Monday, November 15, 2010

Support us!

COMMON GRACE:
Connecting, Supporting and Mobilizing Churches
to Effectively Reach their Communities


BRING US CLOSER TO OUR SUPPORT GOAL!

You can show your support of the ministry by giving monthly or increasing the amount you already give. Our personal support-raising goal has been $4500/month. During this year, we have averaged about 60% of our goal. Thank you for the many who have been so generous. We ask that you pray with us and consider your role in bringing us closer to our goal.

Common Grace is a nonprofit with 501C3 status. Here is the information you need to continue supporting us in this ministry:

Write Checks to Common Grace
Send them to: Common Grace, P.O. Box 46615, Philadelphia, PA 19160

Reflections by Dana

I am entering a new phase in my life now that both Alecia and Justis are in school. Justis started at a pre-school associated with Alecia’s dual language school. My goal this year is to be able volunteer some time at each school now that I don’t have a toddler attached to me!

Last week I attended a volunteer orientation with Aspira, the organization that runs both schools. We were required to watch a PBS documentary about Antonia Pantoja. Pantoja started the organization to empower Puerto Ricans who were moving into New York City in the 40’s and having trouble in school and suffering various forms of discrimination.

A woman shared her story of wanting to be a part of Aspira, but she noticed that the organization was made up of “the cream of the crop.” “I was not the cream of the crop; I lived in the projects,” she explained. It seemed that she was able to find her place in Aspira and become successful. However, I wondered about an organization that was meant to serve the oppressed which inadvertently began catering to the more fortunate. Many of the students in Alecia’s class live in more middle class neighborhoods, but commute to her school because of the dual language and Puerto Rican curriculum. Many of the more struggling Puerto Ricans cannot get into the school.

For my birthday, Nes and I went out to dinner in an up and coming neighborhood just two miles south of our neighborhood. The community used to be blighted, but has since been bought up and revamped. Poor have been pushed out and the neighborhood has been taken over by the privileged. On our drive home, we noticed the stark transition from privilege to poverty. It struck me hard when we I saw a man pushing a cart full of his belongings several blocks before we reached our home. I have often asked the question, “How can we revitalize a neighborhood without pushing out the poor, but rather serving them?”

Aspira recently took over an existing public school as a charter school just across the street from Bethel Temple. This neighborhood school has served kids from some of the most difficult of circumstances. Our prayer is that as Aspira strives to revitalize this struggling school, they would continue to serve the neediest. Aspira has no Christian roots, but we can still pray for God to use it!

How Do We Connect, Support and Mobilize?

Common Grace has begun a partnership with Palmer Seminary, CityNet Ministries and Word and Deed Network to develop a comprehensive directory of all the churches and ministries in Upper Darby, a suburb that borders West Philadelphia. We also hope to provide up to date demographic information on the community that will tell the story of the rapid changes taking place on the edge of Philadelphia. Church directory projects have been done in other cities and show excellent results in helping to connect the Body of Christ together as well as study trends within the church. We hope to expand this partnership into parts of Philadelphia to one day complete a full city directory. These directories are not just a listing of church names and addresses but include information that can be vital to understanding church growth or decline within a community.

Common Grace also works with church planters across the city, helping them understand where to strategically plant churches and then how to understand those communities. We believe everyone should have multiple opportunities to hear and respond to the Gospel and one role we play is to help churches identify just who lives in their communities. Whole groups of people can be overlooked in the rapidly changing city, so spending time out in the neighborhoods is a major part of our work.

Nes has also been working with Kingdom Builders Anabaptist Network of Greater Philadelphia that held an urban-suburban partnership discussion time on October 16. Nes was on the team to organize the event and also led a small group discussion to talk about perceptions that each group has of each other. Some urban church members admitted bitterness toward the privilege of suburban churches. Suburban members were able to reflect on their prejudices of city neighborhoods and how to connect effectively with their urban counterparts. Praise God for this open discussion!

One way Common Grace mobilizes churches to reach young men in our community is to facilitate the Timoteo Flag Football League. Through a grant from Esperanza USA, Timoteo is building infrastructure and is looking to expand partnerships with more churches, community organizations and ministries. Nes continues to serve as Commissioner of the league with a dedicated leadership team of five men. During the “offseason”, Timoteo runs a league for adult men which provides an opportunity to build relationships with men who are leaders with Timoteo or could be potential leaders.

Timoteo is currently looking for ways to raise funds for this exciting ministry. If you have any ideas or would like to support it, email nes@timoteofootball.com or visit http://thesimpleway.org/friends/timoteo/ to donate.

Australia Trip

By David “Coz” Crosscombe, Common Grace Director (who is originally from Australia)

In August Common Grace sponsored a team of four to travel to Australia to connect and serve some friends over there. Nes, Carlos Borges (a teacher and church planter from Chicago) and Casey Dunn (Young Life’s Regional Director for the Mid-Atlantic) all joined me on the trip. These three men brought an amazing balance of expertise and humility as we visited various ministries to encourage and support their work.

Carlos had the opportunity to share his powerful testimony in a number of school classrooms. Casey was a great encouragement and teacher to a number of people serving youth in 2 different cities, and Nes facilitated a gathering of youth workers in my home city of Armidale as they discussed ways they could work together to reach every young person with the Gospel.

We were also able to be a part of a meeting where an Indigenous (Aboriginal) pastor came together with 2 white pastors. I think that having Nes and Carlos there opened the opportunity for the conversation to become real, as the indigenous pastor shared that this was the first time he had ever been asked for his input on something. Young Life has been reaching into the Indigenous community in Armidale for a number of years and so this meeting was a great opportunity for developing a real and lasting partnership, something that I have been praying about for a very long time.