Course offered at a discount of $189.
Regular price: $249
This course will ask you one critical question: Can your house of worship engage in neighborhood economic revitalization by reimagining the ways in which your often-underutilized facilities could be used?
We will explore
- How racism, classism, and patriarchy have established a set of practices for the Church that are antithetical to our mission as God's people.
- Practical ways in which the Church can and should engage in the economic advancement of persons within their immediate geographic area.
- How to navigate tax, IRS and/or city ordinance questions.
- How the poor and disenfranchised will benefit from the innovative approach of your congregation.
Churches that are not afraid to speak about money, not just in the ways that it relates to the individual giving of their members, and the missional support they provide their denominations, but as it relates to the ways in which a plan for economic renaissance within their city. This bravery will not only change the lives of their neighbors, but also provide a new understanding of the reason for the existence of that congregation.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful if liberal and conservative church people, who love to quarrel with each other, came to a common realization that the real issue confronting us is whether the news of God's abundance can be trusted in the face of the story of scarcity? What we know in the secret recesses of our hearts is that the story of scarcity is a tale of death. And the people of God counter this tale by witnessing to the manna. There is a more excellent bread than crass materialism. It is the bread of life and you don't have to bake it. As we walk into the new millennium, we must decide where our trust is placed.
Jesus said it more succinctly. You cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot serve God and do what you please with your money or your sex or your land. And then he says, "Don't be anxious, because everything you need will be given to you." But you must decide. Christians have a long history of trying to squeeze Jesus out of public life and reduce him to a private little Savior. But to do this is to ignore what the Bible really says. Jesus talks a great deal about the kingdom of God -- and what he means by that is a public life reorganized toward neighborliness."
The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity
–Walter Brueggemann
Example Curriculum
Meet the Instructor -
Rev. Anna Golladay thrives on curating creative, spiritual & entrepreneurial possibility. As a highly accomplished and multi-talented creative, marketing and branding expert, she has over 20 years of blended corporate, independent and not-for-profit experience.
Via her social enterprise Work of Place she helps urban churches understand how their underutilized facilities can work alongside burgeoning entrepreneurs, often lacking in resource and financing, with the intent of sparking both neighborhood revitalization and an increase in ideators who change their communities. Additionally, she works as the Sr Director of Communications and Marketing for Convergence and the Curator of Creative Advocacy for the Activist Theology Project.
She is a minister in the United Methodist Church. Her ministry is focused on social justice and any inequity that exists both inside and outside the walls of the corporate church. She is diligent in her advocacy of full inclusion of all persons in the United Methodist denomination.