SATtalks – A Safe Place to be Vulnerable

SATtalks – A Safe Place to Be Vulnerable

SATtalks is a two-day event.  It’s also a website with over 20 videos (soon to be 30) from leading practitioners who are doing church missions differently.  But more than all of that SATtalks is a conversation between like-minded people trying to honestly figure some things out. It’s not a gathering of “fake it till you make it” organizations dressing up the same old approaches in new language of sustainability and transformation in order to raise more money.  It really is a group of individuals, churches and faith-based ministries gathered together to share their stories and, more importantly, their models along with their struggles and frustrations.

“It’s a safe place to be vulnerable,” said one of our presenters, Lindsey Strickler.  While the intent is to show churches that there are examples of churches and other organizations pursuing sustainable transformation through church missions it’s also meant to be an honest and ongoing conversation between those committed to the idea.  It’s not a band wagon, beauty pageant or band aid but rather “a safe place to be vulnerable.”  A place to admit you don’t have it all figured out.  A place to admit, “I need to re-think what I’m doing and how I’m doing it.”  Hear what Tom Schrader, a first-time attender with a long-time history of orphan care work in Rwanda had to say.

My wife, Sheri, and I attended SATtalks last week because our friend, Christine Baingana from Rwanda, was going to speak.  We thought we were too busy to attend most of it until we attended the opening and couldn’t pull ourselves away from the rest of it.

 SATtalks is about sharing experience, info, and ideas for making charitable work around the world not only self-sustaining, but also about making it consistent with our DNA.  God created us all to be gratified by creativity, charity, and the dignity of personal responsibility (sustaining ourselves by our own work).  Missions, NGOs, and government-sponsored programs should not rob the individual of any one of these personally rewarding activities.  All should be focused on the hand up, not the hand out.

I was asked to participate in a break-out panel and mentioned that our children’s homes in Rwanda are a work that is an exception to the self-sustaining rule–we build and sustain homes for orphans.  I was approached afterwards by a SATtalks veteran who challenged me to rethink that premise based on the Zoe Orphan Empowerment SATtalk given at a previous event.  (See the video – ZOE Orphan Empowerment SATtalk)

 SATtalk mission accomplished in my psyche.  We were not only excited by the reports of for-profit businesses participating in the goals of improving lives, but also the encouragement to analyze everything we do in Rwanda (and elsewhere) under the philosophical goals of allowing the recipients the privilege of exercising creativity, charity, and the dignity of personal responsibility.

 Can’t wait until next SATtalks Oct 19-20, 2017!”

 Thomas P. Schrader, Pres & CEO

CottageCare, Inc.

Mission accomplished… at least in part.  If we can help individuals like Tom and Sheri Schrader rethink the way they do missions and show the church there’s a better way then we are well on our way to accomplishing our goal.

Between now and the end of the year we will be releasing the videos from last week’s event along with a series of articles that the presenters will be helping me write.  We will be talking about everything from why metrics matter to the role millennials will play in the greatest transfer of wealth and leadership in the history of the world.  I hope you will tune in and even help us spread the word by passing this article along with the ones to come to your friends and onto your social networks.  Help us spread the word.

SATtrips

We are also excited to announce a new effort as an extension of the SATtalks event.  We are calling it SATtrips and it’s a chance for you to see the work of our presenters up close and personal.  We currently have three trips identified and may add a couple more.  Here’s the list:

• The Rainbow Network – Nicaragua – November 14-17, 2016

• Life In Abundance – Destination and dates still to be determined – 2017

• Zoe – Destination and dates still to be determined – 2017

The trip to Nicaragua to see the work of The Rainbow Network, including a celebration of the 1,000^th home they have built is just around the corner but there’s still room if you’re interested.  For more information on this trip or any of the others please contact me at tom@significantmatters.com.

Looking Ahead

We have set the dates for next year’s SATtalks for October 19-20, 2017 and between now and then we plan to introduce you to the Mission 3.0 Network and our Peer Learning Communities.  I hope you will join in the conversation.  A big thanks to all our presenters and others who have been on this journey awhile.  Your examples, your innovation and your commitment to an honest conversation about the hard work and trials and errors along the way is helping create a “safe place to be vulnerable” as together we help move the church beyond helping that hurts.

Tom Bassford