MLI re-gathering notes

Some of the random notes I took from Reggie McNeal and Lance Finley at our first re-gathering the end of January 2013.

From Reggie...

• "Church stuff will kill you. Kingdom stuff will feed your soul."
• 32% of Gen-Y now want nothing to do with church (was 25% 5 years ago).
• Metrics = What are we celebrating; what are we emphasizing; what are we shining the spotlight on... "When we do this we're feeling the wind of the Spirit."
• How many spiritual conversations did we have this week?
• How many hours of community service did we do this week?
• "We have to celebrate something, so we might as well celebrate something we want to see more of!!!"
• "Do not worry alone. But don't worry the same person to death."
• "Empower people without trying to co-ordinate people." (pepper them with ideas)
• Meettheneed.com/org = free service to connect volunteers w/needs
• "You've got to be so sold out that you just don't care who gets the credit."
• We (Christians) are free to be FOR everybody. The serpent created "us vs. them". We are the "we" people. (this might have been Brian Miller)
• "We need to work on solving issues at the community level rather than the organizational level."
• What movie (or song) best describes the narrative of your life right now?
• "Internal narratives are crucial in helping us fall down or up."
• "The N. American church no longer has a strong enough internal narrative. How can we make the Good News a compelling story again?"
• "Our problem is that we have put eternal life at the end of life. Jesus put it throughout." (eph. 2:8-9 AND 10).
• Helping people find freedom. Not just saved 'from'... but also 'to' and 'through.' (From slavery, thru the cross; to abundance... What have we been saved to?).
• "Sharing the prayer request IS the prayer. We don't need to do it again. God can hear."
• WIGS = Wildly important goals.
• Consider sponsoring a child locally, not just overseas.
• literacydesigncollaborative.com
• "If we are announcers of Good News, and the Kingdom narrative is a street party, what do we need to do (or learn)?" (we need to learn how to be community developers)
• valuetheperson.com
• "If we're going to lead a Kingdom movement then we've got to gain Kingdom competencies. And the competencies are gathered by gaining street smarts."

From Lance...

• Jeremiah 29:7
• Shalom = the way things were meant to be (Gen. 1&2).
• All of Jesus' miracles were to reconcile things broken/undone in the Fall.
• Bridges Out of Poverty book (understanding generational poverty and how that shapes them).
• Poor people have a skill set, it's just not a middle-class skill set. But they know things we do not.
• The theology of this is important. It's not just helping people so we can grow our church. This is part of God's narrative.

 COLLECTIVE IMPACT (from Stanford U. article):

Pre-conditions -

1. Influential Champion (somebody to call the party; people of influence).
2. Adequate Financial Resources
3. Urgency for change (realize now is the time)

5 Conditions of Collective Impact -

1. Common Agenda (What 1 or 2 issues, if solved, would make the biggest difference in this community? What builds common ground is a common threat. TED talk).
2. Shared Measurement (we need something to celebrate)
3. Mutually Reinforcing Activities
4. Continuous Communication
5. Backbone Support

Phases of Collective Impact -

1. Initiate Action (may take a couple years)
2. Organize for Impact (we need systems for sustainability)
3. Sustain Action and Impact

Backbone Organizations -

1. Funder-based
2. New non-profits
3. Existing non-profits
4. Government
5. Shared across multiple organizations
6. Steering committee driven (can initiate through but not sustain with)