Link: a focused community strategy

My personality and gifts have me as a networker, a big picture visionary, a spark, and primarily, a catalyst.  Over the past 8 years, God has been bringing that me into a focused model of community development...a community development model that is based on the foundation of Jesus and the call to His people; a community development model that is built on a network of relationships; a development model that is focused on strategies based in and out of a particular geographic area.

Bob Lupton, author and community developer from Atlanta, visited the Walnut Neighborhood two times over the past eight years, and during his visits, he verbalized my call. He gave words and story to what was happening in me.  He encouraged me and us to gather gifts and resources and to create a wholistic model of Christian community development in the Walnut Neighborhood.  In Atlanta a few decades back, he founded FCS Ministries, a collective of people and organizations who focus and create strategies for the wholistic development in named geographic areas.  (fcsministries.org)

Link Christian Development (www.linkccd.org) has been birthing as a network of friends and organizations who focus and strategize together for neighborhood flourishing through Christian Community Development in the Walnut area. Christian Community Development is a philosophy of ministry that believes in listening to the community, the empowerment of people, indigenous leadership development, a church base-with followers of Jesus carrying out compassion and justice work in the name of Jesus, and a wholistic approach.  Christian Community Development, or CCD, believes in 3 R's- reconciliation, relocation, and redistribution. In order for there to be a different balance of power, a new story written in our community, Jesus will need to reorder a bunch of lives with those 3 R's through His power and love.

One area that will need to be addressed in the neighborhood is housing.  Home ownership makes for a more stable neighborhood.  Through some youth development efforts over the past 8 years, we've met many children who have ended up moving out of the neighborhood.  We have land owners and landlords who live out of state even.  We have people in positions around our community considering the neighborhood from all sorts of angles and opinions and disconnected strategies.  What if we could gather these gifts and resources together and pull in the same direction?  What if we could focus on a revitalization effort together that would create a model of wholistic development...where there is physical restoration and the development of the landscape, and people also intentionally working toward spiritual and social restoration and development...people who would live and love as strategic neighbors and serve as neighborhood chaplains in the neighborhood.  What if we could work toward revitalization in such a way that ensures justice and offers fair and affordable housing for those with lesser economic means but also brings some with greater economic means into the neighborhood?

I met yesterday with the exec director of a housing program in town, and we spoke about such things. The power of focus.  The momentum and traction that could be created if we'd pool our energy and gifts.  This dream excites me and also overwhelms me.  Praying God will guide us into the right next steps toward this vision.