A small church identified several needs in its community, including a lack of after-school programs, arts programs, and community gathering spaces. Through intentional partnerships and collaboration with community members and organizations, the church helped launch a Boys and Girls Club, arts programs, and a community center over the following five years. The church found success by choosing to limit its own control, listening to community needs and priorities, and viewing its role as collaborating with the community rather than imposing its own agenda. These partnerships had a positive impact and brought the community together.
4. Our concerns in 2004
No community gathering place
No after-school programs
No arts programs for kids
Limited cultural events
Large underserved population
5. Our progress by 2009
Boys and Girls Club
Soundcheck
Chatham Arts
Community Music School
Visual Arts program launch
Chatham Cares, Inc.
The Community Center
9. Theology of Collaboration
Collaborators in the missio Dei.
Pragmatism is not the criteria for
mission.
Scripture guides us.
Community forms us.
Practice emerges from theology.
The future of God is found among the
people of God.
10. Characteristics of
Collaboration
Chooses self-limitation
Incarnation
Values “otherness” –
affirmation without assimilation
Recognizes that which unites us –
Our common calling (vocation)
Commits to companionship on the journey –
“fellowshippers”
Re-unifies Creation –
Sacred/secular, divine/human
11. 3. Listened and learned
Parents & leaders > Music program
Artists & educators > Soundcheck
Business leaders > Boys & Girls Club
Churches > Community Center
12. 4. Gave up control
Example: Boys & Girls Club
“At table as equals.”
Maintained our principles.
13. 5. Dropped our hidden
agendas.
Church growth
It’s not about us.
Evangelism
New eyes, new language, new love
Reward
It won’t pay for itself.
Doing good is its own reward.
14. Results: Boys & Girls Club
Dec 2005
200+ enrolled
40-120 per day
4 staff
Community
involvement
Budget: $60K/yr
15. Results: B&G Club, cont’d
Art
Computer skills
Scouts
Tutoring
Life Skills
Recreation
16. Results: Chatham Arts
Community Music School
Virginia Tech
Renaissance Music
Academy
Professional faculty
Jan 2006
30 diverse students
Violin, viola, cello,
guitar, piano, voice
22. Budgets Per Year
Boys & Girls Club: $60K
Music School: $75K
Chatham Cares: $120K
Soundcheck/Drama: $3K
Total budgets: $258K
23. Our approach
Start with what we have
Listen to others
Make others’ dreams come true
Enhance our community
Provide new experiences
Value the arts
25. What’s next?
‘Care of souls’ and missional church:
Contextual
Incarnational
Addresses communal issues
Less educational, more relational
Fills gaps in social fabric
Makes meaning of life
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28. Care of Souls Model
Three aspects of care and action:
Spiritual Sociological
Psychological
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29. The church as abbey
Worship
Arts
Learning
Spiritual direction
“Least of these”
Peace & Justice
Economics
Hospitality George Hunter
Rule of life The Celtic Way of Evangelism
The world
30.
31. In the cloud...
Confessions of a Small-Church Pastor
http://chuckwarnock.com
twitter.com/chuckwarnock
Facebook.com/chuck.warnock
chuckwarnock@gmail.com
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