A Journey of Curiosity with Paul Boling 
Paul Boling, Senior Minister of First Christian Church Anchorage, in Anchorage, Alaska, has been leading the congregation on a journey of curiosity for several years that lead him and members of his congregation to do EDGE’s Curiosity Cohort in the spring.
Even before the pandemic began, First Christian Church Anchorage was isolated from other faith communities in its denomination–it’s the only Disciples in Christ Church in Alaska. Sensing change in the wind approximately five years ago, Rev. Boling and his congregation started thinking about First Christian Church Anchorage and transformation, sparking a question for them:
How can we do church differently in this new age?
With the help of a spiritual director, they learned new ways of centering, praying, and being together. But the pandemic alone (never mind mounting social and environmental concerns) forced First Christian Church Anchorage to generate quick solutions for big issues:
- How to livestream a service.
- How to do a hybrid service, with masks.
- How to make up financial support lost when groups stopped using church space to meet.
Using curiosity to examine these issues led First Christian Church Anchorage to develop community partnerships. A partnership with the elementary school next to the church resulted in the creation of an afterschool program two days a week, with a focus on crafts and music. They have also done live music evenings in the church, online broadcasts, and plan to expand those to include events involving art and poetry. Rev. Boling is intrigued by the idea of how a church could be run in a way that’s like a non-profit business, supporting the work of other organizations to meet community needs while becoming an outreach center itself. He’s also excited about other partnerships, such as the one with the elementary school, and the possibilities for meaningful relationships that may come out of them noting in a recent interview with Zoë Chaytors that people like working with a progressive church.
The most surprising part of this work, for Rev. Boling? The way he’s changed. “It’s been like a crash graduate course in my ego,” he says. “I especially like embracing ambiguity!”
Watch Zoë Chaytors’ entire EDGEy Conversation with Paul Boling.
[Image credit: Deposit Photos] |
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Online Ministry Development with ChurchX 
Toronto United Church Council’s Innovative Ministry Centre has been hard at work, developing an online learning platform to help communities of faith do the hard (but important!) work of ministry development.
ChurchX’s online learning environment offers courses with synchronous content (where learning happens in real-time with an instructor and other students, using a web-conferencing tool like Zoom), asynchronous content (where learning happens on your own time, usually by reading and/or viewing content and doing assignments) or both. Organizations currently partnering with ChurchX to offer courses include:
- Rev. Linda Butler and Rev. Warren McDougall, United Church of Canada, Nurturing Church Staff Teams
- Junius Johnson Academics, Theological Literacy,Understanding the Foundations of the Christian Faith
- Rev. Dr. Kyle Norman, Anglican Church of Canada, Five Foundational Practices of Christian Spirituality
- Rev. Dr. Natalie Wigg-Stevenson, Learning Design for Discipleship: Learning Pod
EDGE is also offering an eight-part Signpost series online for those interested in helping their communities of faith to start and walk a pathway to change and transformation: - Signpost one–You Are Here: Help! (Self-Assessment)
- Signpost two–Getting Ready for the Journey (Team Formation)
- Signpost three–Travelling Companions (Community and Partnerships)
- Signpost four–Trailblazing (Innovation Cohort)
- Signpost five–Sharing the Story (Marketing and Communication)
- Signpost six –Travel Budget (Sustainability Cohort)
- Signpost seven–Future Directions
- Signpost eight–One More Step Along the Way (Change Management)
Signpost one and Signpost four (which can be taken out of sequence as a standalone course) are available on ChurchX right now, with Signpost two and Signpost three to become available soon. The $50 that you pay for each course gives you access to the course to unlimited participants from your community of faith for one year. If you purchase a course and require access for multiple participants, please contact EDGE at edge@united-church.ca.
Create an account on ChurchX to enroll in not only EDGE’s courses (including Chris Rotolo’s “Train-the-Trainer” Theory-of-Change Summer Workshop), but in all the other courses being offered by ChurchX partners. Learning is a lifelong journey!
For general inquiries about ChurchX, please email help@churchx.ca.
[Image credit: Alexandra_Koch on Pixabay.com] |
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A Word from Carla Leon…  EDGE’s Carla Leon is exploring new opportunities. But she wanted to say…
“I'm moving, not leaving. I'm excited to stay connected with you, and share the story of what has transpired.
The opportunity came out of an Embracing the Spirit grant. Almost three years ago, Broad View United Church in Victoria, B.C. had discerned that they needed to further explore social enterprise as a model for financial sustainability. Like many United Churches, they were facing the reality of an aging congregation and declining numbers. They explored a variety of industries and decided on home care. The Embracing the Spirit grant let them investigate their legal options, and they then bought the eighth franchise of Just Like Family, a Vancouver-based home care company.
I've always considered Broad View at the edge of the edge. When they approached EDGE with this new opportunity, it was novel to think about a business model that wasn't a hub or café. And it was novel to think about a for-profit, values-aligned investment rather than a program of the church as a path to financial sustainability. Broad View grew the business from $250,000 in the first year to $1.2 million in the second. They were offered a second franchise location, and again they approached EDGE to see how we could do this. Innovation begets innovation, so EDGE developed a "Pay It Forward Loan" program that lends for up to three years at zero interest. The payments go into a never-ending pool to support Embracing the Spirit grant recipients who have successfully explored revenue generation.
All this momentum, coupled with relationships with other grant recipients and my work in the larger social sector, led me to believe that: - There was a gap in the social finance ecosystem.
- Impact investment dollars were paying off debt.
- There wasn't an equity mechanism.
I met with leaders in social finance across the country, and no one knew of anything in Canada that was being created to offset these realities. Debt has all these constraints, is less relational than equity, and maintains the power dynamics of the status quo. EDGE had been talking for two years about how the rise of for-profit social purpose organizations would also mean a rise for the need for equity impact investment dollars, just waiting for an opportunity to arise. Then it happened.
The Just Like Family master franchise (the main company, with over 20 locations at this point) approached Broad View and asked if they would be interested in buying the head office/main corporation. The trust Broad View had in EDGE, built over years of working together, made me the first person they called, proving our hypothesis around equity, and providing a critical next experiment.
Of course, I said “Yes.” That is what we say to edgy leaders all the time and encourage you to do as well! Then the work started.
We’ve been moving at an astonishing speed since mid-January. Tying up the business so that it couldn’t be sold to someone else took nearly a month. Then we had to complete the required due diligence, approach lenders, and create a business plan and financial projections. We had to reach out to potential investors, who all had to sign non-disclosure agreements.
We are blazing a new trail. As the innovation arm of the Church, we were convinced and could not be dissuaded to continue. (Are any of you are really surprised that we continued?)
We didn't put all the eggs in one basket–we put it in 200! We have demonstrated the power of being relationship based and "people first” by reaching out to communities of faith, dozens of impact investors, over ten denominations throughout North America and over a dozen financial institutions. The result? We’ve successfully molded everything into a social purpose holding company and have purchased Just Like Family Home Care. I have personally invested in this to put my money where my mouth is, and to take a leap of faith myself.
So, this is EDGE's work. I'm really not going anywhere. The goal is to show that this model can work, to grow it, to keep telling the story of hope and impact, and to have more communities of faith and denominations ready for the next acquisition or opportunity in a few years. Going with the energy is the right thing to do; in many ways, (all ways) the last 20 years of work experience for me has led me to this opportunity. I guess this is what we all call "a call".
Thank you for the relationship that we share! Thank you for trailblazing yourself. It is the work of the EDGE network that has given me resilience these last 10 years in being innovative and pushing boundaries. It is your work that has given me the courage to do this.
Glad that I'm able to share this with you! We will stay connected! If you want to learn more about how Broad View discerned this, watch this YouTube video."
Thank you for your hard work and your innovative spirit, Carla… Please keep us updated on this exciting new venture!
Carla encourages you to contact her at cleon@justlikefamily.ca if you want to learn more, have questions, or want to connect to see how you might further collaborate.[Photo courtesy of Carla Leon] |
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Embracing the Spirit is a learning network and innovation fund. It offers funding and support for innovation ideas hatched out of faith communities and communities in ministry. Some of the stories and best practices that are happening throughout The United Church of Canada are shared in this newsletter. If you have an idea that you want to launch, reach out and tell us about it! Proposal deadlines are quarterly, and due on the 15th of the month: January, April, July and October. Find out more. |
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