Shalom Trainers to Gather at CCDA Conference September 24-27 - Discount Registration Available Now! by Michael J. Christensen, Director, Communities of Shalom
Have you completed the basic ShalomZone
TrainingTM or Shalom Online course? Are you already a National or Regional Trainer? Or are you a training facilitator for ABCD through a similar organization to Communities of Shalom?
Then this Drew Shalom certification opportunity is for you!
Each year, the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) national conference draws more than 2,500 people from around the world and equips them in best practices of Christian community development.
 Organizational Partners (like Communities of Shalom) offer valuable resources, assisting practitioners in their community transformation efforts. Advocates (like Noel Castellanos and Bob Lupton) bring attention to issues affecting people at the grassroots level. And provocative speakers (like John Perkins and Amy Williams) challenge our assumptions about what it means to embody God’s love as we seek the shalom of the community.
Shalomers are invited to gather at the Raleigh Convention Center September 24-27 for the 2014 Annual CCDA Conference in Raleigh, NC
This year, Communities of Shalom will be there to host an exhibit booth and offer concurrent Train the Trainers consultations each afternoon at the CCDA conference.
Focus of Shalom Train the Trainers Track:
Introduction/Review of new Shalom Training Participants Consultation
Flourish as the result of a particularly favorable environment.
 In the words of CCDA leadership, “We live in a world where the gap between those who flourish and those who do not is growing continually wider, with a shortage of people responding to the call to challenge our culture of prosperity, to develop a financial system that serves rather than rules, and to care for our crippled environment–to stand against injustice. Too often the flourishing narratives being proposed and enacted actually compete with God’s instructions in(Jeremiah 29:8-9 Yes. Believe it or not, this is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: “Don’t let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don’t pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you. They’re a bunch of liars preaching lies—and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me.” God’s Decree! ).
In a culture obsessed with self and individual flourishing, a culture continually telling us to look out for “No. 1,” God calls us to a grander, nobler vision. God directs us to work first for the peace and welfare of our community and reject our culture’s emphasis on comfort and complacency. At the 2014 National Conference, we will: to grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially Be reminded of God’s plan for flourishing communities Understand how God’s plan and our present systems differ Affirm and encourage those living Jeremiah 29:7 “Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare.
“Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.”
Respond to the challenges of Jeremiah 29 Shalom in Raleigh · Durham, September 24-27, 2014
For more info: http://www.ccda.org/index.php
 Register Now! for a discount under the Drew University Communities of Shalom organizational membership. There is no additional charge for those who attend the concurrent Shalom Workshops.
Meet at Shalom Display booth in Exhibit Hall for check-in and schedule for Shalom Training sessions during Conference.
“Seek (inquire for, require, care for, demand) the peace and welfare of the city to which I have caused you to be carried away captive; and pray to the Lord for it, for in the welfare (completeness, wholeness, contentment, well- being) of the city in which you live, you will have welfare.”(Jeremiah 29.7)
• Overview/Walk-through of Six Training Sessions
• Demonstration of Available Electronic Resources for Training (on Thumb Drive
and YouTube Channel)
• EPIC Methods Review
• Theological Refection on Jeremiah 29: Plans to Give You the Future You Hope For
1-2 This is the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to what was left of the elders among the exiles, to the priests and prophets and all the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem, including King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, the government leaders, and all the skilled laborers and craftsmen.
3 The letter was carried by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter said:
4 This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, to all the exiles I’ve taken from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 “Build houses and make yourselves at home.
“Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country.
6 “Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you’ll thrive in that country and not waste away.
7 “Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare.
“Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.”
8-9 Yes. Believe it or not, this is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: “Don’t let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don’t pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you. They’re a bunch of liars preaching lies—and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me.” God’s Decree!
10-11 This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.
12 “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.
13-14 “When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.
“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.
“I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.
• Regional Training Certification for those who have completed Basic ShalomZone TrainingTM and Train the Trainers Track
 As an Educational Partner of CCDA, Communities of Shalom shares with this association a similar S-H-A-L-O-M approach to Asset-Based Community Development (A), Love for God and Neighbor (L), community organizing (O), and multicultural collaboration (M). The focus of the CCDA Annual Conference this year is Flourish:
Register Now! for a discount under the Drew University Communities of Shalom organizational membership. There is no additional charge for those who attend the concurrent Shalom workshops.
For more info: http://www.ccda.org/index.php
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A Most Difficult Concept for Christians by Amy Moritz , national shalom trainer and ex director of CTC
Being a church in ministry with the community is difficult to do because it goes against our problem-solving tendencies. It means we may have to give up our timetables and operate at the community’s (sometimes slower) pace. It might even mean that we have to allow our church to be influenced by the community!
One of my favorite resources for Communities of Shalom is the book titled, Building a People of Power by Robert Linthicum. Within the book, Linthicum gives a great introduction to a key concept that churches need to apply if they are serious about working for the common good of their community and seeking the shalom of the neighborhood where they worship.
This concept is often referred to as the Iron Rule: Never do for others what they can do for Members and neighbors from Trinity UMC themselves. Or put another way, the people who are best able to deal with a problem are the people most affected by the problem.
Linthicum writes, “I have discovered in more than 50 years of ministry that this concept is the single most difficult insight for Christians to grasp and apply in their ministry.”
Why is it so difficult?
 Trinity dreams of church with
One way to answer is to consider that there are three general ways in which a church responds to its neighborhood. They either have ministry in a community, for/to a community or with a community.
A church in a community does not see itself as being part of that neighborhood. This is a church with its building in a neighborhood but with no relationships with the neighbors and other stakeholders. Most of the members commute to the church, and all activities are designed to serve the membership.
A church for a community develops programs to serve people outside the walls of the church. Often this church is motivated through its faith teachings to help people less fortunate, even if they do not attend the church.
Sometimes a church who is doing programs for the community is motivated because it is a shrinking congregation who hopes that reconnecting to the neighborhood might help it grow.
 Primera Iglesia
There is great potential in this approach and this approach has a flaw. The flaw is that, more often than not, the church decides what is best for the community. Well-intentioned church-folk develop programs to help or fix the people outside the church. The people outside the church are viewed as deficient and unable to solve their own problems.
A church with a community respects and perceives the people of the community as people with great wisdom and potential. The church does not develop programs for people, but instead partners with the people in dealing with their own issues and pursuing their own aspirations for their community. A church with the community participates in the community’s struggles and dreams, allowing both to shape the church.
Being a church in ministry with the community is difficult to do because it goes against our problem-solving tendencies. It means we may have to give up our timetables and operate at the community’s (sometimes slower) pace. It might even mean that we have to allow our church to be influenced by the community!
Once a church embraces the notion of being in ministry with the community, the real journey (and work) of change and transformation begins…for the community and the church. The activities of the church move away from relief and quick fixes to lasting and sustainable community transformation. The reward are the joys and fruits of authentic, relational ministry.
Imagining the fruits of ministry with
 Donnie-speaking
This summer, Center for Transforming Communities has used this framework to help five churches in Nashville imagine ways that the church can grow in its relationship with the community. We have been exploring the principles and tools of Asset Based Community Development as one approach to doing ministry with the neighborhood.
If you or your church would like to learn more about doing ministry with your neighborhood, I hope you will contact us at info@ctcmidsouth.org.
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Enlarging the Circle of Community by Dave cooper, National shalom trainer
The Hebrew word for whole-community well-being is “shalom”.
While shalom encompasses much more than can be translated into English, shalomis manifested when there is shared power, equity and mutual beneficence among physical, social, economic, political and spiritual systems.
Shalom is not simply a transcendent hope; rather, it is a concrete, tangible, proactive, investment of all resources to work in concert for the common good.
Shalom-making is not easy and not for the timid. Rather, it is an emergent, locally led, co-creating, bold, purposeful, sustained, and collaborative investment in the healthy transformation of the communities in which we live, work, learn, worship and play.
 Photography by Dave Cooper
Shalom Makers provides community and organizational development planning, coaching, group formation and leadership development services using basic and advanced Asset Based Community Development (“ABCD”) principles and techniques.
The mission of Shalom Makers is to inspire, train and coach individuals, neighborhood teams, community-based organizations, congregations and associations to build and rebuild healthy and whole communities: for the common good (shalom) in every neighborhood.Shalom Makers is led by the community and organizational development specialist, N. David Cooper.
 Photography by Dave Cooper
David’s strong national experiences and training have resulted in the formation of collaborative teams, re-development of congregational buildings, co-creation of affordable housing, improved food security, and transformation of the criminal justice system.
David’s pastoral and secular roles in this work range from national trainer, coach and consultant; executive director to community organizer;from project manager to chaplain; and from social entrepreneur to neighborhood resident and international workshop leader. He has also been a state licensed construction contractor.
Shalom Makers Process:
Discern organizational capacity for ABCD
Define a community of interest
Build relations with neighborhood leaders
Discover gifts (assets) of neighbors and the focus neighborhood: seek abundance
Partner with community organizations
Form trust through focused gatherings
Participate with neighbors to create results based plans
Collaborate for collective impact
Measure results
Celebrate successes
Shalom Makers Outcomes:
Trusting, equitable community relationships
Creative discovery of previously unrecognized resources (assets)
Connected and engaged people, organizations, institutions, and associations
Opportunities for mutual learning (shared wisdom)
Teams that produce and deliver effective community-transforming impacts
Social, economic, physical, political, and spiritual justice
Local leaders and coalitions that produce collective, measurable, transformative outcomes
Revitalized communities and congregations working together for the common good (shalom) of their neighborhood
 Photography by Dave Cooper
A small group of friends and colleagues national and international church pastors and leaders, community organizers, asset based community developers, nonprofit directors and theologians gathered to engage with three key issues: mutual encouragement, transformational education, and co-creating neighborhood well being (shalom-making).
A thread running through our group was a deep concern that the traditional model of charity (doing for and to others) was not only unsustainable; it fails to acknowledge and affirm the intrinsic, self-esteem-building assets with which every person and every neighborhood is endowed. In short, charity to overcome scarcity could not, will not, work sustainably.
 Photography by Dave Cooper
We were also concerned that charity can exert “power over” those being served. Alternatively, we chose relational “power with” as our foundation. As we see it: Charity could create dependency; however, in its best form, charity may be briefly applied to stabilize situations until community assets are organized and mutually applied to yield sustainable, holistic results among neighbors.
Our little group, we learned later, was among numerous global gatherings; those who have grown weary and depleted of resources for doing to and for others. Some other groups, Communities of Shalom, ABCD Institute, Christian Community
 Photography by Dave Cooper
Development Association, and
Communities First Association, had the vision and were working in and with hundreds of neighborhoods across the US and abroad to achieve well being (shalom).
The shalom-making Spirit that guided our first gathering, the same Spirit that is present in neighborhoods across the land, lives on in the vision, mission and values of Shalom Makers—enlarging the circle of community for communities and congregations together to achieve common good in their neighborhood.
For more information and services, contact David Cooper at:
Email: dave.cooper@shalommakers.com
Web: www.shalommakers.com/about
Phone: 804-614-6254
Mail: P.O. Box 61 ● Doswell, VA 23047
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Toxic Charity: A Shalom Reflection by Kory turner, Shalom intern, Drew
Mercy combined with justice creates: immediate care with a future plan...compassion (mercy) cannot be effective without justice, so my only advice for those working in service societies or in community organizations would be to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
From 2012-2013, I was a volunteer resident advisor with Covenant House’s Rights Of Passage (ROP) Program. ROP is an apartment-style housing facility that prepares youth ages 18-22 for independent living in their own apartments through case management and life skills training. I had one primary (a youth whose case I was in charge of) who struggled to keep food in his refrigerator, but refused to take handouts from the food pantry for free, neither did he want to apply for stamps. Rather than simply accepting what was given to him, he felt the need to clean part of the building or complete some act of service for what he was receiving. I didn’t understand it then, but reading the book Toxic Charity has made it all clear to me. By simply giving youth food, we were creating dependency and enabling them to feel a sense of entitlement.
 Kory N. Turner
If charity is such a bad thing that keeps those who poor in the same place, why is there so much of it in our own back yards? Since being here in Memphis, I’ve seen a couple volunteer groups who seem to be doing charitable work that just gives things away instead of building and sustaining the community. The first is AJSS (American Jewish Society for Service). According to the organization’s website, its mission is “to build Jewish leaders through meaningful service opportunities in communities in need across America.” The group I’ve been helping to oversee for the past 2-3 weeks is called 6 Weeks of Impact.
For six weeks, this group of Jewish teens will live in community together and serve the greater Memphis area in various projects. Every week so far, the young volunteers have been working in the McMerton Gardens, helping in the Center for Transforming Communities with building upkeep, and they also do other things in another neighborhood in Memphis. While I think that these are an amazing group of young people and I applaud the work they’re doing, I’ve somewhat wondered what impact this really has on the community. The work that AJSS does seems closely related to the short-term mission trips that Lupton talks about (69). Although these young people are working tirelessly, the labor seems to be more individual-focused (developing Jewish leaders) instead of community focused (empowering indigenous communities to help themselves). My personal observation is that the goal of this group’s trip is to develop leaders and “explore God’s amazing work in the world” rather than create change and empower (69).
The other group is a clothes closet located in the South Memphis Shalom Zone. First conceptualized in August 2012, the Clothes Closet has been operating since June 2013. Community members are welcome to “shop” at the Clothing Closet on Monday or Friday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. People from any neighborhood in Memphis can visit once per month and will be greeted by a volunteer to assist them with shopping for their one dress outfit, two tops, two bottoms and shoes and accessories. Donors include church members and other anonymous persons (Mcghee).
 Kory N. Turner
Although guests are treated as customers and are given the ultimate shopping experience, they’re not truly shopping. All of these clothes are donated by people and given away freely once a month. While the volunteers at the clothes closet treat their customers with respect and instill in them a sense of dignity, it doesn’t seem to be creating an opportunity for community members to become more self-sufficient. Upon visiting the clothes closet, its overseer shared with us that many of its customers began receiving the clothes and selling them for money in close proximity to the church hall turned “store” where the closet is held. As a result, they had to start checking people’s IDs to make sure that no one was receiving more than their monthly allotted collection. The lady also spoke of one customer with several children who comes every month and gets clothes for herself and each of her children. While I left this site very excited about the idea of the clothes closet and the passion this group of people had for doing the work, I was torn by the way in which it perpetuates a cycle of dependency on others instead of self-sufficiency. A follow-up conversation with Amy and Kenny proved that I wasn’t alone in my observation about the clothes closet.
In his book, Lupton outlines and explains The Oath for Compassionate Service. This oath draws is a rubric for those who desire to serve the poor effectively. The few that I would like to point out are: limit one-way giving to emergency situations, strive to empower the poor through employment, lending, and investing, using grants sparingly to reinforce achievements, and listen closely to those you seek to help, especially to what is not being said—unspoken feelings may contain essential clues to effective service.
Limit one-way giving to emergency situations: The once a month clothes closet shopping experience is an example of one-way giving because it “implies that the recipient has nothing of value the giver desires in return” (130). A way to alleviate this might be to allow first-time visitors to have a free shopping experience and then charge for all other visits. Or possibly the overseer of this project might charge an inexpensive amount for each user to come and shop once a month.
Strive to empower the poor through employment, lending, and investing, using grants sparingly to reinforce achievements: Although the clothes closet seemed to have very little financial resources to hire anyone, there are still ways they could empower members who come to shop. One way to achieve this would be to recruit some of their shoppers to become volunteers. In this, the volunteers would be learning valuable retail/customer service skills that could be used on a resume or application for other jobs.
 Kory N. Turner
Listen closely to those you seek to help, especially to what is not being said—unspoken feelings may contain essential clues to effective service: Although it wasn’t said that people were selling the clothes that were given away, it was something that the “store” observed. They have also been mindful of people such as the mother that comes in once a month or the customer who comes on the last day of the month as well as the first day of the following month. The next step after observing would be to take action to create more effective services.
One thing that each of these service groups has in common is compassion for human kind. In the words of Lupton, “compassion is a powerful force, a stamp of the divine nature within our spirits. It lies within us all…” but it’s simply not enough to carry out the work of serving the undeserved. Mercy is defined by Lupton as “a force that compels us to acts of compassion” but eventually collides with injustice. In order for community organizing to be effective, acts of compassion driven by mercy must be combined with justice.
“Mercy without justice denigrates into dependency and entitlement, preserving the power of the giver over the recipient. Justice without mercy is cold and impersonal, more concerned about rights than relationships.”
Mercy combined with justice creates: immediate care with a future plan, emergency relief and responsible development, short-term intervention and long-term involvement, and heart responses and engaged minds. Acts of kindness and compassion (mercy) cannot be effective without justice, so my only advice for those working in service societies or in community organizations would be to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
Bibliography
http://ajss.org/ (accessed July 16, 2014).
Lupton, Robert D.. Toxic Charity: How churches and charities hurt those they help. New York: HarperOne, 2012.
McGhee, Sidney D.. “A Community Clothed in Compassion: Community Clothes Closet of the South Memphis Shalom Zone.” . http://ctcmidsouth.blogspot.com/ (accessed July 16, 2014).
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