This year has been different. CVN has responded by pursuing different approaches with the goal of helping you explore and emerge in new ways. We are so thankful to be with you. We value learning how we can better support your programs. 

Responding well to change can requires re-invention. CVN staff have embraced that we are like a start up with a 60-year history. Alongside you, we are re-imagining faith-based service with creativity grounded in Spirit and community. October’s “Re-Imagine Transformation” un-conference was designed to catalyze personal and collective programmatic transformation; to help you trust the journey of becoming different to meet the needs of a different time. If you were not able to attend, I invite you to purchase access to the videos, invite your staff and board to watch them and be in conversation with you. Access passes can be purchased HERE.

“Re-Imagine Transformation” sought to center the need for justice as we ask: Why faith-based service? Who is it for? What can it become? That focus flowed from this year’s Group Concept Mapping process, which all of you were invited to take part in. This multi-stage process combining human insight with data driven mapping techniques helped nearly 400 CVN programs and partners offer, explore, and organize ideas about charting a vision for the future of faith-based service. It began by inviting individuals to respond to this prompt:    

The world continues to change in ways that invite serious reflection and vision from people of faith. We acknowledge that some models of faith-based service are ineffective in addressing, and at times unintentionally perpetuate, systemic injustice. As we consider a vision of faith-based service grounded in justice that empowers individuals and communities, we invite you to consider one important element of a new approach to faith-based service centered on justice. 

CVN held a video call a few weeks ago to share the results of this process. You can view that meeting HERE and read more HERE.    

Annual Membership Meeting on Dec. 16 

CVN staff and board invite you to reflect on “Re-Imagine Transformation” and the Group Concept Mapping process – and your unique opportunities and challenges – before joining the annual member meeting on Dec. 16 at 2:00 – 3:30 pm EST. Click HERE to register. *Please note: if you had previously registered, you should have received an email updating you with our new location. We will NO LONGER BE USING THE ZOOM LINK. Be sure to join us in Remo.

This year’s meeting will share core organizational information and offer a few ideas for 2022. Then, we will then create space to hear about your hopes, offerings, and needs. To prepare for this meeting, I encourage you to consider: 

• What energizes you when you think about the future of your organization? 

• What concerns you about the future of your organization? 

• What are the top two priorities for your organization now or in coming months? 

Advent 

I have never thought about Jonah during Advent but am reminded of him now. The theological hope I have is related to a biblical understanding of CVN’s journey this year. Our struggle with questions about faith and justice landed us, like Jonah, in an unsettling place. We accepted and even welcomed this darkness. We trust that re-imagining can be enhanced by disorientation and vulnerability. There is power in opening to God in scary spaces.  

When leaving the belly of the beast, we must advocate for a transformation of faith-based service that better honors communities and reduces barriers. In a year that calls us to emerge in new ways, this is part of our different Advent story. May transformation be part of your story too.  

With you in service,
Yonce