches are hindered from reaching out to others for fear of crossing lines between major groups of faith (such as Catholic versus Protestant) or even between different denominations.

CHURCH LEADERS STATE THAT THEY DO NOT KNOW HOW TO EFFECTIVELY TRANSFORM THEIR COMMUNITIES: Many church leaders state that they want to effectively to their neighbors but they do not know how to discover their church’s resources, connect to their community, or develop sustainable initiatives to transform their communities.

Although I’ve seen many church leaders struggle with these five obstacles, it is an amazing experience to watch those who take a chance to develop a mission for their church that includes community transformation, to reach out and partner with their neighbors, to begin to serve sacrificially, and to ultimately become leaders of long-lasting change in their communities.

How has the North American church struggled with these five obstacles? Are there additional obstacles in our context?

What is Community Transformation?

Ron Bueno, ENLACE’s Executive Director, believes that the church is the answer to poverty alleviation in El Salvador. He has written brilliantly about his commitment to equip local churches to transform their communities. Over the next few days I will repost some of his thoughts here and consider how this may apply to the church in America.

QUESTION 3: WHAT IS COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION?

Community transformation is a dynamic and continuous process in which people are restored to God and reflect his reign or Kingdom in every area of their lives. Many understand community transformation as the process of change while others focus upon the results or outcomes such as affordable housing, better health or dignified employment.

At ENLACE, community transformation is the process in which relationships are restored to God and to each other; a process that enables active participation of all community members under a shared vision to develop responsive institutions and sustainable, poverty alleviating initiatives.

In our experience, community transformation is a slow, arduous, and evolving process. You first see glimpses of transformation in people’s hearts, values, attitudes toward God and to each other which after many years encourages and produces sustainable changes to the conditions of their lives such as dignified housing, employment, and health.

ENLACE discovers the process of community transformation as it occurs in six dimensions or spheres.

Restored relationships - People restored to God and to each other producing a loving, compassionate and just community of servants of God. The community sees each other as children of God, dependent upon God and interdependent upon each other to fulfill his plan for the world. Everyone is restored, called and an active part of fulfilling the purposes of God.

Active participation - A community where everyone participates actively in vision-casting, decision-making, and implementing sustainable solutions that is inclusive, equitable and just. Participation is based upon and encourages the forming and using of gifts and skills given by God to build the entire community.

Shared vision - A vision of the future that is shared by the community, that is realistic and reflects the Kingdom of God. The vision should be developed in open dialog among community members. It should ultimately create a shared sense of identity and purpose.

Servant leadership - Leaders from within the community are committed to listening, learning and caring for the entire community with special care for the most needy. Servant leaders are concerned with the spiritual and personal development of those they serve. Ultimately they strive to create new servant leaders.

Effective institutions - Public and private organizations and churches that respond to opportunities identified by community servant leaders that fit within their shared vision and are implemented in a transparent, just and effective manner. Effective institutions do not impose agendas or programs but try to facilitate and strengthen local initiatives.

Sustainable solutions - Initiatives that are identified and designed by the church and community leaders based upon existing local resources and skills that have a long-lasting impact on the community.

How has the church in America confused community transformation as the process of change with simply the results and outcomes? How effective has the American church been developing a shared vision for its community with other churches and community members? Has the church always strived to facilitate and strengthen local initiatives? Are these initiatives sustainable?

Cultivate Soil

Ben Arment really challenged me with this honest, but borderline discouraging post... but I about jumped for joy when I read his follow up post this morning. Thanks Ben for helping me clarify my calling for this time in my life. I'll just keep cultivating the soil in Iowa.

How to Organize a Room

Seth Godin put together a great post on the impact of room dynamics and the responses it creates in people. Here are some of the notable quotes…

• "What does this remind me of?" - That's the subliminal question that people ask themselves as soon as they walk into a room. If it reminds us of a high school cafeteria, we know how to act. If it's a bunch of round tables set for a chicken dinner, we know how to act. And if there are row upon row of hotel-type chairs in straight lines, we know how to sit and act glazed. 
• A non-traditional arrangement can make people sit up and take notice. A rock concert feel is going to raise the energy level of even the skeptics. A circle with no tables makes people feel naked.
• You can use this Pavlovian reaction to your advantage, or you can be a victim of it.
• No one ever heard a speech that changed their lives when sitting around a round table having just eaten a lousy lunch.
• You tell a story with where you put the chairs.
• Make the room too small. Standing room only. People hanging into the hall. Watch what happens to your energy level.
• Making the room narrow and long is far better than wide, because it puts the audience in the plane of the speaker.
• Big screens are a lot more reasonable than they used to be. Get the absolute biggest and brightest you can afford.
• Put the cables and the laptops up front, not in back to be controlled by a tech guy who doesn't care quite as much as you (or the speaker) does.
• Every time you introduce a speaker, play loud and inspiring pop music. Not for long, but enough to cue people to remember the way they feel at the Oscars and stuff. After all, those memes are there waiting for you to leverage them.
• Have lots of aisles. Every ten chairs or so.
• Make it dark in the audience. Make it light on stage. This works every time.

You can read the post in its entirety HERE.

What is the Mission of the Church?

Ron Bueno, ENLACE’s Executive Director, believes that the church is the answer to poverty alleviation in El Salvador. He has written brilliantly about his commitment to equip local churches to transform their communities. Over the next few days I will repost some of his thoughts here and consider how this may apply to the church in America.

QUESTION 2: WHAT IS THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH?

The mission of the church is to be a restored body that transforms its community. The church is a group of people called and made new by the grace of God through Jesus Christ to love and serve one another and the world (Ephesians 2:8-10). This mission has two equally important and integrated elements: (1) the church should be a body of vibrant, authentic people relating to one anther in love, compassion and justice (Ephesians 4, Ephesians 3:4, 1 Cor. 12, Ro. 12:5). And (2) the church should serve its neighbors to create long-lasting change in the relationships, institutions and overall conditions of their communities, especially focusing upon those of greatest need (Mark 12:31-33, Luke 10:27, Matt 22:39;Ro 13:9, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8).

Over the last thirteen years, I have partnered with churches in El Salvador who are committed to alleviate poverty in their communities. I have learned how important it is for a church to understand and define its mission to be a restored body of believers, or as Howard Synder in his book The Community of the King calls it, a “messianic community,” as well as an effective agent of transformation in its community. A church that has not clearly included both elements in its mission has either gone inward and become a “life boat” waiting for God to return or has become externally focused and become a social agent without transforming power. In my experience, the church will only accomplish both things when it becomes an authentic community of people actively waiting on God, listening and obeying, and being poured out to transform its community.

It is incredible to experience a church as it begins to focus upon the needs of others before its self. It becomes an unstoppable force within the community, impacting the lives of thousands of people in life-giving ways. When a church begins to see and care for one another as God does a new form of community is created that serves to draw people deeper into the heart of God and also back out to people. As Richard Foster describes, in his book Prayer, the deeper you go into the heart of God the less life becomes about you and the more God pours you out to others. The more the church becomes a people submitted to God and to each other, it becomes of one heart and mind (Acts 4:32, 1 Cor. 1:10, 2 Cor. 13:4, Philippians 2:2), committed to meet the needs of those in its community (Acts 4:34, James 1:27).

The loving, caring community of believers that is the church brings you deeper into a relationship with God but also testifies of God’s unchanging love for his world. As Jesus prayed for his disciples, and for all of us, asking God “that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me,” he asked that we would “be brought to complete unity” in order to express the depth of God’s love to the world (John 17:22-23). This new form of community testifies of God’s love and becomes a reservoir of hope to their neighbors. When a church, as a group of people who love and serve God, begin to lift up their eyes to see each other and their neighbors as God does, they become the salt and light to their community; they become the leaven with spiritual authority to become effective agents of change in their community. It is as a mysterious, amazing, dynamic process where the body is formed and strengthened as its serves effectively its community.

To walk alongside a church as they discover and develop this mission is the greatest part of my job.

What do you think? Has the North American church included both elements of its mission? If not, which element do you think tends to dominate? Is your church an unstoppable force of change within your community? Is your expression of love and unity a reservoir of hope to your neighbors?

Church Resources

Jason Bedell (Forefront’s Creative Arts Pastor) has hijacked Vince Antonucci’s blog this week. Today he posted a really impressive list of church resources. Check this out!

Forefront Series Stuff
Forefront Series Graphics: http://tinyurl.com/4ofghg
Forefront Series Videos: http://tinyurl.com/43d44w

Church Resource Websites
CreativeMYK http://www.creativemyk.com/
Open Resources http://www.openresources.org/
The Vine http://vineresources.com/
Muddy River Media http://www.muddyrivermedia.org/
Fourty One Twenty http://www.fortyonetwenty.com
Igniter Media http://www.ignitermedia.com
Eleven 72 http://www.eleven72.com
Lifechurch Resources http://open.lifechurch.tv
Newspring Resources http://www.newspringonline.com/
Granger Resources http://www.wiredchurches.com

Photo Websites
Flickr http://www.flickr.com
Stock Photo http://www.istockphoto.com/
Stock Photo Xchange http://www.sxc.hu
Corbis Photos http://www.corbis.com
Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com

Presentation Software
Pro Presenter http://www.propresenter.com
ProWorship (formerly iWorship) http://www.renovatiosw.com/
Media Shout http://www.mediashout.com
Easy Worship http://www.easyworship.com
Power Point http://office.microsoft.com/powerpoint
Keynote http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote

Blogs I Read for Creativity, Pop Culture, Media, Church Trends
MTV News http://www.mtv.com/news/
Spray Graphics http://spraygraphics.com/
Web Urbanist http://weburbanist.com/
Delicious Daily Photos http://picurls.com/
Ragamuffin Soul http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com
Collide Blog http://www.collidemagazine.com/blog
Relevant Blog http://relevantmagazine.com/releblog/
Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily
Churchy Media http://churchymedia.tumblr.com
Terry Storch http://www.terrystorch.com
Church Marketing Sucks http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com
Church 2.0 http://church20.blogspot.com
Church Video Ideas http://churchvideoideas.com

Free Video Hosting Websites
Ustream http://www.ustream.com
YouTube http://www.youtube.com
Vimeo http://www.vimeo.com
Viddler http://www.viddler.com
MySpaceTV http://vids.myspace.com
Jumpcut http://www.jumpcut.com
Vidilife http://vidilife.com

Photo Editing Software
Photoshop http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/index.html
Gimp (free for Mac, free work around install for windows) http://www.gimp.org/
Live Quartz (free for Mac) http://www.rhapsoft.com/

Video Editing
Handbrake (free mac dvd ripping software) http://handbrake.fr/
Adobe Premiere Pro http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/
Final Cut Pro http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/
Final Cut Express http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/
Ulead Media Studio http://www.ulead.com/msp/runme.htm
Tooble (free Youtube capture for PC/Mac) http://tooble.tv/index.php?page=download
Replay AV 8 (youtube capture for PC) http://www.applian.com/replay-av/index.php
iMovie (comes with Mac OS) http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/
Windows Movie Maker (comes with Windows) http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx

Countdown Creators for Pre-Service
Countdown Maker (Mac) http://trimonix.com/countdown-maker
Countdown Creator (PC) http://www.thecountdowncreator.com/

Why the Church?

Yesterday I wrote about my experience with ENLACE. It has occurred to me on several occasions that the North American church could learn a lot from the work they have going on down in El Salvador.

Ron Bueno, ENLACE’s Executive Director, believes that the church is the answer to poverty alleviation in El Salvador. He has written brilliantly about ENLACE’s commitment to equip local churches to transform their communities. Over the next few days I will repost some of his thoughts here and consider how this may apply to the church in America.

QUESTION 1: WHY THE CHURCH?

From the beginning of ENLACE in 1993, I believed that we had to encourage and equip local community leaders to develop
their own solutions to poverty. I realized that it was vital for local leaders to identify and build upon available resources and experiences in order to design and manage initiatives that would have a long-term impact in their communities. At first, we focused our training and coaching on community and church leaders, but we soon realized that the church was the best agent of change in their own community for three reasons:

1. Only an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ can change people’s hearts to create a viable community and therefore community development . In the first few years, we worked hard to include the community in the design and management of projects so that they would have ownership and participation; however, we realized that no matter how well we helped the community design their projects to be just and efficient we could not change people’s relationships to each other. For example, people would work together to build a water system they all needed, but as soon as there was a problem with someone’s spigot, they would not necessarily work together to help that person resolve their problem. The project could not restore relationships, which is the first and most important step in community transformation; only an ongoing, dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ can truly change someone’s heart to think of others before themselves.

2. It is the church’s mission to restore people unto God and to each other. Community leaders and associations with whom we first worked, ultimately had their own interests in mind and so were influenced by quick solutions or political forces. Additionally, there was a high rate of turnover among community association leaders due to political, personal, and financial reasons (including migrating to the U.S. for work). In contrast, the church’s leadership, seen as body and not as individuals, was a continuous and steady presence in the community which did not act, at least when done well, upon political or personal interest. Rather, the church body committed to a long-term process because it believed in a biblical mandate that led them to commit to their communities.

3. The church is a continuous reservoir of resources. ENLACE has worked primarily with churches of less than 100 members located in impoverished, rural areas of El Salvador. Many of the church leaders believed they did not have the financial or human resources to become effective agents of change in their community. As soon as they looked at their church more closely and began to partner with their community, they discovered a wealth of skills and resources within their congregations. Churches already had, or could develop quickly, great fundraising skills and could pool resources together effectively. They also had a deep commitment to stewardship and compassion which made them an endless reservoir of resources to transform their communities.

What do you think? Are our churches restoring relationships? Have we embraced the biblical mandate to commit to our communities? Are we directing the wealth of skills and resources within our congregations towards the deepest needs in our communities? 

The World is a Great Liar

Just read a great piece by Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal. She reflects on Tim Russert’s death and the honorable life he lived. She said something I thought was very profound…

"In a way, the world is a great liar. It shows you it worships and admires money, but at the end of the day it doesn't. It says it adores fame and celebrity, but it doesn't, not really. The world admires, and wants to hold on to, and not lose, goodness. It admires virtue. At the end it gives its greatest tributes to generosity, honesty, courage, mercy, talents well used, talents that, brought into the world, make it better. That's what it really admires. That's what we talk about in eulogies, because that's what's important. We don't say, 'The thing about Joe was he was rich.' We say, if we can, 'The thing about Joe was he took care of people.'"

You can read the full article HERE.

ENLACE

I've been reflecting a lot recently on a trip I took to El Salvador last summer. I've actually been on quite a few missions trips, but this was definitely one of the most important.

We worked with ENLACE - an incredible organization that understands the integral relationship between the local church and community development better than anyone I have ever seen. ENLACE believes that the effective demonstration of Christ’s love is an essential and integral part of the proclamation of the church. All of their programs and projects are managed with the vision of equipping churches to become servant leaders who transform their communities and equip others to do the same. 

Our team worked on Project Milagro – an effort to get clean water to thousands in rural El Salvador. For over 30 years this community has struggled to see their families freed from the yoke of poverty, and the pain that comes with lacking the most basic of human needs. In 2005, against all odds, these three communities successfully drilled three wells hitting enough water for the next 30 to 50 years. Over the last two years four tanks have been constructed and a design completed to get the water from the source to the people who need it. The coolest thing about it – the local pastor and his church have been spearheading the entire project!

Water-born and waste-related diseases are major factors to disease transmission, ill health, misery, and death worldwide. One billion people in the world today live without access to clean water! Ever since this trip I've never looked at a bottle of water the same way again.

ENLACE also has some of the most talented and professional missionaries I have ever worked with. Peter DeSoto is one of the nicest guys I've ever met and David & Jenny McGee are not only terrific missionaries, they are incredible artists! David is a photographer and Jenny is a painter.

If you’re not familiar with ENLACE you have got to check them out!

ENLACE

PROJECT MILAGRO 

PHOTOS OF OUR TRIP

PETER DESOTO

DAVID & JENNY MCGEE

Should Christians be Moral?

Morality is concerned with or adhering to the code of interpersonal behavior that is considered right or acceptable in a particular society. Basically morality is the attempt of humanity to justify itself before God and others.

But a Christian ethic is an ethic of the cross. It is an ethic about death – the end of striving to be moral and the beginning of righteousness.

Morality does not require death. We can be good, upright, moral people without the cross. But the problem is not that we are not good, it is that we are fallen and cast out of the presence of God.

In fact, Genesis 3 lists “striving for good” as a sign of our fallen state. Martin Luther said that the issue in ethics is not “the move from vice to virtue, it’s the move from both vice and virtue to righteousness.” Our problem is not that we are immoral, but that we are moral.

Being “good” does not repair our relationship with God and others. Christian ethics is an ethics of righteousness, and righteousness is fundamentally a relational category, not a moral category. Righteousness depends not on effort but on who we are related to.

Christian ethics begin with relationship, not keeping moral codes. Loving God and neighbor is Christian ethics. This is what God designed and created us to do. In the fall we lost our ability to be human – to do what we were created to do. Sin at its essence is separation – from God and others.

In being separate from God, we now know good and evil; in knowing good and evil we are compelled to make moral decisions in order to justify ourselves.

That is why the cross tells us that humanity must die. This is primarily and first the act of Jesus Christ, but it is important to view Christian ethics as a response to that act. To follow Christ, take up our cross, deny ourselves and to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to Him. Death with Christ is the way to life with Christ and apart from death there is no righteousness. 

The goal of Christianity is not to produce moral people. Following Christ is about relationship not about rules and regulations. It is not about adhering to lists or following certain formulas or simply trying to convince people to stop drinking, smoking or gambling.

Christianity is about helping people connect with the life-giving presence of God and to enter into that covenant relationship and beginning to live in ways that help to maintain that relationship. 

NT Wright on The Colbert Report

Floods of 08

My hometown of Des Moines had a very close call this past weekend. Although there were a number of neighborhoods directly north of the city that were heavily flooded, our city dodged a bullet. This is a shot of the floodwaters at their peak on Saturday.

Unfortunately Cedar Rapids was not so lucky...

 

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Cedar Rapids.