Community Education
We've learned a lot about poverty and homeless in our 15 years, and we'd like to share it with you and your friends, your congregation or synagogue, your business and with others in the human service field here in
Bridges Out of Poverty:
A powerful, multi-faceted program to address the core issues that make and keep people poor. Bridges is a national program tailored for the Charlotte area, offered in three separate seminars. All seminars are free, save the one-time cost of the book, "Bridges Out of Poverty."
- Bridges Part I: Class Matters A six-hour seminar that reveals the profound differences between the survival-based culture of poverty, the achievement-based culture of middle class, and the connections-based culture of wealth – and shows how to build relationships across cultures that help people in poverty move toward economic stability.
- Bridges Part II: Building Relationships This seminar will deepen your ability to apply the Bridges concepts to real-life situations and give you more tools for deeper understanding and more effective relationship building.
- Bridges Part III: Building Community (under construction)
- Bridges Update Blog
Other initiatives offered in conjunction with Bridges:
- Getting Ahead in a Just Getting By World: A 15-week course for people who are unemployed or working but still unable to meet their basic needs, who are looking for a more stable future, and who are hard-working and motivated. Participants learn to set goals to help them and their family become financially stable, master the “hidden rules” of middle-class culture that often keep them from success, and find resources and utilize them throughout the community
- Circles: An action plan that brings together the best efforts and resources of individuals, organizations, communities, and government in a program proven to raise people out of poverty.
Speakers' Bureau Topics:
- The Urban Ministry Center and Its Programs
- Homelessness and Poverty in Charlotte
- Practical Ways to Make a Difference
Servant Leadership School:
We believe the best context for developing servant leaders is one which emphasizes both an inner journey of contemplations, prayer, and study, and an outward expression of that journey in service to the world. Servant leaders are people who commit themselves to:
- Being transformed toward the image of Christ through spiritual disciplines such as centering prayer and Scripture study
- Living into the truths that God loves us unconditionally as we are and that we were created to love others as compassionately as God loves them
- Participating in an authentic, accountable community
- Building relationships and solidarity with people who are poor, outcast, or marginalized
- Discerning and responding to God’s call to servant ministry
- Transforming the world through courageous and sacrificial living in the manner and spirit of Jesus
Our goal has been to provide education for transformation., and our participants tell us we’ve succeeded. Wrote one participant:
"In many ways, this experience has changed my life. I am much more aware of the injustices occurring all around me…(and) a real need to do something about (them). This is one of the best things I have ever done."
The fruits of our participants’ experience in the School are many – the birth of new ministries such as Samaritan House, which provides recuperative care for homeless people discharged from the hospital… changes in vocational emphasis and direction…increased volunteer service in ministries within congregations and in the community…deepened commitment to personal prayer life…experiences of building authentic relationships across socio-economic and ethnic lines….new understandings of the Biblical vision of abundance, community, love, and justice.
The Spiritual Formation Program
This intensive nine-month training cultivates two inter-related dynamics: a prayerful inward journey with God, self, and others; and a committed outward journey of service, especially to society’s poor and excluded members. Participants meet together for seminars one weekend a month to explore the core themes of the curriculum through seminars and small group sharing. They will also gather in small groups each week throughout the nine months to share one-page papers based on the weekly readings, to pray for one another, and to build a compassionate community. Participants are given training and encouraged to practice the daily disciplines of prayer, reflection, and meditative Scripture-reading which help ground our lives in God’s love.
Living as God's Beloved in a Hurting World
An eight-session introduction to Servant Leadership. Servant leaders are people committed to the process of being transformed toward the image of Christ through:
• the practice of daily spiritual disciplines,
• commitment to a Christ-centered community,
• building relationships with people who are on the margins of society, and
• a willingness to help heal the world through courageous and sacrificial engagement.Using readings such as Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved and Killian Noe’s Finding Our Way Home, written personal reflections, and small group discussion, course participants will explore the dynamics of cultivating both the inner journey of spiritual formation and the outward journey responding to God’s call to service as Christ’s hands and feet in the world.
Short-Term Courses
Not everyone has the ability to commit to a rigorous nine-month course of study, so the Servant Leadership School also offers courses on the core themes that run for several weeks. These courses will allow for a longer focus on the topic for those interested in a deeper immersion into one of the core curriculum areas following the Spiritual Formation Program or for those simply with an interest in the topic. There are no prerequisites for these courses.
For more information and a list of current courses,
contact Program Director Paul Hanneman 704-926-0612.