Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices - Vestry Papers - Sharing Our Gifts

September 2014
Sharing Our Gifts

From Outreach to Relationship

Peggy Dahlberg

Anyone can be spread too thin. Even a congregation.

For many years, our outreach efforts at Christ Church Cranbrook (CCC) were very widespread. Our grants program, funded by parishioner pledges and income from specific investments, supported about 50 agencies. In addition, the congregation’s Episcopal Church Women (ECW) group held two rummage sales and a used book sale each year, giving the proceeds to local and international charities.

Eventually, the rummage sales and book sales were replaced by an evening event that included live and silent auctions. The proceeds were distributed to four charities chosen by the ECW.

Seeing with new eyes

In 2010, when Gary Hall became our rector, he observed we were giving money to a lot of different organizations. He suggested the congregation could really make a difference by narrowing our outreach efforts, identifying a program we could both support financially and create a relationship with, drawing upon the congregation’s wide array of talents and resources.

Parishioners embraced the idea. A list of our interests, skills and talents emerged: tutoring, helping people prepare for and obtain jobs, and assisting with legal, health, and financial issues. Looking at all of our outreach efforts, we decided to fold our Servant Saturdays program, a day when we volunteered our time and labor to an organization, into this initiative as well.

Beth Taylor came on board as an associate priest and led the committee charged with finding an organization we could partner with and funnel the majority of our outreach funds – and talents - to. The committee chose Focus: HOPE, a Detroit based civil and human rights organization dedicated to overcoming racism, poverty, and injustice. Committed to developing safe, strong, and nurturing neighborhoods where people want to live, work, and raise a family, Focus: HOPE programs include career training, community development, fighting hunger, and, through their HOPE Village Imitative, childhood education.

It takes a village

Believing that “it takes a village to raise a child,” the HOPE Village initiative actively seeks partners who will bring together the resources needed to transform the community. What caught the hearts and minds of CCC were the children attending Glazer Elementary School. Our committee learned that the school wanted to build a STEM lab (Science Technology, Engineering and Math); this project resonated with the committee and others in the congregation and the decision was made to select Glazer Elementary as the beneficiary of that year’s “Evening for Outreach” fundraiser.

Support for this project came from every part of the congregation. Members of the prayer shawl ministry created and sold hats, scarves, and baby items to finance a life sized skeleton for the STEM lab. The Sunday school children held a bake sale to buy items for the lab as well. And, one of our parishioners owns a lab that he was in the process of renovating so he was able to donate the granite worktable tops as well as advise on the project.

Another parishioner took a group of Glazer students to the Field & Science Museum in Chicago!

Birthday cakes and books

Following the gift of the STEM lab, members of the congregation began to look for other opportunities at Glazer Elementary. An after school tutoring program and ballet lessons were established; an after school robotics club is in the planning stage.

Spending time at the school and getting to know the students, we learned that for some children birthdays might not include a cake. The congregation now holds a “Birthday Bag” drive twice a year. This is a parish wide collection of cake mix, canned frosting, oil, and candles – everything to make a birthday cake except the eggs. Friday mornings during the school assembly, every student who has a birthday in the upcoming week gets a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday to You” and receives a bag decorated by our youth group filled with the ingredients to make a birthday cake. One boy told me this was the only thing he got for his birthday.

Working with the students and the staff, we saw the interest in reading and learned of the desire for an improved library and books for the children to bring home over the summer. A few of our parishioners organized the Glazer Library and filled in with books where needed. A book collection drive was held in the spring. Enough books were collected so that each student was able to choose two to three books to take home.

Since that first year, we’ve added monthly food drives for Focus: HOPE families as well as providing school supplies in the summer and mittens in the winter.

Collaboration

The relationship that we have built with Glazer is one of collaboration, not us swooping in and doing what we think needs to be done. The staff, parents, and students tell us what they would like help with and we try our best to help them achieve their goals.

As the next “Evening for Outreach” approached, we talked with staff, parents, and students about their dreams for the school and the children. What rose to the top of the list was a new playground. We agreed to raise the money and help with construction; the staff at Focus: HOPE got busy identifying other partners to help with the design and the labor.

Working with landscape architecture graduate students from the University of Michigan, and the students and staff at Glazer, a design for the new playground was formed. Parishioners, staff, students and parents, neighbors, U of M students and Focus: HOPE staff helped build and landscape the playground over two weekends. Little things like resealing and lining a walking track that encompasses the playground made people more aware if its existence. One woman from the neighborhood told me that she never knew the walking track was there. Now she can walk without fear of being attacked by dogs that roam the neighborhood.

The importance of shared vision

Our relationship with Focus: HOPE continues, in large part because our church leaders took the time to explore what a different approach to outreach might look like at Christ Church Cranbrook. Many people in the metro Detroit area are working poor and need help. We have lost many of the well paying factory jobs that provided so many with comfortable lifestyles. Working together, we explored what focusing our effort on a specific organization might be like and thought about ways our wide array of talents and resources might be put to use.

Since beginning this relationship, Gary Hall moved on to become the dean of the Washington National Cathedral and Beth Taylor was called to be the rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Royal Oak, Michigan. The lay committee Beth set up early on continues to guide this ministry.

After Beth’s call to St. John’s our interim rector, Ron Pogue, hired Katy Knoer as the coordinator of ministries for outreach, hospitality, and stewardship. Katy has been incredibly busy overseeing the relationship between Christ Church Cranbrook, Focus: HOPE, and Glazer Elementary, keeping the vision and mission alive and the congregation engaged.

This year’s “Evening for Outreach” beneficiary will be the construction of an outdoor learning center at Focus: HOPE’s Center for Children. This will be an outdoor addition to the childcare facility at the center that trains adults for jobs. The children will be able to play outdoors in a safe, educational environment. The adults can leave their children at the Center for Children while they are learning life and job skills.

Recently, the congregation called William Danaher, Jr. to become our rector and he is passionate about the Christian need to care for others. He is committed to continue and support Christ Church Cranbrook's current outreach efforts. He has also articulated a goal of ensuring that the Episcopal Church become deeply involved in Detroit's comeback.

Try This: What is God calling your congregation to do? Consider bringing people in your congregation together to explore this question: “When the people at (your church) bring together your deepest desires and greatest gifts, how do you imagine the future God is bringing forth among you?”

Peggy Dahlberg is director of communications at Christ Church Cranbrook. She has been a member of CCC since 1984 when she and Lyle were married here. Peggy was a member of the vestry from 2006 to 2009 and for the last year was junior warden. She worked as a volunteer training and scheduling the acolytes for many years in addition to other volunteer activities before coming on board as a member of the staff.

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