My day

For all that I say I am powering forward in this job (which is true) sometimes it can be hard to work out exactly what to do on a day to day basis. More often than not I am sat in front of my computer emailing various people, or looking at maps, or trawling through organisations and church websites. Today for instance is a bit of an odd one, filled with bits and pieces. Today I:

• Contacted various churches in Edinburgh about their social outreach programmes
• Tried to find some good videos/pictures to do with UK poverty to use as teaching illustration
• Made a vague plan for the next social action prayer meeting

Then this afternoon I am going to meet Joni from chuch who has years of experience working in addiction policy in Edinburgh. Such meetings are a chance for me to learn more about certain areas (in this case drug and alcohol addiction) as well as finding out what those in chuch are interested in and passionate about (plus in this case it's a chance to see Joni's new little baby!). If you are in Kings and want to chat over a coffee please just let me know - I'd love to meet with as many people as possible and really gain a sense of the dreams and passions of our church.

Right now I am trying to work out what to do next week - if I make a plan then I feel like I can get straight to work on Tuesday. But how do I decide what to focus on next? Sometimes there is an obvious choice, obvious things to follow up on, but other times I really have to put thought into it. Doing that presentation last week helped me to realise that I have already reached some logical conclusion points, and so the question is where to take things from here? At the moment my plan is to start making connections with other churches in Edinburgh and find out what they're doing, visit some more local organisations, and also start to focus my research slightly on some of the obvious needs I've discovered. I also want to learn more about other social action schemes around the UK and the world so that I can be inspired, get new ideas, and start putting together some solid ideas for us to start with!

The Dream Center

One thing I touched upon briefly in my presentation last night was various projects that have inspired me recently. One of these is The Dream Center in LA. "The Dream Center is a volunteer-driven non-profit organization that provides social services and outreach programs designed to meet physical, spiritual, and long-term needs." It was started in 1994 by a guy who wanted to build a church in the heart of a deprived area of LA. They began to reach out to those around them providing food and clothing, and within a year had reached 500 people. Now they claim to reach 40,000 people every month. In their own words:

"We offer opportunities and resources for at-risk youth, low-income individuals, and families to reach self-sufficiency by providing basic necessities and emergency assistance.

In addition to food, clothing, job training and healthcare, we provide educational programs, parenting classes and after-school activities. We also provide residential recovery programs for men, women and teens. These programs are available free of charge to anyone in need.

Through innovative mobile programs we are able to provide critical services to multiple distressed communities. Our unique, yet effective approach to issues within the community involves the mobilization of hundreds of volunteers."

The one outreach that especially caught my attention is Adopt-a-Block (my friend Jude who is doing a very similar job to me for Destiny Church in Edinburgh first brought this to my attention, thanks Jude). The scheme sees people take a 'block' as their own, reaching out to those within that block and serving a wide variety of needs:

"Over 5,000 families are visited weekly on a total of 85 blocks. With the goal of serving, teams ask residents, “How can we help you?” Teams mow lawns, clean homes, paint over graffiti, complete minor home repairs, organize games with the children and visit with the elderly. They also provide emergency assistance, such as food and clothing; furniture is also available."

Although this is only one of many outreaches done by the Dream Center, it is the one that is resonating with me the most at the moment. I think that this is a key way of really engaging with the local community, building realtionships and serving local need, and I think it is vitally important.

Momentum

Last night I did a presentation to a group of 9 leaders from my church. When I was first asked to do it I was unsure that I had enough to write about. I felt that because I am still in the early stages I wouldn't have anything sensible to present, that it was just little bits from here and there. However, as I began to pull all the information together, I found that a half hour presentation probably wasn't going to be long enough. I have been doing this job for less than 2 months, and already I feel that I am powering forward, that God has clearly led me down this path and I have total faith that he will continue to do so. I know that I still have a lot to learn, not just in terms of research, but also in terms of how to do this - how to mobilise the church to become passionate about reaching out to the poor and needy, how to make links and connections within the community, how to plan and structure a project. When I started I felt a little bit like a fish out of water, but the fact that I have gotten to this point is testament to all that God is doing. I know that there is no way I could have done this so far without God, He is the one teaching me and changing me, giving me confidence and strength, showing me where and how to research this area. I feel His presence on me and with me in a way that is greater than any other time in my life, and I really feel the weight of all of your prayers, so thank you. Please do keep praying. I still have a lot to learn, a long way to go, and a lot of responsibility, but I an not fearful or worried because I feel the hand of God upon this in a powerful way, and that is why, as I mentioned in my previous entry, my faith for this is growing so substantially.

I am excited, I feel the momentum, I feel that we are entering into a whole new era as a church.

A well needed update

Apologies for the complete lack of posting recently. I know, I start a blog, tell everyone to read it and then don't even write in it. My excuse is a combination of being away last week, combined with the slight hecticness of having 2 jobs. Last Tuesday and Wednesday I was down in Peterborough for the tri-annual Newfrontiers prayer and fasting (P&F) conference, primarily for church leaders and some church staff. Around 500 of us gathered for 2 days of worship, prayer, lots of tea and juice, more prayer, a little bit of sleep, followed by more prayer. Despite the exhaustion of getting up at 4am to fly down to London, and the hunger that naturally accompanies fasting, it was worth it. It did feel slightly like running a marathon, but the experience of joining with many leaders and learning about what is going on within Newfrontiers worldwide was a valuable experience.

While at P&F I met up with a guy called Peter Lyndon who heads up all the social action work at CCK in Brighton. He was very encouraging and helped to spur me forth in my thinking and ideas. I also found that the importance of delving into social action and of going about it in this way (through research, giving serious time to it etc) was confirmed again and again, through meeting with Peter, through personal prayer, and through hearing others share about works with the poor. In fact, the importance of tackling it in this way keeps being confirmed, over and over again, and each time I get a little bit more excited because I know we are following God's plan for us.

I really do believe that this is a vitally important area for us to be opening up and getting involved in, and I find that the further along the line I go, the more my faith grows that Kings Church can truly be a church that engages with it's local community and that has a huge impact on Edinburgh. At first, although I wanted it to happen, I am not so sure I had real faith to see it happen. But then I remembered that faith isn't about human effort and what I believe we can do as a group of people, but it is about the supernatural power of God changing people. I believe that the vision we have of a church that stands tall and prominent within this city is integrally linked to the work that do with the poor and the local community.


On the whole work is progressing well. I feel as though I am getting on with a good pace and direction. In the last couple of weeks I have had meetings with 2 City of Edinburgh councillors, with the social action worker from Destiny church, and have a couple of others lined up. It's encouraging that certain needs are showing up again and again, such as isolation and loneliness, a lack of youth services and activities for the elderly. There are many gaps in what is going on, but so far these have been showing up as some of the most obvious. I am also feeling encouraged to start something up sooner rather than later. Although the importance of taking time and of research has been confirmed regularly, I also think a balance is needed between sensible research and also just getting on with things. Small scale social action projects or schemes can be a great way of getting the church involved, of seeing the bigger vision and picture, and of actually starting to form relationships in the community and gauge bigger needs. There are various ideas floating around, and I still think it'll be a little while before we launch anything, but at the moment it is looking like sooner rather than later...

Poor No More

I really want to recommend this book to you:




I started reading it yesterday and was instantly drawn in and inspired. It is especially good for those who may want an introduction into some of the issues involved with global poverty, such as trade and climate change. Peter Grant is the international director of Tearfund, so he really knows what he is talking about. The book not only lays the issues out, but explains how and why we should do something about it. It's straight forward, interesting, and inspiring, and full of practical tips. If you have any interest at all in issues of global poverty then I advise you to read this book. Ask me and I'll lend you mine, or if it is already out then I will buy you a copy, seriously. That's how much you need to read this book!

"It is unacceptable that there is extreme poverty in out world - unacceptable because of the suffering that it brings to millions of people, and unacceptable because it could be eliminated. Jesus warned the leaders of his day that they were neglecting 'the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness' (Matthew 23:23). We must seek to share God's priorities. He cares passionately about poor people and commands us to respond to the spiritual and physical needs of the world." (p.13-14)

It can be so easy as Christians to not take notice of the big issues, of climate change and trade and international poverty, but I believe that it is vital that the Church does get involved and does show an interest. Not just in terms of prayer and finance, but also in terms of lifestyle and campaigning. These are issues that shouldn't just be undertaken by a few enthusiastic people in the church, but should be something that we all do. As well as caring about our local community and those immediately around us, we need to wake up and realise how big these issues are and that we can do something about it. Climate change, for example, isn't just about the environment but is also about poverty - changes in the climate are causing huge numbers of people to be thrown further into poverty around the world. Of course these are highly complex issues, but realising that we need to do something about it needn't be difficult.

This book is a great introduction into all of this. Read it.

Daily Life

So I have given an overview of what I am doing this year, but that doesn't really explain what I am actually doing. Giving a picture of what I do each day isn't easy because no two days are the same, but I guess it would help if I explain what I have been up to so far.

Since I started working a month ago I have just been trying to get a general picture of Edinburgh and what is already going on. Starting work coincided nicely with moving into the new church office which is where I am now based for 2 or 3 days a week. A lot of my time so far has been spent sat at my desk trawling the internet. I have read many different reports written by the council and several organisations that either work with the council or are based in the voluntary sector in Edinburgh. For example, the Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council (EVOC) and Capital City Partnership (CCP) both work with the voluntary sector providing support and resources to those working in the community. CCP has worked closely with the City of Edinburgh Council on monitoring and evaluation in different parts of the city. They have written a series of Regeneration Outcome Agreements (ROA's) which focus on the deprivation and need in different areas and lay out various targets for combatting those needs. I have also discovered Neighbourhood Partnerships, also linked with the council, which are divided by wards within the city, each one working towards combatting needs in their ward. There are lots of other organisations and reports but I can't imagine you want to hear about all of them. I don't know what most cities are like but I had no idea there were this many reports, strategies and committees working to "improve" the city of Edinburgh and improve quality of life and living standards. Altogether they are giving me a good overall picture of what is already going on and how different organisations are working in partnership.

Alongside that I have been looking at general facts and figures to do with housing, population, unemplyment, crime rates etc. For example there are around 468,070 people living in the City of Edinburgh, with around 30,000 pensioners living on their own and 6,000 people currently unemployed. So many people and so much need!

The slightly more interesting side of all of this has been contacting and meeting with people. I have written letters to all kinds of prominent people in the community - counsellors, MSPs, the chief of police etc, and asked their personal opinions on needs in Edinburgh and on which services they would like to see established. I have looked at many different charities databases and contacted lots of charities and organisations, hoping to meet with a wide variety/cross section. Although in many cases I am waiting on replies, I am slowly starting to get somewhere. Through meetings with Amica Pregnancy Crisis and Penumbra (working in the area of mental health) I have been able to chat about their particular area of work and gague opinions on current needs and services.

On the side of all this I have had our first social action prayer meeting, started this blog, been reading inspirational and informative books and magazines, feeding back to the elders, trying to get my head around the theology of social action and occassionally stopping for biscuits, cups of tea and office chat.

At first I found all of this quite hard to get into, not really knowing where to go or how to proceed, but God has been opening many doors and I feel like I am slowly starting to get somewhere. In many ways I have felt a bit like I did when I started my disseration last year - I am surrounded by so much information it's often hard to know how to make sense of it and start collating it. Trying to keep on top of it all can also be a problem. But thanks to my extremely organised parents I do have a rather sharp set of organisational skills that I am quite enjoying putting into practice! And I really am enjoying this - I am excited to see where God is going to take us and am excited about personal growth and growth as a church. I have already been challenged in many ways and am having to overcome various personal fears and grow in both confidence and in faith.

And this is only the start of month 2!

The beginning

I am well used to blogging, but it is not usually something I do publicly! However I wanted a place where I could write not just for myself but also for those within my church and those who are supporting me this year (and I guess anyone else who is interested!) My aim for this blog is that:

• Those within my church can understand what exactly I am doing this year and see how I am getting on
• I am forced to constantly review what I am doing, how it is going, and make sure I can explain it clearly and coherently (at least that's the plan!)
• I have somewhere to spill general thoughts, wonderings, ponderings and readings as I go along
  

I think a good place to start is by explaining exactly what I am up to this year and why.

For 3 days a week I am volunteering with my church looking into the area of social action. I believe that as the body of Christ we should be actively serving the poor and the needy in our community, engaging with those around us not simply by serving a practical need but also by forming relationships. Throughout the Bible it is clear that the poor are very close to God's heart. I believe this is not something that the Church should simply be involved with as a side project, but that serving the poor should be integral to everything we do as followers of Christ (plenty more theology on this to follow). In terms of setting up an actual 'social action project' it is something that we as a church have touched upon before but have yet to really delve into. So this is where I come in!

We want whatever we do as a church to be well grounded so that it is serving a real need and is ultimately sustainable. My job at this point is research and has 4 parts to it:

1. Researching Edinburgh as a whole, looking at social needs in the community and social projects that are already up and running
2. Looking at us as a church and what resources and passions we have
   
3. Looking at various other Newfrontiers churches and seeing what we can learn from them
4. Praying, seeking God, and helping to get the church behind the vision of a church fully integrated in the local community, serving those around us

From roughly now until Christmas I will be mainly focusing on no.1:
Edinburgh - There is a lot already being done in the city in terms of community and social outreach and we do not want to cover something that is already being done. So, in brief, my job right now is to find out what is already being done so that I can see where there are gaps and where there is still obvious need.
This part of my research is divided into two sections - the collection of 'hard' and 'soft' data. Hard data comprises of the facts and figures, crime reports, assessed needs in the area, current organisations etc. Soft data is the opinions of people in the area, both of those in official positions such as MSPs, councillors, policemen etc, and also those living in the area.
When put together, all of this information should give us a fairly clear analysis of the current social needs in Edinburgh.

This is an area that it is very tempting to rush into - the waiting can be frustrating - why can't we just start something now? But I really believe that to do this well, it is going to take time. It is a massive area and if we really want what we do as a church to be effective then it's going to take patience, not just because research takes time, but also because it's vitally important to spend time corporately seeking God first to see where He is leading us.

There is so much more that I want to say, but I think I shall leave this opening entry here!
Plenty to follow...