Last week we met with a few of the folks from Resurrection Community Church (RCC). We met to work through a decision-making/discernment process we call The Re-Cycle. RCC worships in the church-building across the street from our office. And they are feeling led to repurpose the education wing of their building into a community center.

Instead of brainstorming ways that we could use the building, or possible partners who could share the space, or even fundraising options, we did something else: we started with the assets and gifts that were present in the room. This is a foundational concept to all of our work, including The Re-Cycle. And once again I was reminded of how lucky I am to be doing this work. We invited people to get into groups of 2 or 3 and share the things that they are good at or love to do. As people met with each other there was laughter and radiance on everyone’s face. And then we wrote down people’s gifts on a giant dry erase board. There were only 12 people in the room, but we EASILY filled the board.

Once we had shared gifts we named mini-experiments we could do that we utilize our gifts. Because these are things we enjoy doing, the hope is that even if the mini-experiment doesn’t work we will find joy in it. Eventually we will meet again and share what we discovered from our mini-experiments and decide how to move forward with another round of mini-experiments.

I am super-excited about this partnership and what we will discover together! Stay tuned.