ARC Seeks Ship Buiders...

I'm part of a team of people working on ways to work out the implications of the Character Development movement in the context of Anglican Christian Education. For several years now secular schools have shifting the way they do things to do a better job of teaching students "character." Interestingly, they seem to be basing what they consider "good" character on Judeo-Christian values which have been stripped from their religious roots. In other words, the schools are now teaching children to be generous and peaceful and forgiving and all that without making any reference to religious heritage.

Our group (which we call CCC--"Christ Centered Character") think that our children's ministries should reflect this shift in the secular school systems (and the Catholic School Boards, incidentally). Teaching virtue to our kids is more than just the responsibility of the schools--thus our efforts to help churches integrate their programs with whats happening in the schools.

Along the way our group has been recommending the creation of a library of resources for Christian educators in the Diocese. Indeed, this is the first Diocese I've worked in (out of five) that doesn't have a central library where people can go to thumb through Christian Education Resources. I'm told that Toronto had such a place once upon a time, but it was disbanded for lack of funds to support a librarian staff position.

I hear that support is building for a new library to be created, but it needs a new model. A traditional library maintained by the Diocese with staff attached just ain't going to fly in the current budget climate in the Diocese of Toronto. They simply do not have the operational funds to support it.

So... The CCC group came up with an interesting alternative. How about an "Anglican Resource Centre" (ARC, for short) that would maintain a library, provide education workshops and events, be a place to hang out, and even manage some evangelism? Imagine the Anglican Book Centre meets the Apple Store meets Star Bucks meets the Center for Religious Inquiry (a project of St. Bart's, NYC).

Features:

• Store-front space with attractive, hip, and warm architecture
• Coffee and treats for sale
• Lots of hang-out space
• Classroom space for regular programs
• Programs offered include general interest and trainings/workshops designed to advance Christian Education in the Diocese
• Staffed appropriately to be a place to come to talk to someone who knows what resources are available
• After initial start-up costs, designed to be self-sufficient based on revenue from workshops

Ultimately, we want this to be a place where people can go to hang out and learn about how to do their education ministries better.

So we are kicking this idea around and getting the pieces together to come up with a business plan that shows how this can be self-sufficient, financially. Then we need to put together a grant application for the Innovative Ministry Fund in the diocese to see if we can get start-up money. I think that the need is so great that a good proposal will find support. But putting together the whole package will require a ton of work.

This sort of thing looks a lot like some of the down-town church plant proposals that have been made (I'm thinking particularly of an idea David Julien was talking about a few years ago) as well as the Fresh Expressions movement in England that has been a popular model for contemporary evangelism.

So if there is anybody out in blog-land who finds this idea compelling, please let me know! We need all the help we can get!

-t