I’ve been re-listening to the main sessions from Orange 2010 recently being challenged once again about how I think about ministry as well as hearing things I hadn’t heard the first time around! This week I thought it’d be a cool idea to post a series called Revisiting Orange 2010 posting my reflections on the main sessions from Orange 2010. I also invite you to share your thoughts about each of the posts as well as some things that you’ve done since returning from Orange 2010. If you weren’t at Orange, please feel free to interact as well!

In the meantime, here is a promo vid for Orange 2011 that was shown at Orange 2010.

• Renee Johnson at Devotional Diva
• Jesse Giglio at Love Is Social
• Jordan Watson at Freestyle
• Julia Kate at Tither of Innovation
• Dawn Carter at Chronicles of Dawnia

Check these bloggers out for their experiences and thoughts about Origins 2010. If you know of anyone else who has blogged about Origins 2010, let me know in the comments.

Tara is the co-founder & CEO of The Momentum Group + Common Ground, social + entrepreneurial ventures that provide job-training and job-creation for disadvantaged and at-risk international community members. Tara is a visionary, an entrepreneur, a wife, a mother to kids who inspire her daily, and passionately committed to empowering those with the least through innovative business and training. (taken from the Origins Event speakers page)

I had the privilege of interviewing Tara via email, and here’s what she had to say!

I’ve taken a look at the Momentum Group site and think it’s a great initiative! Can you tell me a bit about the story behind the formation of Momentum Group? What prompted you to do it? What were you doing beforehand?

My background is fairly corporate – big business (General Motors, Intel and Nike around the world). I had the opportunity to be part of a GM start-up in Shanghai back in 1999 training Chinese engineers and teams to build minivans. It was there, learning far more from those I was supposed to “teach and train” than I could have ever imagined, I saw the vision for my life clearly coming together.

I have always loved business, and feel that is where my strengths lie, but I fell in love with the Chinese people, and knew that International work and development would be the heartbeat of my work moving forward. I sensed a growing desire to explore the world, start socially responsible businesses that improved people’s lives and mostly, to broaden my mental horizons and learn from the cultures so unlike my own. To start breaking the rules of my culture – to long for more than just a paycheck, but rather to use my gifts and talents to try to change the world.

I wanted to see the merging of business and global transformation possible – and I wanted to mobilize others to see how business could become a powerful vehicle for International Development. I have always had this huge sense of responsibility to take all the experiences that God has allowed me to enjoy and learn from and turn that into life transformation and the mobilization of others. A deep passion of mine has always been helping others find their passions and encouraging them to take the leaps of faith into the scary, wonderful place of pursuing their passions, relentlessly.

The Momentum Group started in 1999 and was initially focused on International Development work (“creating economic independence for those who have the least within the International community.”) – filling professional gaps – we assisted NGO’s and Mission Organizations around the world with the development of businesses and with sound business operations. We mobilized professionals from the US to use their business talents to assist on “virtual consulting” projects and team focused, in-person project specific work. While living in Bangkok, we started NightLight, an organization focused on empowering women involved in the sex industry to leave their work for new employment, and we launched the micro-enterprise behind NightLight Design.

In 2006, we returned to the US and began Easy Office, a social venture focused on providing affordable services (finance, accounting, bookkeeping, etc.) tailored to the needs of Non-Profits. The Momentum Group began to explore what our domestic programs would look like. As we relocated and based in Boise, Idaho, we saw the huge gaps in the employability of refugees coming to the United States, and that birthed the Common Ground program that is now the backbone of the organization.

What’s your vision for Momentum Group? Where do you see it going?

The Momentum Group is in a bit of a rebirthing process right now – growing from a fully volunteer staff to a team of 33 paid staff in a year has been a wild (messy), but exciting ride. Right now, we operate a training business (employability and language training for refugees) and small-farms. Next month, we are beginning a manufacturing business.

We believe we are helping fulfill part of God’s vision for the empowerment of those who have the least. We want to teach the world that you can build strong businesses by understanding the market and capitalizing on the gifts and talents of those cultures you’re surrounded with. We are trying to build and transform global communities, one local at a time. We are building sustainable businesses that are also creating life transformation in at-risk populations. We are building sustainable business models and training programs that we hope to roll out to communities nationwide, and eventually internationally as well. We grow people, products and services. That said, we have a ton of opposition – and we’re trying to break down a ton of prejudice, stereotypes, and a system desperate for innovation.

What is your connection to The Origins Project?

Dave Gibbons is a part of our family – we worked together closely in Bangkok and have always felt like close family. He was one of the first visitors to meet our first son at the hospital! Spending holidays together overseas and dreaming together, he has always been a dear friend, family member, and hugely respected mentor of ours. We have learned so much from him, so when he suggests we participate in something – it’s hard to pass up! :)

How do you see yourself contributing to this inaugural event of The Origins Project?

I feel I will learn and gain far more than I have to offer! But, I hope to challenge the way people think about business and about their professional talents. I hope to help people think outside the box about using their gifts and talents to love and reach people – to plunge into pursuing their passions in some meaningful way. I hope to show people what “love in action” means for our team, and ways they can take steps to change lives and grow immensely from the International cultures surrounding them.

If there is one (or two) things you’d like people to take away from your contribution to this even, what would it be?

How businesses can do well by doing good and how we “let show don’t tell lead love in action” among new cultures.

What would you like to walk away with/learn from The Origins Event?

New allies – people to share “in the trenches” stories with, learn from, encourage. I would love to have a new group of dynamic people to get advice from, glean wisdom from, and feel united with. It’s at times really lonely trying to go against the grain! It’s great to be able to talk about the mistakes we’ve made with others experiencing similar walks.

Why should people come to this event?

Talk about a huge collision of creative synergy, innovation, and inspiration! I don’t know why people wouldn’t come to Origins. I’m part of the event, and I’m just as excited to learn and be challenged by all these tremendous people. Just look at those who are participating – each and every person has such a unique story, a fantastic challenge or a beautiful gift to share. I can’t wait! Everyone who can should come – talk about a great investment in your future.

Why am I so pumped about The Origins Project and this event on Friday?

Well, it’s because I’ve resonated with the leaders behind Origins (Kimball, McManus, Gibbons, McKinley, McKnight, et al) as well as the vision:

This network is a community of followers of Jesus who are passionate about seeing people know God and experience life as He intended. As we are guided by the Scriptures we will inspire one another to embrace innovation and creativity as a means to fulfill this mission. (taken from The Origins Project website)

I was originally going to be attending the event as part of the blogging team but due to our recent move from northwestern Ontario to northern California, we have been unable to access money from the sale of our house because the check had to be sent to foreign collection with our bank, Wells Fargo. We are still waiting for the money to clear. So, unfortunately, we do not have the money to cover travelling costs. I am bummed, but we have been taken care of, so I can’t really complain. Recently, we received a check which we had thought could be used to pay for the trip, but it ended up being needed to pay for registering our car in California as well as for our California drivers’ licenses, so all is good.

I’ll be following The Origins Event on Twitter via the hashtag #Origins10. I encourage you to do the same! As soon as I find out who is blogging about the event, I’ll let you know here on Elemental CM.

Anyway, I sort or met Anthony at The Idea Camp in February 2008. He had attended the workshop I had facilitated. Soon after that, I began interacting with Anthony via blogs and Twitter. He was even a host on a CM Edge podcast (I’ll eventually start those up again). Anthony is the Director of Children’s Ministry at Glenkirk Church in the foothills of Los Angeles.

I’ve been looking forward to meeting Anthony in person because he is a leader with A LOT of passion. I also love his desire to connect and collaborate with others in ministry. He started the West Coast Children’s Ministry blog with the vision to see it as a place where those on “the left coast” could contribute to the children’s ministry conversation. If you are in children’s ministry on the west coast, I encourage you to contact Anthony and become a contributor to that blog!

It was neat to hear him talk about the journey God has had him on concerning how to partner with parents without overwhelming them to the point of scaring them off. I look forward to hearing how that journey evolves over time. I also look forward to the potential of more interactions with Anthony since we are moving to the northern section of the sunny state of California.

Theresa is very gracious and could make any person feel 10 feet tall because her answer to me was, “No way! No… way!”

When I started hosting chapter-by-chapter book blog projects with different contributors and then the whole book blog tour thing, one of the people who enthusiastically raised an e-hand when I put the call out for people was Theresa. I loved her excitement at being part of these reviews and enjoyed her input into the conversations.

What I love even more about Theresa is that she is a volunteer in the children’s ministry at her church. She is so passionate, though about ministering to children that she has jumped into the blogoshpere and is adding her voice to the children’s ministry conversation. I love it!

It was so cool to meet Theresa in person and experience her infectious enthusiasm for God and families. If you have a chance jump over to Theresa’s blog and experience her excitement for ministry to children and families. I look forward to interacting with Theresa more online and hopefully more in person!

What are some of your stories of connecting with people in person that you only connected with online?

Of all the things that Chris said, the main theme that we are not simply called to help people but to be fascinated with the stories of people and be personally transformed by those stories resonated strongly with me. We spend so much time trying to inoculate ourselves against mess… and even when we are OK interacting with mess, we would never consider that we could be transformed by that mess for good.

Chris stated the obvious (which we tend to gloss over) that Christians aren’t the only people doing “good” things and giving “stuff” away. There are many irreligious people doing amazing things for those in need. He then asked the obvious (which again we gloss over), “What is supposed to make Christians different?” I loved his answer: We’re supposed to get lost in the stories of the people we help; we need to undergo mutual transformation through mutual fascination!

I hear so many people and ministries repeat over and over that we show Christ’s love by helping our communities and getting involved. If that were simply the case, then why does skepticism about the Church continue to grow? Maybe it’s because, as Chris somewhat cynically pointed out (Canadians are good at that) that the world expects us to love them because they know we want to win them over to “our side.” Chris went on to say that what will really knock peoples feet from under them will be when we not only help but look in the eyes of those we help and say, “Now, tell me your story because I know it’s in there!” There is a hint of the image of God in all of us, so we need to use that as our connection point.

Specifically related to the impact a message like this has on children and family ministries is how we relate to non-traditional families. My friend Amy Dolan has been thinking about this stuff, too. Are we willing to be transformed by unchurched families, busy families, single-parent families, blended families, homosexual families? Now don’t get me wrong… I’m not saying these families are God’s ideal (does God’s ideal even exist? who are we even to say what God’s ideal is? but those are side discussions!). What I am saying, is that we are called to enter into meaningful relationships with all families no matter what they look like. And part of being in a relationship is hearing others’ stories and undergoing positive transformation as a result of those stories.

What do you think about Chris’ message?

If you were at Orange 2010, what did you take away? I’d love to hear!

• 12:35 PM: henryjz small churches can make world changing impact for FREE!
• 12:35 PM: henryjz Shaun will posting his notes afterwards on his blog
• 12:35 PM: henryjz Small churches spend a lot of time and waste energy hating that they are small
• 12:37 PM: henryjz benefit of small church is quickness of making decisions
• 12:37 PM: henryjz if you’re a small church with “big church” problems, then you are in trouble (e.g., red tape, beauracracy, etc.)
• 12:39 PM: henryjz example of floods in ATL this past year… neighborhoods expected the “large” churches to be there to help clean up… but those larger churches had systems they had to work through
• 12:39 PM: henryjz sidenote: not that they didn’t care… they just had to work their systems
• 12:40 PM: henryjz a big system is harder to move
• 12:40 PM: henryjz small churches can move quicker
• 12:40 PM: henryjz when small churches run out of resources to help, the larger ones are able to take over and sustain
• 12:41 PM: henryjz but with immediate… small church can simply get in and do something
• 12:41 PM: henryjz small churches are able to be nible, quick and efficient
• 12:42 PM: Pastor Jared @henryjz Can you post his blog addy?
• 12:42 PM: henryjz Jared — www.shauninthecity.com
• 12:43 PM: henryjz small churches have natural benefits; you need to embrace those benefits
• 12:43 PM: henryjz you have to discern your strengths and push them hard
• 12:44 PM: henryjz If you don’t have FB, then you need to get one!
• 12:45 PM: henryjz The fastest growing demographic on FB is 45 & older
• 12:45 PM: henryjz And it’s FREE
• 12:48 PM: henryjz over 80% of shaun’s church found out about Courageous Church via FB or Twitter
• 12:50 PM: henryjz It’s easy to build connections with people via things like FB… opens door to more converstions in the future
• 12:51 PM: henryjz Can be as simple as telling people “Happy Birthday” on FB
• 12:53 PM: henryjz Get a Twitter account… it’s FREE
• 12:54 PM: henryjz Go to the Twitter search box and type in “pray for” you get a list of ppl tweeting asking for prayer
• 12:56 PM: henryjz why not respond to some of those ppl and really pray for them and encourage them
• 12:57 PM: henryjz BTW, shaun’s demonstrating all this in real time… fun for a geek like me
• 12:59 PM: henryjz It may seem that doing stuff like this is insignificant, but it is
• 12:59 PM: henryjz These people put requests out there and probably get no response… by responding, you are making an impact in someone’s life
• 1:00 PM: henryjz You can also go to search.twitter.com to refine your search
• 1:01 PM: henryjz You don’t need to make a “program” out of this… it doesn’t have to be complicated
• 1:02 PM: henryjz you can do stuff like this wherever! at home, starbucks, etc.
• 1:03 PM: henryjz don’t be weird about it :)
• 1:06 PM: henryjz Someone asked “Do you use your personal or church FB?”
• 1:07 PM: henryjz Shaun: Both… ppl want to connect with a person, though rather than an entity because it’s like interacting with a logo
• 1:09 PM: henryjz check your motives when connecting via Twitter and FB… don’t do it as a way to get them to your church… just be the church
• 1:12 PM: henryjz question: do you keep ur twitter profile public?
• 1:12 PM: henryjz shaun: yes… i try to add ppl who aren’t christians
• 1:13 PM: henryjz shaun: i’m trying to follow and connect with ppl outside of the “christian” circle; i want to influence
• 1:22 PM: henryjz now for some things that cost something…
• 1:22 PM: henryjz You can get a site up for little money to meet needs
  500toys.org (cost $400 to set up and raised thousands of money)
• 1:22 PM: henryjz pages have way to capture information, video, and some info about what you’re doing, and how to donate time or money…
• 1:22 PM: henryjz people who would never come to your church will connect when you do things for your community.
• 1:22 PM: henryjz ahomeinhaiti.org
• 1:23 PM: henryjz started as a simple site and then snowballed… eva longoria now spokesperson for it
• 1:24 PM: henryjz they’ve sent more tents than all but 3 countries (US, China and Cuba)
• 1:25 PM: henryjz they were able to get something like ahomeinhaiti.org done quickly because they are small
• 1:26 PM: henryjz we try to treat an issue as if it was us with the need
• 1:30 PM: henryjz Small churches have the flexibility and speed to meet needs immediately
• 1:32 PM: henryjz You gain credibility by doing what you say you are going to do… start local and build credibility
• 1:32 PM: henryjz whatever you goal is, make it achievable and then celebrate loudly
• 1:33 PM: henryjz shaun will post the notes on his blog shauninthecity.com
• 1:33 PM: henryjz his twitter is twitter.com

Most recently, I’ve heard and read (via Mark’s blog) talk a lot about imagination. During the opening session, it was no different. Here are some snippets that stood out for me from Mark’s interview:

• Somewhere along doing ministry we lose our imagination.
• We stop doing ministry out of imagination and begin doing it out of memory.
  We stop creating the future and begin repeating the past.
• We need lots of different churches because there are different types of people.
• Change of Pace + Change of Place = Change of Perspective
• Our lack of wonder is really a lack of love.

I love Mark’s use of the word “imagination.” It evokes a sense of wonder and belief. I’m thinking that imagination will show up a lot in Mark’s next book :)