Every Gift Matters!

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I recently spoke to a group of folks at Florence United Methodist Church about Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and the significance of finding out what people love to do, what they are good at, and what they care about enough to take action. I asked everyone to share something they love to do and people quickly chimed in with wonderful things: baking, woodworking, off-roading, tree-planting…just to name a few. I could feel the energy in the room starting to rise, joy and abundance were increasing. It was a blast!

So here is my challenge to you, do 1 or more of the following:

  1. Ask your neighbors what they love to do (really listen to their answers and ask follow-up questions). Celebrate the gifts your neighbors bring into the world.

  2. Tell your neighbors the gifts you see in them that you are thankful for. Sometimes people don’t realize their gifts or they dismiss them as unimportant, but every gift matters!

  3. Lead a group of people in the exercise I described above. Create a “gifts garden” with gifts listed. BONUS: look for ways to connect and share any gifts that are not being shared.

What we do... The Founding Belief.

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As we expand our circle people often ask, 'so what is it that you actually do?'  To answer those critical questions I am embarking on a blog series titled "What We Do..."  Each post will take a foundational component of SoCe Life and break it down to the core task.  

Today I'm starting with our founding belief, 

God has gifted everyone.  As individuals share their gifts for the common good they experience wholeness.

This belief has two parts.  

First, God has gifted everyone. 

  • Because we believe this we intentionally seek out conversations with people the world has written off. In SoCe that is often our neighbors. This belief drives us to the streets it is why we've knocked on hundreds of doors and will continue to knock on more. With every conversation we are trying to look past the narrative of scarcity and uncover the God-gift of each person.

Second, As individuals share their gifts for the common good they experience wholeness.

  • Because we believe wholeness is a result of sharing gifts we see our role as facilitators not experts. When we host college students, youth groups, or interns we break our time into workshops led by the people we've met in the neighborhood. At our last retreat that meant college students spent a few hours learning the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous from a friend we met in our door to door interviews. Not only did the college students get to learn the power of AA our friend was able to experience the wholeness found in sharing your gifts.

So, what does SoCe Life do? 

We discover God-Gifts and find places to share them.