WHAT'S HAPPENING
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JUNE 2008
II. FAITH-BASED RESOURCES & INFORMATION
Featured in this edition
Strategies for Community Ministry >GO>
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism >GO>
FASTEN - Tutoring Toolkit to Strengthen Your Tutoring Program >GO>
Christian Volunteering - Miami - matches volunteers to volunteer opportunities similar to the way Monster.com links job openings to potential employees.
Principles for Helpers - Bob Lupton
Need Help for Your Congregation? >GO>
Generosity Requires More than a Sermon: Ongoing training is the key to a lifestyle of generosity >GO>
Mark Your Calendar: CCDA Annual Conference - Miami -October 22-26
Regency Hyatt and James L. Knight Center - downtown > GO>
Resources on Church-Based Community Ministry
Communities First Assoc: Connecting Community/Harvesting Hope >GO>
OUTLINE OF CONTENTS
I. Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) >GO>
Mark Your Calendar: CCDA Annual Conference - Miami -October 22-26,2008 Regency Hyatt and James L. Knight Center - downtown
II. GRANT WRITING HELP & FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES >GO >
FASTEN - Gotta-have Resource >GO >
III. Roundtable on Religion & Soc. Welfare Policy >GO>
- ViewPoint >GO>
IV. NOTICE OF NEEDS BY LOCAL GROUPS >GO>
V. HELPFUL MINISTRY INFO & RESOURCES >GO>
VI. CONSIDER THIS >GO>
VII. SOUL FOOD >GO>
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C O N T E N T S
I. Christian Community Development Association (CCDA)
Save the Dates: CCDA Annual Conference - Miami - October 22 - 26, 2008
Regency Hyatt and James L. Knight Center - Host Organization - FCFC
Who is CCDA: We're an ethnically diverse, national network of Christians working together to bring about faith-based community development in under-resourced neighborhoods.
Each year at our annual conference, CCDA members and others of goodwill gather to learn from
each other through teaching and workshops, network among friends and new acquaintances, worship
together and visit local ministries to see what God is doing in their midst.
As hosts for the Conference, the Family & Children Faith Coalition would like to welcome you ahead of time to our city and to let you know that we will be working diligently to make the 2008 CCDA conference meaningful
and fun for attendees. More info: http://CCDAMiami08.org/
Grandpa John A new generation of urban activists is shaped by John Perkins, founder of CCDA .
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II. GRANT WRITING HELP & FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES >GO >
Get grantwriting help here Grants Information Online --- or here ---Grantwriting Tips
Artful Askers empowers faith-based and community organizations with the knowledge, helps, tools, and expertise to access funding and other resources.
eCivis® Grants Network - http://www.ecivis.com/ Your organization is under constant pressure to secure more funding and better manage the grants you have. You need the tools and resources to make you successful today andin your career. Find out how the Grants Network system helps enable you by reducing workloads, saving time, and increasing capabilities.
Finding and procuring grants - Resources for building effective ministries - Books, articles, websites.
NEW - Winning Grants to Strengthen Your Ministry - Joy Skjegstad (Alban Institute, 2007) - For church and para-church ministry leaders who need the basics on fundraising - This detailed and readable manual is the essential tool for all ministry leaders at the beginning of their fundraising efforts.
Unique Resource - An Introduction to Asset-Based Community Development for Church Leaders
Resources on Church-Based Community Ministry
Starting a Nonprofit at Your Church - - - - Word and Deed Network -
Communities First Association: Connecting Community - Harvesting Hope >GO>
More ministry helps can be found here.
GREAT RESOURCE
FASTEN (Faith & Service Technical Education Network). Everything you're likely to need
FASTEN offers informational resources and networking opportunities to faith-based practitioners, private philanthropies, and public administrators who seek to collaborate effectively to renew urban communities.
Here's a sampling of helpful info FASTEN provides:
Developing Vision >GO> Getting Your Ideas into Action >GO> Mobilizing the Church >GO>
Funding Your Ministry >GO> Church Assessment >GO> Collaboration >GO>
> Download Toolkits - FASTEN offers several practical "how-to" toolkits to assist practitioners in designing, implementing and evaluating new programs.
NEW - Tutoring Toolkit: Tools to Strengthen Your Tutoring Program
> Find Free Stuff - The FASTEN team has gathered information about free and low-cost item
FCFC urges you to check out FASTEN's website and sign up for their helpful newsletter
FASTEN Launches New Department for Churches
We are excited to announce the launch of FASTEN's new "Congregations" channel with over 125 resources and tools explicitly designed for church leaders.
The new department has emerged out of requests from church leaders for tools that can assist them in pursuing effective and faithful church-based transformational community ministry. The new department boasts eleven topics, including resources for developing vision and leadership, for conducting church and community assessments, and for pursuing effective collaboration with other congregations/ministries and with secular organizations.
As with FASTEN's other tools and educational materials, all the content in the new channel was screened and reviewed by veteran practitioners (in this case, leaders from successful externally focused churches) to assure high quality. The new department also includes a number of originally created resources, such as a series of instructional profiles of externally focused churches.
These offer insights on how to move a congregation from a traditional internal focus to an effective, missional posture with effective engagement in transformational community ministry that blesses the city and enhances spiritual formation among parishioners.
Church leaders will also find a series of short, topically oriented, annotated bibliographies and about a dozen summaries of catalytic learning/service opportunities. Start exploring now!
An Interview With Amy Sherman of FASTEN
MORE Helps for Your Grant writing efforts
> Raising Resources: A More-Than-Fund Raising Workshop Handbook
This fundraising workbook is intended to help non-profit organizations develop a comprehensive financial plan. More than simply a grant-writing guide, this workbook seeks to help nonprofits develop a complete strategy of fundraising that involves personal giving, in-kind donations, private grants, and corporate sponsorship.The structure and tone of the workbook are easily accessible. It is written as an interactive tutorial, with the reader completing various exercises and worksheets that eventually produce a fundraising plan.
FBOs can use our Best Practice Checklists in at least two ways. First, practitioners can reference the best practices in their grant proposals, demonstrating that they are aware of "evidence-based practices" and are implementing those in their programs. Second, they can use the Best Practices Checklists as a self-assessment "yardstick" to examine their own programs and how well their approach and strategies match up against what the research says "works."
Other helpful resources
><> Communities First - comprehensive curriculum, including a main text and eight workbooks, suitable for congregations seeking to develop effective community ministries.
> The Citizen’s Handbook: An online book with excellent how-to’s, advice, and ideas for community organizing
><> New Resources for Church Benevolence Ministries - New City Fellowship in Chattanooga, pastored by FCFC friend Randy Nabors, has long had an active diaconal ministry in its low-income community. Randy has trained deacons at numerous churches around the country in good principles of stewarding the church’s benevolence funds. Here are New City’s documents for deacons on Evaluating Need and Principles for Giving Assistance.
III. ROUNDTABLE
ON RELIGION & SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY.
Read Roundtable's current e-newsletter
> Soul providers - Uninsured workers find health care,more thanks to Good News Care Center, Miami.
> Click here for entire listing of current articles
RESOURCES: The Roundtable has assembled a series of comprehensive resource pages on key subject areas related to faith-based social services. Included are research papers, reports, policy papers, legal analyses, news and opinion, and links to other relevant web resources.
INTERVIEWS - As part of its mission to produce a fuller and more informed debate on the issue of faith-based social services, the Roundtable offers a continuing series of interviews with leading policymakers, scholars, researchers and stakeholders who are involved in the Faith-Based and Community Initiative. >GO>
Interview with Robert Zachritz of World Vision on the Global Food Crisis
Archive of interviews from the Roundtable
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism - Tim Keller - Details and Study Helps
Heart Language - Hip Hop Congregation one Example of Contextual Church Planting
> The divine has a place on the road to recovery - A nationwide study found that 85% of doctors surveyed believe faith has a positive effect on a patient's health.
> Are humans hard-wired for faith?
> So what does the Constitution say about religion? (It may not be what you think) >GO>
POLLS/SURVEYS - REPORTS & RESEARCH
> Faith Makes a Difference: A Study of the Influence of Faith in Human Service Programs
IV. NOTICE OF NEEDS BY LOCAL GROUPS >GO>
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V. HELPFUL MINISTRY INFO & RESOURCES
> Strategies for Community Ministry by Randy Nabors New City Fellowship, Chattanooga TN
> Christian Association of Youth Mentoring - CMI's Mission is to help churches and Christian
ministries reach at-risk kids and families through mentoring.Resources include a newsletter, manuals and training 1-877-33MENTOR (336-3686) toll free email: info@caym.org> Faith In Action Campaign Kit- everything your church needs to plan and implement your 4-week Faith in Action campaign.
> Toolkit for Self-Assessing Your Ministry - designed for directors of faith-based organizations who wish to lead their staff, board, and/or volunteers through an intentional
process of internal self-assessment. This evaluation system assists organization
leaders and stakeholders in assessing whether their programs and policies are
“on track” with their mission and philosophy of ministry.> Restorers of Hope: Reaching the Poor in Your Community with Church-Based Ministries That Work - Based on research at several church-based urban ministries, this practical book
identifies why these programs have succeeded when many government-led efforts fail.Church-related Helps
Leadership Network's top downloads are available free! Don't miss this opportunity to learn successful strategies and best practices by downloading special reports, concept papers and podcasts.
Here's a sampling of what you will find:
> Strategies for Investing in Your Community: How Externally Focused Churches are Leveraging Their Impact >GO>
> Creating New Opportunities for Older Adults to Serve; 50+ Age Adults Reaching Outside the Walls of he Church >GO>
> Online Social Networking Tools for the Church; New Horizons for Kingdom Impact >GO>
> Externally Focused Small Groups:How Churches are Re-engineering Their Small Groups for Community Service >GO>
> Generosity Requires More than a Sermon: Leading Churches find Ongoing Training is the Key to a Lifestyle of Generosity - >GO>
Link to Great Articles & Resources for Externally Focused Churches
Then, check out these Great Downloads
> Want help developing an effective computer center in your ministry?
FCFC urges you to check out TechMission - supporting community computer centers across the world in their effort to provide access, skills and relationships needed to succeed in the information age.
Featured resources:
Christian Volunteering - Miami - ChristianVolunteering.org matches volunteers to volunteer opportunities similar to the way Monster.com links job openings to potential employees.
Safe Families assists parents and equips the Christian community to protect children from pornography and other dangers on the Internet.
TastyFaith.com is your on-line resource for non-sugar coated Bible Curriculum for urban and nner-city youth ministry
Churches that Make a Difference: Reaching your Community with Good News and Good Works.> Biblical Peacemaking - Peace Makers encourages and assists Christians to respond to conflict biblically.>GO>
PeaceMeal -Brief thoughts on the best way to handle the conflicts with others in your life.
Take Time To Be Wrong - Agreeing with others, especially when they are pointing out your faults,
is not easy, but it can play a crucial role in peacemaking. When you are talking with another person, first listen for the truth, resisting the temptation to defend yourself, blame others, orfocus on points of disagreement. Ask yourself, "Is there any truth in what he or she is saying?" If your answer is "yes," acknowledge what is true and identify your common ground before moving to your differences. >read more>PeaceMeal Archives - More resources from Peacemakers.
Click here for - Books - Websites, e-zines/ periodicals & other publications - Articles & reports
Leadership Development - Peacemakers Ministries – Handling Conflict Biblically, Making Better Use of Technology’s in Ministry - Training and Education - Other Ministry Helps
><> Principles for Helpers - Bob Lupton
><> How to Help the Poor Without Hurting Them . .and Ourselves - Brian Fikkert
><> Small group resources that help people turn to God when dealing with life's problems.
><> Lots of folks consider Miami is a "jacked-up" place where nothing works as it should. Racial tensions, corruption in the public & private sectors, injustice, violence in our neighborhoods, warped civic priorities, children trapped in under-performing schools, worsening traffic and urban sprawl, threatened environment, no real sense of community or civility and increasingly, loss of any real hope for the future.
Want to listen to a radical remedy for what ails us? WARNING: This is not a popular approach, but it will absolutely work.
><> Why do wholistic ministry? Kirbyjon Caldwell Willow Creek Association
><> Devotionals - Sharing God's Heart for the Poor - by Amy Sherman
><> Some thoughts on being a servant
><> Holistic Ministry Materials: A great collection of helps for the helpers
Now, Dig a Little Deeper
><> 10 Question Survey for Your Congregation
Keep going........
Church and Ministry Involvement Questionaire
Teaching from Dr. Tim Keller, Sr. Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church NYC
To download the file to your computer click (ctrl-click on Mac) the link and select "Save Target As" (or "Save Link As" or simlar option)
- Lots of folks seem to be asking, "Who is Jesus?" What do you honestlyknow about Him?
- Ever wish you could really change? What would that look like? How does it happen?
- Imagine a community where all classes of people love one another who ordinarily can't or won't get along.... where sex, money and power are used in unique, non-destructive and life-giving ways.
- Imagine a life where in which work and rest are in true balance.
- How should followers of Jesus regard the poor and marginalized?
- What does His blueprint look like for restoring our neighborhoods?
Family & Children Faith Coalition
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Uniting our Equipping our Rebuilding our
Efforts People Communities
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Cooperating for Strengthening for Demonstrating
Effectiveness Service God's Shalom
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