Trainings for Grants and Needs Assessment



Upcoming Training Opportunities:

Grant Teams- Church on the Rock, February 28, New Haven, Conn.

This training will cover the formation of a grant team and provide tips in effective grant development.  David Mills, MPA will be the trainer.  Contact Orlando Yarbrough for registration.  cotryouthcapacity@gmail.com.

Grant Teams- River Community Services- March 28, Sacramento CA

This training will cover the formation of a grant team and offer insights into effective grant development.  The trainer is David Mills, MPA.  Contact Ryan Stevenson for registration rstevenson@theriverchurch.net.

Grant Teams are one of the strategies being used by small to medium sized non profits and ministries to find and win new resources.  By utilizing the skills of talents of staff and volunteers an effective funding program can be developed that expands the ability of the organization to pursue and secure grant and donor funds.

Needs Assessment

An intensive needs assessment training will be provided in Las Vegas, NV on March 24th.  Join leaders of the new “Verve” church and others for this insightful training that equips you to lead your team through the Compassion by Design Needs Assessment.  Cost is $99 for the training, email dmills@compassionbydesign.org for registration information.

This same training will be available in Burlington, NJ on April 7th.  email dmills@compassionbydesign.org for information.

The Big “Service” Idea- Vision PLUS Strategy



Planter,

In your journey to plant a church in the community where you are now living you were introduced to the compassion by design concept for “service based planting.” This process is pictured below and details how a church can be born with real missional DNA and have a healthier launch.   It is model independant, and can fit with just about any model of church planting that you care to undertake (parachute drop, high impact, incarnational, etc.).  For you,this model seemed to be a real fit with the sense of calling and direction.  What about the model connected with your heart?

Dave,

God gave me a vision for how the church should relate with the larger community, but He didn’t reviel how to make it happen. I had vision with no strategy. A frustrating position. One church planting organization thought my vision was nuts because I had no plan. My response was simple, “God gave me the vision; He will reveal the strategy. He just hasn’t done that yet.” As you might imagine, I’m not signed on with that organization. God’s vision was too big for their paradigm. Months later, when interviewing with the church planting organization I am now partnered with, they shared with me your strategy and tools for accomplishing God’s vision. This sealed the deal. God provided you with the resources I needed to accomplish His vision. Compassion by Design captured my heart through its’ 1) relational focus in the community needs assessment and 2) collaboration with non-profit, civic, and business leaders for community impact. Moreover, I’m sold on the lauch team and church growing out of service with pre-Christians to meet the needs or our larger community.

Where does Community Service Fit: Survey Part 1



As I talk with church planters and pastors across the country, it is becoming more and more obvious that serving in the community is continuing to emerge as a important trend among new churches.  When I speak in conferences and ask those present, it is most often true that most of the planters in the room believe that community service is something that needs to be built into the fabric of the new church.  Many planters are taking this notion much farther than what has been the default approach which I call “service as marketing.”   This is service that occurs during the preparation phase of the new church but isn’t really sustained into the life or DNA of the church.  To document some of this movement toward service, Compassion by Design issued a survey to its national mailing list to get some feedback about whether this is really a trend.  The survey wasn’t designed to satisfy all the demands of a quasi-experimental design, but I think you will see that it is illuminating.

Compassion service needs to be built into the fabric of the new church

One of the dramatic responses is illustrated below. 96% of those surveyed stated that they believe that service to the community is  important or very important as a credibility factor.  Other research that I have been viewing indicates that this is especially true for the emerging generations, who measure the credibility of an organization by its community service.

I will be helping to bring some substance to these ideas at the specially priced Pre-Conference at the Exponential Conference.  This seminar has been supported by Angel Food to make it more affordable and includes keys to make your new church effective at serving in the community.  Please join me!  More information at 888-579-5335.

Next post will explore additional survey responses.

Dave,

It seems that 96% of respondents who answer the question, “How important do you believe that service to the community is to the credibility of the new church within the community?” assume that service builds credibility apart from any other factors. Does service build credibility in a vaccuum? Or should we rather assume that other factors partnered with community service build credibility? If so, what are those factors?