Asset Mapping: More Than Just Chicken Pies
New Philadelphia Moravian Church graciously hosted the intersynodal conference fueling their guests with over 75 gallons of coffee, and preparing enough food to feed a small army. The facilities were perfect for this type of gathering. We met together in their huge fellowship hall, and we worshipped together in the beautiful sanctuary.
Besides the food, fun, and fellowship, a lot of learning took place over 3 days. Luther Snow, author of the several books, including, The Power of Asset Mapping, demonstrated over several sessions the process he developed while working as a city planner in southeast Chicago. His ideal for the conference attendees was for us to leave “seeing the glass half full.” Snow's intent was to show us that when we look at the positive things our congregations have to offer, we can create and develop projects in which our members will take ownership.
Snow demonstrated how to perform Asset Mapping for the purpose of developing new projects in our congregations. First, we must recognize our assets. By looking at the cup half-full, we see how great our churches have been blessed. Even little things can be a blessing (or an asset), such as having a playground, a large group of older members, or making chicken pies. When we look at these assets, we look beyond the facilities of our church, we also look at the very nature of our church, and include everything and anything that is an asset. For example, being within walking distance of an elementary school could open up all kinds of possibilities if our church is interested in reaching the youth in our community.
Snow was also very cautious to remind us not to look at our needs. Oftentimes, we find ourselves saying “if we only had a ______” or, “what we really need is a ______.” Rather than looking at the negative, the whole idea behind asset mapping is to look at what we do have, not what we need. This enlightened many of the participants in a different way. It may mean instead of looking at the ministry needs of our community, perhaps we should look at our gifts, and in the end, that will allow us to provide the best programs to meet the needs within our community.
Recognizing our assets is just the first step. Once we've listed our abundances, then it's time to “connect the dots.” By this, Snow was referring to connecting our blessings and gifts with the blessings and gifts of others to come up with something new. This is where it gets exciting, because you can come up with ideas and thoughts you never would have otherwise imagined. Did anyone ever think that having land and members who love to garden, might become a community garden? Would anyone have guessed that having a playground with a picnic shelter and being within walking distance to an elementary school, might lead to sharing your church yard with classrooms for their end-of-year parties?
During this part of the training, we allowed our minds to race and came up with what seemed a hundred projects that our congregations could actually do, without a whole lot of thought or extra planning involved. Each congregation posted their idea on the wall, and we shared the excitement with others about the possibilities.
After all that excitement, Snow showed us how to really get people involved and motivated to take action. We “voted with our feet,” and no, we didn't have to take our shoes off! We were each given the opportunity to go and stand in front of the project/idea in which we would be willing to participate. We then signed our names, thus taking on some ownership of the project and seeing it to the end.
Now, granted, this was just a training exercise, but several of those congregations present will probably go back to their church and get others involved, and who knows what great things might come out of this?
In the end, Snow didn't leave the participants wishing for more. Before the program had ended, he challenged each of us to come up with three things we would do when we got back to our church. He encouraged us to do this first as a group, and then individually. This gave each of us something to walk away with, a job to complete once we returned home. Are our feet moving with the enthusiasm of our hearts to make the challenge happen?
Article by Page Mikol is a member of Rural Hall Moravian Church, Rural Hall, North Carolina.
