Congregations transform communities
Mission: Strengthen congregations to transform our communities.
Focus: People of faith offer our communities vital resources for our life together—including reliance on a power greater than ourselves, belief in the value of every life, and solidarity with those marginalized by our society. By sharing our gifts with one another, we can transform our deepest problems into a source of shared strength. The Project focuses on two distinct but interrelated areas to help congregations build our communities:
1. Strengthen Congregations: Building congregational strength is the foundation of the Project. We take a dual approach, cultivating the internal resources and outward trajectory of congregations.
– Inner Growth: In support of clergy and governing boards, we visit with congregation members, listening to them speak about their congregation and community, to know them and to pray with them. Time spent with members has a marked effect on worship attendance and congregational energy. At the request of clergy and boards, spiritual development classes may be an outgrowth of these visits.
– Outward Connection: Within the congregation, we form a community engagement team, which meets regularly to pray, study community engagement models, and strategize how to connect with the greater community. Our focus begins with the immediate neighbors in a one-block radius of the congregation, including businesses and residences. Our goal is to know our neighbors by listening to them.
When congregations grow inwardly and connect outwardly, we encounter our own and our neighbors’ deep challenges as well as gifts for addressing them. This spiritual development provides opportunities to share our gifts, to receive the gifts of others, and to build a stronger life together.
2. Community Leadership: In conjunction with our work in congregations, the Project also pursues two community-wide initiatives addressing our most severe and persistent social issues—poverty and racism. Congregations are invited to partner in these efforts:
– Alleviate Poverty: The Project is part of the development of an extensive anti-poverty initiative throughout Spartanburg County, working with the Spartanburg Community Indicators Project, the United Way, and numerous service agencies. Knowledge gained through the experience of congregations working in our communities is fundamental to shaping this larger project.
– End Racism: We partner with Speaking Down Barriers to host facilitated discussions and retreats to overcome internal, interpersonal, and systemic racism, as well as other forms of prejudice that create barriers to our life together. These events build community through the recognition and valuing of our differences. The Project plays a major role in leading these events and providing a faith perspective as we build communities of mutual respect, support, and opportunity.
Results: Since September 2014, three congregations have partnered to pilot the Project for Community Transformation: a larger urban church (2,300 members) and two smaller rural churches (each with fewer than 60 members).
– In the area of strengthening congregations, all three congregations have stabilized or increased their worship attendance. All three have stabilized or increased monthly giving. Two congregations have seen the emergence of new lay leadership within their congregations. One has developed four lay-led missions based on community engagement through relationships. One has increased its worship attendance by 20% and its membership by 10% in a three-month timespan. All have experienced an increase in energy for the future.
– In the area of community leadership, with our support Speaking Down Barriers has quadrupled attendance at monthly community discussion groups in Spartanburg, and has expanded to host meetings in Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston, with invitations to cities in North Carolina in the fall of 2015.
Partner With Us: To partner with us and to support our work, contact:
Scott Neely
Project for Community Transformation
393 E. Main St.
Spartanburg, SC 29302
864-590-8260
Scott Neely directs the Project for Community Transformation, an initiative to strengthen congregations to transform our communities. He is a graduate of Wofford College and Harvard Divinity School. Neely served at First Presbyterian Church in Spartanburg, SC from 2006-2015, first as Director of Missions and then as Pastoral Executive. In April 2015 he presented a TEDx talk on race and racism entitled “What Will I Teach My Son?” An artist, his work may be found at www.neelyprojects.com.
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