I have been pondering -- fretting, really -- how to launch this blog. So many thoughts crystallize daily, and which is most important to share?
Clearly, however, before I share ponderous thoughts, I must simplify. So this week's posts will be about a journey, a journey that involves leading and following. It's a theme of my life, especially over the past two years. So I'll share how I came to be where I am: with AllOne Community Services (www.allonecommunity.org), SEED (the upcoming www.seedlivelihood.org), and with my PhD work. Today: AllOne.
Two years ago I had the realization that my combination of work efforts (full-time job, PhD studies, and church leadership training) was somehow lacking cohesion. And I was frustrated by the fact that all the work I did at the local church level somehow was not creating a model for organizational efficiency, effective processes, and growth, in any sense of those words.
One of my recognitions, then, was that the problem went beyond my own personal synergy and even my individual church involvement. There was, it seemed, a chronic problem with coordination and collaboration. Instead of one body of Christ, as the church liked to talk about, we had 20-30 churches each operating in virtually complete isolation.
Now, that may be overstating the case a bit. Each church in our area has partnerships of some kind: some with schools, some with government or community groups, and even some with other churches. But these are almost all tactical collaborations: how we do what we do, rather than strategic -- why we do what we do, with its logical how outcomes.
So I started having conversations with local pastors, church leaders, and church members, and discovered a resonance in many places. So after almost a year of these conversations, the time seemed ripe to act, and AllOne Community Services was born.
Initially, the effort took a couple hours a week. After the excitement of those first conversations, however, the work took on a life of its own and I felt compelled to spend more time on it. At my full-time job, then, I approached my boss, a wonderful supportive leader, and reduced my work hours from 40 to 32 hours a week. This gave me one full day a week to work on AllOne, and the results increased exponentially.
At our first gathering in June 2010 we had only four churches represented, but three others had confirmed attendance only to be waylaid by car troubles, migraines, and medical emergencies. And the energy was plain: churches wanted to find ways to work together, to not duplicate efforts, and to represent one body of Christ to the community.
Community leaders were also excited. Upon hearing of our church survey (if you want to coordinate services, you need a current map of service provision), the St Johns Neighborhood Association asked to partner on doing a larger effort including all nonprofits and faith-based organizations in the area. The directory has been a smash hit and has helped AllOne get a broader picture of the over- and undersupply areas in our community.
We've also been building a web site (www.stjohnschurches.org, due to debut in the next few weeks) that will serve as a showcase for the work we do together as well as a one-stop location for people looking for a household of faith in St Johns.
Now in 2011 we will be working two streams: facilitating monthly pastoral gatherings to build relationships and understanding between churches in St Johns, and convening and facilitating collaborative project work teams from the churches. We have a large number of possible efforts, and I am optimistic that once we collectively decide on a work, we can partner with each other and with other community resources to make a deeper impact without burning out any one church or its people.
Many people ask: where does the money come from for AllOne? The current answer is: my personal bank account. God asked me to do the work, so while we are pursuing other funding sources, thus far all expenses have been covered by my previous full-time income. Of course, as you will see in future blog posts, this has created interesting situations because I am no longer at that full-time job.
This is a journey of leading: God's leading of me and my family and of the churches in the area, and my leading of this collaborative effort.
And it is a journey of following: the duty and privilege of being able to follow those worthy of being followed, and of recognizing the need to follow and submit, sometimes even when we don't want to.
I hope you'll continue to follow me in this blog form. I look forward to our interaction.
