December Update from Amy (and Invested Faith)
Dear Friends,
It’s hard to believe that it has been a whole year since I began identifying resources to explore Invested Faith, a new way of thinking about who we are and what we have as institutions of faith.
The idea was simple: institutions at the end of their life cycles need a hopeful way to send their witness forward. Instead of closing up shop and selling property and assets to the nearest developer...or even making a one-time gift to a local nonprofit, what if we could dream up a fund that would live in perpetuity and offer on-going support for entrepreneurs who were reimagining new expressions of God’s work in the world? Closing congregations and other institutions could then donate their assets to build a fund that would continue the faithful work of God in the world.
And the exciting thing is that it’s happening! Invested Faith is taking shape, creating a mission, engaging with partners, and exploring innovative paths for new and faithful work in the world.
Even in the midst of a pandemic, Invested Faith has had a busy inaugural year. Here’s what I’ve been up to the past twelve months:
Meeting weekly with Impact Assets, our fiscal sponsor and advisor.
Researching and writing a 54-page grant for the Lilly Endowment. While Invested Faith was not funded this round, the exercise of writing the grant was clarifying. If you’re interested, you can read the whole grant application here.
Working through a design sprint with the amazing folks at Greater Good Strategy. They helped me think through audience and messaging to continue to refine how Invested Faith communicates mission and engages folks who could be partners.
Speaking, writing, and collaborating with folks who are thinking creatively about the future of faith communities in the world, including Faith and Finance: Reimagining God’s Economy. See some of that work here.
Kicking off a campaign to build Invested Faith’s social media presence and mailing list, which is why you’re hearing from me now and will be hearing more moving forward!
2020 has been a year that took us all by surprise; I expect that 2021 will offer more of the same, even as we work to rebuild and reimagine life after COVID.
This new reality makes the need for efforts like Invested Faith even more critical, and I’m so pleased that we are now poised to begin offering small grants to social entrepreneurs, telling their stories, and engaging with communities and individuals who are excited about helping to build a fund to keep this important work going. See below for grant criteria and where to apply.
This is an exciting time and we are asking for your support. Here’s how you can help:
Give a generous, tax-deductible gift to support the ongoing development of Invested Faith.
Grant a social entrepreneur. If you’d like your gift to go directly to someone working innovatively to reimagine the faith community, your tax-deductible gift of $5000.00 can make that happen.
Help us identify and connect social entrepreneurs who are creating new models for communities that heal the world. If you know of someone who is doing this work, please connect us!
Spread the word! Help us build our audience by using your social media presence and word of mouth to tell others about this important work.
And finally, a personal update. As many of you know, in June of 2020 I was called as the intentional interim Senior Minister at National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C.
National City is the national church of The Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, a beautiful cathedral just six blocks from the White House in downtown D.C. This lovely congregation has welcomed me and has been working with me to ready itself for calling a new permanent Senior Minister sometime in 2022. I am loving regular preaching and the work of the local congregation, even in these strange COVID times. I welcome you to join our online community on Facebook or YouTube!
Thank you again for your support of Invested Faith. You are part of an effort to think creatively and prophetically about what it means to work together to heal the world. I am so grateful.
