Advancing sustainable solutions to material poverty through church missions.
The North American Church is losing ground in attendance, influence, credibility and virtually every other category that really matters. In this day and age, many see the church as the hope of the world only as it “proves” itself in practical ways that touch the everyday needs of everyday people. But that’s not a cry for more traditional forms of charity or the missionary model of the past 200 years. Instead, thoughtful people, from Millennials to Boomers, are looking for churches that have moved from simply doing good things to solving real problems in lasting ways. Churches that invest in this kind of mission work become more helpful in lifting people out of poverty and better partners to ministries on the frontlines. They also become more relevant and credible to their community, more fulfilling to both pastor and people, and more appealing to those on the margins looking for a reason to attend a church.
Our mission is to help churches reframe their missions and charitable work around sustainable solutions and create room for business-minded people who can help that happen. Our annual SATtalks and other resources highlight some of the most innovative churches and faith-based ministries around the world working to move missions in this direction. We do this because the Church needs the stories of early pioneers and innovators to inspire and help us see what could be!
Tom Bassford, Founder/President | Significant Matters & SATtalks
It’s Because This Church Has Been Helping Us | by Rick Rusaw
Over the years I have always tried to look at the broader trends going on in the world and try to translate them into the church world. Recently I was invited to sit in on a roundtable discussion with a group of CEOs from a number of large companies who you would recognize. It was a discussion about the future of business. In broad strokes they traced the evolution of business over the past century and began to paint a picture of what the next iteration is already shaping up to be. They said for a long time, business [...]
VIDEO – From Doing Good Things to Solving Real Problems by Pastor Rick Rusaw | LifeBridge Church
WATCH THE VIDEO... Change in the church began when we asked the question, “If our church disappeared, would anyone care?” That question set the direction for a 25-year journey that led us from just doing good things to solving real problems. What’s the difference and why is it a must if churches want to move beyond helping that hurts. And how can pastors create the space for the business-minded who can help make it happen? Rick Rusaw, Senior Pastor | LifeBridge Church, Longmont, CO Rick Rusaw has served as the Lead Pastor at LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado [...]
Cultivating a Faith-Rooted Social Enterprise Ecosystem for the Well-Being of Your City | by Dr. Randy White
A number of years ago the Mayor of Fresno gathered a group of faith leaders and asked them a very provocative question; "What do you think is the role of faith institutions in seeking the economic well-being of a city?" Ask pastors and faith leaders what the spiritual needs of the city are or ask about the social needs of the city and they can talk until they've sucked all the oxygen out of the room. But ask about what faith institutions can contribute to the economic well-being of a city and you get nothing but blank stares. After [...]
VIDEO – Cultivating a Faith-Rooted, Social Enterprise Ecosystem by Dr. Randy White | Center for Community Transformation
WATCH THE VIDEO... What have faith leaders in the city with one of the highest rates of concentrated poverty in the nation done to create a faith-rooted ecosystem of innovation and economic opportunity that is bringing transformation? What is necessary for a city's faith institutions to go beyond individual efforts and solitary programs, utilizing the talent in its midst to solve its most intractable social problems? Explore the transformational power, possibility, and the challenges and limitations of a nascent social enterprise approach. Dr. Randy White, Founder and Executive Director | Center for Community Transformation, Fresno Pacific University Randy has been an urban activist and practitioner for more than 25 years. He was the founder of Fresno [...]
VIDEO – Prophetic Imagination by Tom Bassford, Significant Matters
WATCH THE VIDEO... Most paradigm shifts come from critical yeast not critical mass. They come from those with an idea that is usually described as too idealistic or just too complicated and then simply dismissed by the critical mass. But that doesn’t seem to matter to critical yeast they just plug away, usually in isolation, through countless iterations of trial and error on their way to what Walter Brueggeman called “futures that are genuinely new and not derived.” There is a critical yeast in the world of church missions. It's a small and growing band of individuals and churches genuinely [...]
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VIDEO – Gaining Influence in a Post-Christian Culture by Michael Saccocio | City Mission Schenectady GalleryVIDEO – Gaining Influence in a Post-Christian Culture by Michael Saccocio | City Mission Schenectady
Business Persons, Church Missions, Dignity, Entrepreneurship, flourishing, ReThink Missions, SATtalk Video 2018, Work
VIDEO – Gaining Influence in a Post-Christian Culture by Michael Saccocio | City Mission Schenectady
WATCH THE VIDEO... Even as our culture drifts farther away from a Biblical world-view, there are now great opportunities for the church to gain influence and make an even greater impact in our communities. It is exciting that the path to gaining influence does not require a compromise of biblical principles, but rather a deeper understanding and application of these principles. Our Biblical world-view is our greatest advantage in engaging the culture. It’s time we become leaders in creating programs that solve problems. Learning how to do this in the midst of our cultural challenges is the pathway to greater [...]
