Another Update on Messiah Commons

The Messiah Commons Team meets weekly on Thursdays at 9.30am at the church--anyone is welcome to attend. Here are some updates from recent meetings.

We welcomed Duke Vipperman, Incumbent of the Church of the Resurrection, to come observe, share his experiences of missional renewal, and to speak about the role that the “Missional Transformation Process” might have in helping out efforts. “MTP” is the brain child of Messiah’s own John Maclaverty and his consulting partner Alan Roxburgh. It is designed to provide coaching support for parishes and priests making the leap to missional ministy. Messiah already made many tremendous progress in this regard, but MTP may be able to help the cultural change underway here.

At the meeting we spent time discussing last week’s Annual Vestry Meeting and the implications for our time-lines and plans. We are now reconsidering our rush to create a comprehensive renewal plan in time for the April 15th grant deadline and instead are exploring the feasibility of a series of pilot projects.

We also discussed ways in which to improve communication with the parish as a whole. It is imperative that we create more connections between the work of the mission team and the congregation. We committed to making more specific "asks" of the congregation for help and also to use other forms of connection including one-on-one meetings and monthly meetings of the Parish Council.

The renovation planning continues, and we discussed our thoughts about the two architecture firms who will be making proposals to the Messiah Community. Tay met with one of these architects again in his studio. Both firms are enthusiastic about the potential of Messiah and are eager to begin a collaborative and consultative process with our community. We discussed cultural change in congregation and some length and made plans for some new initiatives involving youth, adult education, and
missional outreach.

We have not received a substantial proposal from a possible business partner interested in running a café in our place, which is another good reason to push back the timeline. However, two parties has expressed his interest in making a formal proposal in the near future. In the mean time, the planning team is going to reach out to two or three more potential partners identified at the meeting.

Last week part of the team met with City Counsellor Adam Vaughan to talk through several issues raised by Messiah Commons and Messiah Market. The Counsellor was supportive and had some helpful suggestions to make. In particular, he suggested that the Messiah Market partner with the residents of 250 Davenport to do the Market on their lawn space. This has several advantages, first, there is plenty of parking in the underground structure there. Second, it would help provide food security to the residents of that building, who often feel priced out of the local food market. Third, it would allow up to partner with the city to provide not only a market, but possibly other social services to the neighbourhood. It was a positive meeting from which we took several ideas to pursue.

Next week we will be welcoming Bishop Yu to the meeting--so we talked through some of the things we thought it would particularly helpful to share with him both at the meeting itself and beforehand.

Several of the team bring specialized knowledge and skills that will be quite useful to us, and I honor their willingness to help our community. Valear Howsam, for example, is our former NCD coach and therefore knows this community quite well. In a previous life (she is now is seminary) she worked in marketing research and thus has extensive training and experience listening to what people want. We have business people and food people and an architect, too. Many others are hovering the wings, unable to commit to intensive involvement, but eager to help from time to time.

Our Wish List

Here are some specific things we want help to execute. These are volunteer opportunities for members of this congregation to push things forward.

Picture Survey of Neighbourhood
We need pictures, lots of pictures, of the church’s neighbourhood. From St. Clair south to Bloor, Spadina east to Yonge, we want picuters of people and places that help us to understand and describe the environment of the church. Speak to Tay to help.

Sign Changing
The sign on Avenue Road is an one of the main ways in which people connect with our church, particularly when it comes to special events and services. We need volunteers to take it on to change this sign, especially with so many events happening in the holy season of Lent and Easter.

Participate in Lunch-n-Learn
John Hill and Tay are working hard to create an amazing bible study for Lent. Please take advantage of it by staying after church in Lent. We are also eager to make sure we have activities kids during this time. If you can’t do that, consider at least cooking soup for those who can.

Interact with the church on Facebook and the website
The reach of the Facebook presence of the church is tied directly to how many people read and interact with the posts on it. If you are on Facebook, “like” and “share” posts from the church at least weekly. This is one of the most effective means of evangelism for some churches in our area.

Greet the people on Sundays you don’t know first
We are a welcoming church, but we could be even more so. After church notice the people at coffee hour that you don’t know, speak to them first before you chat with friends and old Messiah hands!

Keep Up-to-Date with our plans
There are several ways to keep in touch with the renewal efforts at Messiah. Besides the frequent updates given during announcements and sermons, or updates in the leaflet like this one, there are other methods. One place to start, especially if you are new to the work we are doing, would be the “Prezi” presentation that Tay created to summarize our work. Just browse to http://www.churchofthemessiah/messiahcommons. You can also read about it in the Messiah Messenger newsletter and the Annual Vestry Report. Tay, Charles, John, Meghan, and the rest of the team are also always happy to talk about the future of our church!

Messiah Commons - Some More Detail

A mission team has been meeting weekly for some months now developing Messiah Commons. Here is a snapshot of our current thinking at this stage of the process.


-t

Three Projects for Messiah

I've been very, very busy for the last 6-9 months working on a series of projects that have coalesced into three main initiatives for the Church of The Messiah: Messiah Media, Messiah Market, and Messiah Commons. Messiah Media is about creating a resource centre for churches across the Diocese (including Messiah) to do New Media Evagelism. Messiah Market is a weekly Farmer's Market to take place at the church aimed at the local neigbhourhood. The last project on this list, Messiah Commons, is the most important of the group in terms of transforming the parish: we want to create a neighbourhood hangout where people can enjoy community without needing to be members of our church. It would be a third place possibly serving coffee and snacks. There would be wifi and events that would be attractive the Young Digerati, Urbane Villagers, and Rooms with a View people who live near our parish.

The Parish Council shared these plans with Bishop Yu at a special meeting last week. Below is the "Prezi" I used to do that. You can go through the prezi by pushing the forward and back arrow, or explore freely by zooming and navigating with your mouse. Enjoy.


-t

Messiah Commons - a list of influences

Plans for "Messiah Commons" continue apace. I've recruited a small group to be my brain-trust as we develop the ideas behind it. We've been using the "Business Model Canvas" and other techniques to organize and sharpen our vision. I'm not quite ready to share the raw data from that at this moment, but here are some the influences that I have been thinking about lately. I include them here partly as a kind of mini-bibliography for people who are wondering what I'm looking at. It's a partial list, but it's a place to start. I'm stealing all these descriptions from the various websites themselves, so all credit to them for that.

Moot Community - "Host"

http://www.moot.uk.net/host/

Host is an enterprise of Moot, a community of spiritual pilgrims stumbling and fumbling our way towards salvation. Our home at St Mary Aldermary is a peaceful sanctuary amidst the noisy, bustling streets of London. We built the café because we want people to feel comfortable and at home in the beautiful and relaxing space that the church offers, as we seek to restore the church building to its true vocation as a welcoming hub for the local community, a public space where friendships and connections can be developed. Since we started running the café in September we have experienced the increase in the life and warmth that people bring to a building.

Alongside this we also want to offer the church as a ‘sacred space’, where there is permission and encouragement to give attention to what is often neglected – the deeper dimensions of life, the self and wellbeing that include the spiritual, without feeling under pressure to conform to perceived ideas of what it means to be religious and ‘go to church’. As part of our weekly rhythm of worship and prayer at St Mary Aldermary we are building a programme of arts, meditation, yoga and discussion groups to enable those who live and work in the City to access points of stillness and reflection.

We think Host is great space to connect, to feed body, mind, and spirit.

Rooster Coffee House

http://roostercoffeehouse.com/
They don't have a self-description on their website, really, but I can tell you that this comes closest to a Seattle-style coffee shop that I have encountered in Toronto. It's warm, inviting, and fosters a sense of community.

Darkwood Brews

http://darkwoodbrew.org/
Led by Rev. Eric Elnes, Ph.D., Darkwood Brew is a groundbreaking interactive web television program and spiritual gathering that explores progressive/emerging Christian faith and values. Here’s a quick video overview:

Based on the structure of the Lectio Divina, an ancient spiritual practice developed by Benedictine monks in the 5th Century, and using cutting edge technology; Darkwood Brew explores The Unexpected Love of God in relevant, challenging and surprising ways.

Featuring world-class jazz musicians, live interviews with international guests, and a variety of interactive media that allow you to participate in real-time, Darkwood Brew is webcast weekly on Sundays at 6pm Eastern, 5pm Central.

This is Christian practice for the emerging faith of our world today. From the Darkwood Brew coffee house, the stage is set weekly for a hearty exchange of ideas and the way is made clear for insights and directions for your unique faith journey. It’s scholarly, it’s entertaining, it’s fun, and it’s enlightening. That’s a tall order. Grab a latte, get comfortable – but not too comfortable – and join the growing number of individuals and groups large and small around the world who are stirring things up with Darkwood Brew.

You might not like it. But, then again, you might.

St. John's Bakery

http://www.stjohnsbakery.com/
We strive to provide exceptional breads and sweets that use the finest ingredients and no preservatives, and a nourishing environment that responds to the needs of all those who contribute to the creation of these products. For us, it is more than our breads and sweets. It is about connecting with people, about building comunity. We draw people in with our bread. We believe our bread builds community. St. John's Bakery is a place where people of varying capabilities and social backgrounds come together to do something constructive and creative.

House for All Sinners and Saints

http://houseforall.org/
House for All Sinners and Saints is a group of folks figuring out how to be a liturgical, Christo-centric, social justice-oriented, queer-inclusive, incarnational, contemplative, irreverent, ancient / future church with a progressive but deeply rooted theological imagination.

"The Apostle"

After his happy life spins out of control, a preacher from Texas changes his name, goes to Louisiana and starts preaching on the radio.

"Whale Rider"

A contemporary story of love, rejection and triumph as a young Maori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.

Business Plans

If, like me, you are trying to do anything new in church-land you've probably been asked to develop a "business plan." This is especially true if you are asking for money to help implement your vision. The expectation that you and your community clearly articulate goals, plans, measurable outcomes and such is not unreasonable, but it can be difficult if you have never done it before. A lot of grant proposals I have read are far too long winded with far too much reference to actual data (even of the subjective sort). But an even bigger problem tends to be that people make these grand plans based on the best information at the time, but as they adapt they never bother to update the old document. It quickly becomes an artifact of the planning stages rather than a useful strategic or operational tool.

At this stage of this ministry's development I've recruited two people to help do the initial brainstorming and planning work: Kirk and Angela. Kirk pointed me to this resource which proposes a much more organic and simplified way of structuring the business plan: The Business Model Canvas. Invented by Alexander Osterwalder, the Business Model Canvas puts all the relevant information into a one-page format. Here is a one-hour lecture explaining the model and giving a real-life case example.

Our first sit-down with the model produced a lot of good material and thoughts, but we have a long way to go to fit things into the categories provided by this particular model. It certainly isn't the only planning document we will ever need, but it will be quite helpful in articulating what we plan to accomplish and how we plan to do it! I appreciate the aesthetics of the BMC model: it's spatial rather than linear and forces one to deal with constraints.

I love this sort of stuff. Thinking about thinking is critical work, especially if you are trying to avoid past traps. I highly recommend using something like this if you into entrepreneurial ministry.

I'll post more as things continue to develop. I have a feeling that the BSC for Messiah Commons is about to take over one of my whiteboards for a while!

-t