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Being Present in Hawaii
6 Plays1 month ago
Darryl Answer is joined by Eun Strawser, the co-vocational lead pastor of Ma Ke Alo o (which means “Presence” in Hawaiian), non-denominational missional communities multiplying in Honolulu, Hawaii. They discuss the importance of being present in the community and being rooted in a place. Eun also shares about the recovery efforts on the island, three years after the Lāhainā fires.
Learn more about the CCDA Conference and make plans to join us at ccda.org/conference. And discover ways to connect with like-minded people through CCDA’s local and affinity networks at ccda.org/connect.
Eun K. Strawser is the co-vocational lead pastor of Ma Ke Alo o (which means “Presence” in Hawaiian), non-denominational missional communities multiplying in Honolulu, Hawaii, a community physician at Ke Ola Pono, and an executive board member of the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) with twenty years in both local and trans-local church planting work at executive levels. Prior to transitioning to Hawaii, she served as adjunct professor of medicine at the Philadelphia College of Medicine and of African Studies at her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania (where she and her husband served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship) after finishing her Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Dar es Salaam. She is the author of Centering Discipleship: A Pathway for Multiplying Spectators into Mature Disciples (IVP) and You Were Never Meant to Lead Alone: The Power of Sharing Leadership (IVP). She and Steve have three, seriously, amazing children. Rev. Dr. Strawser has nearly two decades of experience in centering discipleship and making mature missional disciples. She has developed a lay counseling curriculum, discipleship pathways for children’s ministries, and discipleship pathways utilized both in established church and church-planting contexts. While her heart is in locally-rooted kingdom work, she also consults and coaches pastors, planters, and marketplace/community leaders worldwide in developing discipleship pathways and structuring their context to center discipleship. Ma Ke Alo o is also part of CCDA’s Flourishing Congregations Initiative.
Darryl was born in London, England. He is currently co-pastor of New Community Church, and founder of Verge Solutions. Through Verge Solutions, he provides consulting, training, and facilitation for organizations and communities in the areas of entrepreneurial mindset (ELI), and community development through an Asset-Based lens. In addition to serving in a consulting role, Darryl works in neighborhoods as a mobilizer and connector of residents and institutions around their shared vision of power, healing, and abundance. Darryl is a coach for CCDA’s Flourishing Congregations Initiative.
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Transcript
Introduction to CCDA and Darrell Anser
00:00:09
Speaker
Hi, and welcome to the CCDA podcast.
00:00:12
Speaker
My name is Darrell Anser.
00:00:13
Speaker
I am co-pastor of New Community Church in Kansas City, Missouri.
00:00:17
Speaker
And I have been a part of the CCDA family since 2011, when I went to the first Immersion.
00:00:24
Speaker
I had the privilege of being a part of a leadership cohort, CSYNCO, the best cohort.
00:00:30
Speaker
And I also currently have the privilege of sitting on the board with my dear sister here on Strauss.
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Speaker
So we are grateful to be able to be in this space together.
00:00:41
Speaker
CCDA is passionate about seeing people and communities experience God's shalom.
00:00:46
Speaker
And that is a reason why I am a part of the CCDA
Flourishing Congregations Initiatives (FCI)
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Speaker
family.
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Speaker
I fully believe in the mission and work of CCDA.
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Speaker
And one way that we're doing that is through our Flourishing Congregations Initiatives, or FCI.
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Speaker
And this is our comprehensive four-year program designed to empower church leaders to help their congregations deepen their community engagement, enhance their ministries, and contribute to the flourishing of their neighborhoods.
00:01:11
Speaker
And so today we have a representative from Makealo joining us to share about what they're doing in their church and community and how they are seeing God
Connections within the CCDA community
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Speaker
move.
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Speaker
And like I said, I am joined by my dear sister, my friend, Dr. Unstrausser.
00:01:27
Speaker
Thank you so much for being here, Gunn.
00:01:30
Speaker
This is like the best timing for this because our coach, Reverend Daryl Anser, and I'm sorry if everybody who's watching and listening, we do reside in Hawaii.
00:01:41
Speaker
So we just had the privilege of having Daryl, our coach, come and spend a week with us.
00:01:46
Speaker
So I hope we get to talk about that too.
00:01:48
Speaker
And it was the best thing ever.
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Speaker
It absolutely was.
Hawaiian cultural integration with CCDA principles
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Speaker
And we definitely will be talking about it.
00:01:55
Speaker
Absolutely.
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Speaker
All right.
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Speaker
And so to begin, how about you just introduce yourself and share a little bit about your church?
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Speaker
Yeah.
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Speaker
Maki Lo'o, we are in our seventh year as a church plant.
00:02:07
Speaker
And I have personally been around CCDA for about five years.
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Like Daryl said, I'm also on the board with them, which is like my favorite board to be a part of.
00:02:16
Speaker
But really, I feel like out of all of the national platforms, associations, affiliations, denominations, particularly in this time when like a lot of disabilited churches and organizations and communities are coming out from the pandemic, this is probably the one spot that our church knew more than any other denomination or association or affiliation.
00:02:38
Speaker
This is where we want to land because we're just, it was the first time when I brought my leaders to a conference.
00:02:43
Speaker
They're just like, wait a second.
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Speaker
wait, wait, people do church like this?
00:02:48
Speaker
Like, we just thought we were like the weirdos, you know, trying to think about, I'm like,
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Speaker
Apparently a lot of people think about a church like this, or think about a future of the church, big C wide, uh, looking and doing and behaving like this.
00:03:03
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So that was our biggest, biggest, uh, draw to it.
00:03:07
Speaker
My leaders cried the first time, you know, so this is the one conference, one and only conference every year we bring our leaders to.
00:03:14
Speaker
So we're incredibly grateful that CCDA exists.
00:03:18
Speaker
all the work and decades of work that a lot of the pioneering leaders have done.
00:03:23
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So, I mean, we cry so much.
00:03:27
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We just cry all the time whenever we get a chance to be with CCDA.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah, thank you so much.
00:03:33
Speaker
So speaking of your church and you bringing your folks out to CCDA, when you think about your context, like what's one thing people should know about your church?
00:03:43
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Yeah, we...
00:03:45
Speaker
paradise living we also do still suffer for the gospel so don't you think that it's otherwise i think that it really has been around we think that we're such a small niche of of a community that we think about we think about race dynamics differently here in hawaii than we do on you know mayman's us we think about because of indigenous hawaiian culture we think about
00:04:09
Speaker
redistribution or even distribution of land differently.
Understanding Hawaii's local history and cultural dynamics
00:04:12
Speaker
There's a cultural part of reconciliation.
00:04:13
Speaker
It's all like embedded in those kinds of things.
00:04:15
Speaker
But I think that the biggest thing was that universal terms around things that I feel like a lot is so meaningful to indigenous Hawaiian culture, that it's the first time that it's not churchy or like, or even white evangelical tradition feels threatening.
00:04:33
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Like one of the biggest hurdles about
00:04:35
Speaker
planting or doing church at all in Hawaii is that a lot of indigenous Hawaiians have to ask the question, do I give up my identity as being Hawaiian in exchange for being Christian?
00:04:46
Speaker
Or am I Christian first?
00:04:47
Speaker
Am I Hawaiian first?
00:04:49
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So a lot of the conversation around, you don't have to actually, no, that's not asking you to give up your identity or your cultural identity.
00:04:56
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But a lot of times that kind of language from a broader church conversation, it feels like it misses out on those kinds of things.
00:05:04
Speaker
So I think a lot of the CCD philosophies make sense.
00:05:09
Speaker
You know, it already makes sense culturally for people here.
00:05:12
Speaker
So that actually has been like the biggest gift.
00:05:15
Speaker
That's great.
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Speaker
And so I was able to visit your community.
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Speaker
literally like three weeks ago or four weeks ago, you know?
00:05:25
Speaker
And one of the places that you encouraged me to go to was the palace.
00:05:32
Speaker
And so I love that you're bringing up some of the history of
00:05:36
Speaker
of your community and your people in Hawaii and the indigenous people, because Hawaii has faced the effects of some pretty significant injustices.
00:05:45
Speaker
And I think it's really important for us in CCDA to hear that, because usually what we hear of Hawaii is the beaches, the vacations, all of these things that people...
00:05:58
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you know, they can miss like the underlying story, the narrative of it being an occupied territory, you know?
00:06:06
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And so, yeah, I'm grateful for that because it's really important for us in the CCA
Community integration and best practices in church collaboration
00:06:11
Speaker
community to understand like, it's not just what's happening in the mainland, but like your community helps us just a little bit see beyond our local neighborhoods.
00:06:23
Speaker
Like, okay, across an ocean, you know, these things are also taking place.
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, no, I just, I think that's probably one of the things that, you know, I think you and I both have chatted about this, but that we would hope for any folks participating in FCI is that it isn't just, like, because of the CCDA philosophy, it isn't just about what's the work that coaches need to do just for this one particular church community.
00:06:53
Speaker
And just working on the church's culture in that one specific community and then flourishing will happen, right?
00:07:00
Speaker
If we're going to be talking about flourishing, then it has to include the community.
00:07:04
Speaker
It has to include the history and traditions of that local place.
00:07:08
Speaker
And I think it exposes the fact if church leaders actually know their place or not.
00:07:13
Speaker
I'm like, I am not from Hawaii.
00:07:16
Speaker
Well, I look brown, but I'm not.
00:07:18
Speaker
Everybody knows I'm from the East Coast when I'm here in Hawaii.
00:07:20
Speaker
So I, you know, that part about, I had to learn very quickly that this isn't just happy-go-lucky aloha culture in Hawaii, that there is a deep, deep sense of injustice that people may politely not want to bring up.
00:07:36
Speaker
because in some places it feels like we're still in an occupied, literal occupied land.
00:07:43
Speaker
But what do people do with that?
00:07:45
Speaker
What do Jesus followers do with that?
00:07:47
Speaker
Knowing its history, like where is resistance?
00:07:51
Speaker
Where are the reconciliation parts?
00:07:53
Speaker
How does empowerment work?
00:07:55
Speaker
Like all those kinds of things, people are already thinking about that, wrestling with that.
00:07:59
Speaker
So yeah, it's important.
00:08:01
Speaker
The local place is important.
00:08:04
Speaker
If you don't mind just sharing a little bit, like what led you and your team to consider being a part of the Flourishing Congregations Initiative?
00:08:12
Speaker
One of the biggest things is we actually, our church partners with a church 5,000 miles away in Virginia.
00:08:23
Speaker
And we really, both of our churches and church communities and leadership, we've done some work together and things, but we were beginning to already ask the questions, like the next step of,
00:08:38
Speaker
Once we nailed down the cultural pieces to both of our communities, leaderships equipped, like what are they equipped to do?
00:08:47
Speaker
And a lot of the resounding answer was how does the church get further connected to the community that the church resides in?
00:08:54
Speaker
So if that was a question, we knew that CCDA is probably one of the best places to journey with other like-minded communities, CCD practitioners.
00:09:07
Speaker
in particular are the best people to learn about what is happening in our local place, in our communities, and all different aspects of it, whether it's advocacy or working with actual neighbors,
Impact of CCDA conference and community learning
00:09:21
Speaker
those kinds of things.
00:09:21
Speaker
So I think that FCI was a really, really great opportunity for both of our churches to learn together, even though we're in very, very different parts of the entire country.
00:09:32
Speaker
Okay, let's go back to me being present with your community and being with your leaders and them experiencing CCDA at the conference.
00:09:44
Speaker
Why don't we spend some time just talking about how they're taking some of those principles of CCDA and then learning how to interpret and live those out and even invite others into.
00:09:54
Speaker
That's one of the things I really appreciate about your ministry.
00:09:57
Speaker
is that you go at the pace of your community.
00:10:00
Speaker
I just noticed that really quickly, that there's no rush.
00:10:04
Speaker
You go at the pace of your community, of your leaders, and you walk alongside them.
00:10:09
Speaker
So I'm just curious what that has looked like over the last several years as people have engaged in CCDA, have
00:10:17
Speaker
you know, moved from like the, like, oh, wow, there are people out here like us, you know, like we're not crazy to then like on the ground.
00:10:26
Speaker
So like, we'd love to hear what that's looked like for you all.
00:10:29
Speaker
Yeah, I, you know, like if you're anybody who's a leader, they understand this thing.
00:10:34
Speaker
It does not matter how many times we feel like a broken record and we just say the things that we are like, this is amazing.
00:10:42
Speaker
So like, like talk about this environment, redistribution, all this stuff where we can do this, right?
00:10:47
Speaker
And then like, lo and behold, a brand new person comes from a totally different context with totally different stories, but stories that is meaningful to them.
00:10:57
Speaker
It's relatable, all those kinds of things.
00:10:59
Speaker
When that happens, it feels like magic.
00:11:02
Speaker
It feels like finally people, my leaders are understanding it.
00:11:07
Speaker
So it did not matter how many times a person has gone to a conference.
00:11:11
Speaker
Like the conference is awesome.
00:11:13
Speaker
Don't get me wrong.
00:11:14
Speaker
Everybody go register for a conference in Grand Rapids, like pronto.
00:11:20
Speaker
But I think the beauty about FCI is because the coaches get to do these onsite visits.
00:11:26
Speaker
Like my leaders got to have one-on-one conversations with Daryl.
00:11:30
Speaker
They got to ask and pick his brain about what did it practically look like?
00:11:35
Speaker
They heard another community story about pacing and timing.
00:11:39
Speaker
So they can't accuse me of that.
00:11:41
Speaker
being either too fast or too slow, right?
00:11:44
Speaker
They heard stories of other leaders struggling with X, Y, and Z in a particular
Coaching and personal relationships within CCDA
00:11:50
Speaker
neighborhood.
00:11:50
Speaker
So all those kinds of conversations were probably the most meaningful.
00:11:55
Speaker
I'll share a story about Kelsey, Daryl, because I think that probably landed the most for our
00:12:01
Speaker
So Maake Lo'o, we started out with one neighborhood-based community.
00:12:07
Speaker
We multiplied to 12 different ones across Oahu, which is one of the main islands in Hawaii.
00:12:13
Speaker
And so Daryl got to go visit some of the neighborhoods and really work with
00:12:18
Speaker
the bulk of our leaders in individual sessions, conversation over a meal, of course, over good Hawaiian food, of course.
00:12:26
Speaker
Yes, absolutely.
00:12:28
Speaker
But one of the leaders that De'er got to sit down with was one of our top leaders who has expanded her community.
00:12:35
Speaker
She's the one who does a lot of work with kupuna or seniors in Hawaii.
00:12:39
Speaker
They're all low-income residents.
00:12:41
Speaker
And a lot of the work was around meeting needs,
00:12:46
Speaker
But it wasn't until, you know, I had, trust me, I had many conversations with her leadership and her communities around, oh, how can we join alongside the community members, all these things.
00:12:58
Speaker
But it wasn't until Daryl was very clearly sharing with her, like, have you ever wondered what
00:13:04
Speaker
the people that you feel like you want to meet their needs, what they can also contribute in return.
00:13:11
Speaker
Because without them doing that, they'll never enjoy what it means to be a part of the community.
00:13:17
Speaker
So even just taking the value point of listening to the community, but he rewrapped it.
00:13:23
Speaker
you know, just a little bit differently and knew that my leader really valued needs and needs-based ministries, right?
00:13:30
Speaker
But he re-wrapped it so that it's like, actually, one of the fruit of listening to the community is that you realize that everyone has something to offer.
00:13:38
Speaker
And that's a vital part of being a part of the community that you want to set out and establish for everybody to flourish under.
00:13:45
Speaker
So it really, it was such a benefit, Daryl, when you came in.
00:13:49
Speaker
Like, that's still sticking with that whole community.
00:13:52
Speaker
Yeah, thanks for sharing that.
00:13:54
Speaker
I'm just reflecting on this whole FCI process and the gift of
00:13:58
Speaker
of this process is that we're actually, as coaches, are able to spend time in community.
00:14:04
Speaker
I don't know if there would be this much fruit if this would have just taken place on a Zoom call.
00:14:10
Speaker
But even with the leader that you're speaking of on, meeting her in her neighborhood at her coffee shop, like literally walking into the coffee shop and people know her name.
00:14:21
Speaker
This is her community.
00:14:22
Speaker
So I got to spend time as the coach, as the guest,
00:14:27
Speaker
And so I spent time in the neighborhood, walking the neighborhood, taking pictures of artwork, eating the food, all the different things as the guest, and then being able to just share some stories.
00:14:37
Speaker
I think that's what's so powerful about this whole process.
00:14:40
Speaker
And I'm excited to see over the next few years, the ripple effects of these conversations and this work and just how we continue to kind of till the soil of our communities.
00:14:50
Speaker
Because as coaches, we're learning how to be guests and
00:14:55
Speaker
Local leaders are continuing to practice hospitality and just learning how to see their community through fresh eyes, which has really been a gift.
00:15:03
Speaker
So yeah, I appreciate you sharing that because I had an amazing time with your team, but I also saw those moments.
00:15:12
Speaker
Where it's like, oh, I've never thought about that.
00:15:14
Speaker
Or unsaid that, but I forgot.
00:15:18
Speaker
It's like, oh, yeah.
00:15:19
Speaker
Every single one of my leaders wants us to just swap places.
00:15:23
Speaker
Send me back to the city.
00:15:27
Speaker
It gets cold here.
00:15:29
Speaker
It gets real cold here.
00:15:31
Speaker
You don't want that.
00:15:34
Speaker
No, I think it's a really amazing opportunity for us.
00:15:38
Speaker
And again, for me to be in your communities and like you did an incredible job, you and Pastor Melly getting me the itinerary, you know, before I got this, I knew where I needed to be at what time.
00:15:50
Speaker
Leaders were waiting for me, you know, with food and lots of coffee.
00:15:54
Speaker
You know, so it was just a great time, just a great time.
00:15:57
Speaker
And then also, as I mentioned, learning the history of the place.
00:16:01
Speaker
Hawaii isn't just beautiful beaches, right?
00:16:04
Speaker
And resorts.
00:16:06
Speaker
There is a deep, deep history of injustice.
00:16:10
Speaker
So being able to, yeah, just be there with local people and not there as a tourist was just a gift.
00:16:16
Speaker
Daryl, I didn't tell you this part, but I'll sing your praises like I always like to do.
00:16:21
Speaker
But one of our leaders, he's a young man.
00:16:24
Speaker
He's an indigenous Hawaiian leader.
00:16:26
Speaker
His name is Haku.
00:16:27
Speaker
And he does a lot of youth ministries.
00:16:30
Speaker
And he got to spend some one-on-one time with Daryl.
00:16:32
Speaker
And he came away from it.
00:16:34
Speaker
He said that, I feel like Pastor Daryl is one of the people that I know I could count on for life.
00:16:41
Speaker
He's like, it's not just you.
00:16:44
Speaker
There are people that I know I can count on him for life.
Responding to the Lahaina fires: resilience and rebuilding
00:16:48
Speaker
And so it's like, even I feel like that kind of work makes it so that my leaders aren't a part of the CCD family by proxy to me.
00:16:58
Speaker
This kind of leadership work makes my leaders feel like they're actually a part of this.
00:17:02
Speaker
This isn't just something one leader or a main leader is doing.
00:17:06
Speaker
So that was actually very, I just repped in a corner after that conversation.
00:17:11
Speaker
And so thankful and so thankful for Daryl.
00:17:13
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:17:15
Speaker
I've actually thought about him often since I've been back.
00:17:18
Speaker
So yeah, looking forward to reconnecting.
00:17:21
Speaker
So, and speaking of your community and injustices, national news a few years ago, the Lahaina fires, you know, what's unfortunate is some people take advantage of crises and there are others who came to the aid of their neighbors and
00:17:38
Speaker
But just how is your community doing?
00:17:42
Speaker
If I remember correctly, you are engaged in trying to support some underground locals who are like proximate to those fires.
00:17:50
Speaker
But I just wanted to check in.
00:17:52
Speaker
Like, how's that going?
00:17:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:54
Speaker
And just I think that this is probably like to the recording of our conversation here.
00:18:01
Speaker
thinking about Texas now, you know, and all the devastation and work that we, you know, they're facing there, you know, it wasn't too long ago with the LA fires.
00:18:11
Speaker
And I think that's the reality of like how quickly we forget, you know what I mean?
00:18:16
Speaker
Like, like that, that's why I like national or global news, like we'll just forget about it so quickly, but it's, and it isn't because it's like a, a mean thing or an evil thing to do.
00:18:27
Speaker
I think that this is the reason why the church exists.
00:18:30
Speaker
to be local and in the neighborhood and you know your neighbors and you know, like we're the people who should care deeply about our local places, right?
00:18:39
Speaker
And so, yes, like hearing about all of these devastations, like, you know, our hearts really are so pulled on knowing that there are other folks across the whole planet
00:18:52
Speaker
suffering in their local place.
00:18:53
Speaker
But this is part of, I think, the challenge and the call for not just community development leaders.
00:18:59
Speaker
We often think that in times of this kind of natural disasters or these kinds of travesties in the world, that it's only community development workers who should be responding.
00:19:09
Speaker
the nonprofit workers or charity programs who should be responding.
00:19:13
Speaker
But if the local church is not equipped to know how to address this immediately, right?
00:19:19
Speaker
The world will not stay to watch.
00:19:22
Speaker
The funding and the support and all those things will go away really quickly.
00:19:26
Speaker
Statistically, it takes about a week.
00:19:29
Speaker
You have seven days until the next news hits, right?
00:19:32
Speaker
And so this is a few years past now in the Lahana fires and it's only now that rebuilding has started.
00:19:39
Speaker
Imagine if you lost your home, if you lost all your possessions, and most of these, the parts of Lahaina, the deepest sadness is that the land was one of the few places in the state of Hawaii where it is still indigenous Hawaiian owned land.
00:19:55
Speaker
So these are like generations after generations of family land.
00:20:00
Speaker
that got burned down.
00:20:01
Speaker
And so, I mean, it's years past and yet it's only now that a lot of these families were able to come back to their land, even look at what, what, what it looks like.
00:20:10
Speaker
Like a lot of folks said that it felt like it was a war torn when they first went back to sea because everything was still ashen.
00:20:18
Speaker
And,
00:20:18
Speaker
Hawaii being Hawaii, we look for things that are going to grow.
00:20:22
Speaker
We come from volcanoes.
00:20:23
Speaker
And so we always look for life that's going to seep through.
00:20:26
Speaker
And so people looking for that, people looking for any remnants of family treasures, artifacts around their generations, all those things.
00:20:35
Speaker
And so that part has passed.
00:20:38
Speaker
It's now that we're beginning to have some sort of makeshift temporary housing.
00:20:43
Speaker
that can be on location.
00:20:45
Speaker
So our church has been partnering with a local farm that we've been doing a lot of work with that Pastor Darrow is going to come to the next time he comes to visit.
00:20:54
Speaker
And so it's solar generated.
00:20:57
Speaker
The most meaningful work that we learned from the La Hanna fires is that people do not want outside help because people don't want outsiders to come to their land.
00:21:07
Speaker
And so the big quick shift work was really around how do we get direct funding to these communities so that people aren't going to be ousted because maybe they're undocumented.
00:21:19
Speaker
back then.
00:21:20
Speaker
And so people are afraid, right?
00:21:22
Speaker
Maybe it's untrustworthy because we are coming from a very recent history of being overthrown, right?
00:21:29
Speaker
That's the culture and history of a place.
00:21:32
Speaker
And you don't want to all of a sudden think that you're going to be the knight in shining armor coming in and making everything
00:21:39
Speaker
No, that is actually the wrong way of presenting Jesus, right?
00:21:43
Speaker
Jesus has to look like an indigenous Hawaiian person coming in and staying with the families, finding them because they already know.
00:21:52
Speaker
Talk to auntie so-and-so to know where baby so-and-so is for the diaper care and all that stuff.
00:21:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:58
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of the work is just supporting the families.
00:22:01
Speaker
We have about seven folks that we are supporting.
00:22:06
Speaker
And so it's just their own direct needs and hearing their stories around rebuilding.
00:22:11
Speaker
So it's still years in the making.
00:22:13
Speaker
Like only probably like a month ago was when the last applications for rebuilding funds were being released.
00:22:23
Speaker
So it's a long time.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:25
Speaker
Really slow.
00:22:26
Speaker
It just reminds you like in the community development world, how many years?
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:31
Speaker
So, so, so the news may stop reporting within seven days, but to actually rebuild is years, you know?
00:22:38
Speaker
So, yeah, I, I appreciate that.
00:22:40
Speaker
And the, the word that comes to mind for me is I listened to how,
00:22:45
Speaker
you and your community shows up is our incarnation.
00:22:49
Speaker
So, and that's a big part of who we are as CCDA, incarnating ourselves, coming alongside community.
Advice for congregations on community engagement
00:22:59
Speaker
staying in a place long enough where we no longer are the outsider, but we link arms and support those who are like indigenous to those communities.
00:23:09
Speaker
So I think that's really important.
00:23:11
Speaker
And yeah, I'm just grateful again for your witness in your place.
00:23:16
Speaker
Thank you so much for sharing that.
00:23:18
Speaker
I'm curious, as you think about other congregations that may be a part of this journey, what words of encouragement do you have for them?
00:23:25
Speaker
Others who may be in the FCI are hearing about this, may not be in the FCI, but also, yeah, just wanting to go deeper into their incarnational journeys.
00:23:35
Speaker
Do you have any words of encouragement to them?
00:23:37
Speaker
Yeah, I think that if you have not done your coaches site visit yet, you're all in the FCI world.
00:23:44
Speaker
If you haven't yet, and if you didn't include some sort of neighborhood for the coach to actually get to see and sense and taste and smell and see everything around your neighborhood, like what an opportunity for you to fall in love again with the work that God has called you to, right?
00:24:03
Speaker
Like if you don't, if you only just love your church,
00:24:07
Speaker
You can plant anywhere, right?
00:24:09
Speaker
Go be a part of community just for the community's sake.
00:24:12
Speaker
But if I think church leaders, pastors, elders, deacons, if we don't love our neighborhood, we don't love the community that God put in.
00:24:21
Speaker
It does not mean we have to love it in totality.
00:24:24
Speaker
But if we don't love the people there, name those people, think of those people as we're doing this kind of flourishing work, basically we're saying that our neighbors and our community are not included in God's flourishing.
00:24:36
Speaker
And I just don't think that's how the kingdom of God operates.
00:24:39
Speaker
And so I just feel like that incarnational work is not just about, like you were saying, Daryl, like meeting people's needs.
00:24:47
Speaker
It really is really saying and inviting and including the entire community into God's flourishing, right?
00:24:55
Speaker
That's the picture of the kingdom of God, right?
00:24:57
Speaker
It isn't just end with the church.
00:24:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's beautiful.
00:25:00
Speaker
I love that invitation.
00:25:02
Speaker
That's such a pastoral word on what needs to take place in order for us to fall in love with our communities again.
00:25:10
Speaker
Because it's hard out here.
00:25:15
Speaker
It's hard out here.
00:25:16
Speaker
We're tired.
00:25:18
Speaker
But again, if we're a people of incarnation,
00:25:22
Speaker
the driving force behind that is our love.
00:25:26
Speaker
It should be.
00:25:27
Speaker
Not a sense of obligation, not a sense of guilt, not a sense of seeking accolades or platform, but it's Christ's love.
00:25:36
Speaker
So I really appreciate that invitation to just ask ourselves again, like, what needs to happen in order for us to fall in love with our place, with our community?
00:25:47
Speaker
to move outside the walls of our buildings, if we have buildings.
00:25:52
Speaker
Makalo and New Community in Kansas City, we don't have buildings, we got homes.
00:25:58
Speaker
But even still, that same mindset can set in.
00:26:01
Speaker
So that's such a great, great reminder to us.
00:26:04
Speaker
Owen, do you have any other words for any of our, any folks who may be listening in the CCDA world as it relates to Christian community development, flourishing congregations?
00:26:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think that maybe if that's part of like the conversations, I think, in CCDA that we've been having conversations around, right?
00:26:23
Speaker
Is there really that disparity between churches who are trying to do charity or community development work and then
00:26:31
Speaker
non-profits, Christian community developers, practitioners, right?
00:26:36
Speaker
Is there really that much of a disparity?
00:26:39
Speaker
I think we do know that there is a learning that church-based leaders have to engage with.
00:26:46
Speaker
And it isn't just learning a bunch of new things or learning
00:26:51
Speaker
or just like reading about CCDA philosophy, I think the biggest push that we probably can make is get to know the CCD practitioners who live in the same city as you.
00:27:02
Speaker
If you really want to know what's the best place to have like missional clarity, missional impulse, like what is, where is God already at work in your city?
00:27:11
Speaker
Don't just learn about it or read about it or read some philosophy and think you're going to magically understand what's happening.
00:27:17
Speaker
No, actually, there are people who are working and living and loving the city just as much as you do.
00:27:23
Speaker
Go learn from them.
00:27:24
Speaker
You may be surprised because most of these leaders are black and brown female leaders.
00:27:30
Speaker
But man, if we listened to these leaders, if we really, really sat under their leadership, under their experience, and most of these people have been doing this for decades, probably maybe longer than you've been pastoring a church, man, your church would be more poised to know how to be guests.
00:27:49
Speaker
of the city, guests of other parts of your neighborhood and things.
00:27:53
Speaker
So I think that's probably the, if you're a church-based leader, you're a pastor, elder, or deacon in your church, and you're trying to think through how to do this well, don't just read.
00:28:03
Speaker
Don't just do virtual calls.
00:28:05
Speaker
Like that's not where the learning's going to happen.
Networking and conclusion
00:28:07
Speaker
Go find where this is happening live.
00:28:11
Speaker
in your city.
00:28:12
Speaker
And if you don't know, this is the biggest plug for coming to the CCDA National Conference in Grand Rapids because it's not just a bunch of like a big room platform learning or seeing something inspirational.
00:28:25
Speaker
There's all those kinds of things there too.
00:28:27
Speaker
But the breakout sessions and things are you actually have there.
00:28:30
Speaker
One of the biggest parts is networking sessions.
00:28:33
Speaker
Go to those places, meet the people who are right down the street from you.
00:28:38
Speaker
And you never knew the work that they were doing, right?
00:28:41
Speaker
I bet the people that we consider heroes in the church wouldn't just include pastors, right?
00:28:48
Speaker
It would actually include these people who have given their lives over for their neighbors and probably have been more incarnational than the church has been in the recent times.
00:28:57
Speaker
So that's my biggest push.
00:28:59
Speaker
Yay, CDD practitioners, learn from them.
00:29:03
Speaker
That's so good.
00:29:04
Speaker
That's so good.
00:29:05
Speaker
And also a plug for your local network.
00:29:07
Speaker
If you're not connected to one, then that's definitely a great place to get plugged in.
00:29:13
Speaker
And you may not have one in your city, but you can talk to the folks at CCDA and help get one started.
00:29:18
Speaker
But I'm always amazed when I go to the national conference and we do have like a
00:29:23
Speaker
You know, we do put, you know, put the call out in the Kansas City area.
00:29:26
Speaker
There's always way more people than I expected to be in the room.
00:29:29
Speaker
Like, oh, I had no idea you were in the area, you know?
00:29:31
Speaker
So again, just an amazing plug for that local network.
00:29:35
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for taking the time.
00:29:39
Speaker
This has been a great conversation.
00:29:42
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the CCDA podcast.
00:29:44
Speaker
If you want to learn more about CCDA or connect with Maquialo, check out the show notes of this episode.
00:29:51
Speaker
Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:29:57
Speaker
This episode is produced by Sarah Kalin in association with Christina Fore.
00:30:02
Speaker
We'll be back soon with another episode featuring CCD practitioners who are committed to seeing people and communities experience God's shalom.
00:30:10
Speaker
We'll see you soon.