Ben Sanders, meeting convener for the area’s first ever Mission America Luncheon & City Impact Roundtable (CIR), challenged those in attendance to be like a spark igniting a blazing fire for Christ in our city and state. A group of over 70 ministry, church and government leaders met on Monday, June 13 to share about their work and to pray and brainstorm about opportunities and needs in the state of Arizona. The group met at Neighborhood Ministries, an organization in downtown Phoenix, which seeks to meet the basic needs of nearby children and families and then build relationships built on mutual trust. Being surrounded by colorful murals and decorations made by the neighborhood children, served as a poignant reminder of one vulnerable group upon which these leaders could have an impact.
Ben Sanders (Community Ministries International) kicked off the meeting with Jeff Merry (WorshipNet) leading a worship song followed by Linda Morris (Harvest Foundation & First Pentecostal) offering up a prayer for the group.
Chuck Fitzgerald of the Arizona Department of Economic Security spoke about the resources and projects he is working on in order to foster partnerships with the faith community. ArizonaSERVES and Arizona Council for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives are two of those projects.
Leaders representing a wide range of organizations & ministries then stood up and gave one minute “ministry snapshots” describing their ministry’s purpose.
After the meal, Ben introduced John Quam and Phil Miglioratti, National Directors of the Mission America Coalition. They presented Mission America’s macro-vision of “Loving Our Communities to Christ” and introduced a “Framework for Grass Roots Initiated Strategies for Transformational Impact”.
Phil Miglioratti facilitated an abbreviated version of Mission America’s “Community Impact Roundtable” approach. He assigned a category of “Foundation of Prayer”, Lifestyle of Care” or “Willingness to Share” to different sections of the room. Each table in that section was then assigned a portion of a S.W.O.T. Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to conduct during a timed interval. At the end of each timed interval, tables switched discussion to a different pieces of the S.W.O.T. analysis for their assigned category. During these brainstorming sessions, a designated table recorder typed the ideas into a Google document being projected onto the wall. Everyone in the room could read the ideas being recorded at all the tables in real time. At the end of the discussion time, one person from each table shared discussion highlights with the entire group.
The meeting ended with a prayer time and the hope that a spark of excitement was ignited for a future statewide summit using this type of framework but in a more focused format without the time constraints of today’s meeting.
If you are interested in:
- Notes generated from Monday’s discussion OR
- Attending a statewide summit tentatively scheduled for Spring 2012 OR
- You have the desire to assist in helping make this summit happen
Please contact Ben Sanders.
