STAGE 1. Church Awakening.
CONTENTS | OBJECTIVES | Duration in hours |
1. Church Awakening | ||
A) Envisioning the Church Leadership and the Church | (part 1) The church is facilitated to develop a general vision describing its desired situation and the situation it desires its immediate community to be in (Part 2) Facilitate the church to understand and commit to Integral Mission as the mission of the church to its immediate community (with awareness of spiritual opposition and the victory of our Savior).(part 3) Facilitate the church to understand and commit to the Church and Community Mobilization Process as a tool to use while undertaking Integral Mission. | 4hrs 3hrs 2hrs |
Introducing CCMP & Pillars of CCMP | Holistic Human Transformation, Relationships, Sustainability, Empowerment of People, Process rather than Product, Reaching God-given potential, Resources, Local Church transforming immediate community, Changed Change Aents | 2hrs. |
Foundational Bible studies five Bible studies | The church understands its biblical mandate for holistic ministry to its immediate community and commits to engage in Integral mission in a practical way, and thus truly become salt and light to the community | |
Foundational Bible study 1A – God’s Purpose for Humankind (Gen 1:26-31, 2:8-25, 3) | To enable the church to understand God’s purpose for His creation and the place of the church in the fulfillment of that purpose. | 4hrs |
Foundational Bible Studies 1BSpiritual opposition. Gen, chapter 3.Luke 10: 1-9 | To enable the church to understand the spiritual warfare in mission and how to deal with it as we engage in 24/7 mission following Jesus. | 4hrs |
Foundational Bible study 2 – God’s Vision for His people Isa 65:17-25 | To enable the church to understand that God still desires to have people live a full life in spite of the Fall | 4hrs |
Foundational Bible study 3 -Pictures of the Church (1Pet 2:4- 12) | To explore what the church is, and its function internally and to its immediate community. | 5hrs |
Foundational Bible study 4 – Ministry of Jesus (Mt. 3:1-2; 4:12- 17; 4:23-25; 9:35-38) | To enable the church to understand ministry as Jesus carried it out, and thus minister the same way to the immediate community. | 3hrs |
Foundational Bible study 5 – The church as salt and light of the world (Mt 5:13-16) | To enable the church to understand its role toward its immediate community and start to play it out. | 4hrs |
Envisioning for Holistic Ministry | The church develops its vision for holistic ministry to its immediate community | 4hrs |
B. Resource Mobilization Bible studies Three Bible studies | The church discovers that God has given her the resources she needs to meet her needs and begins to use them to meet the needs. The church acquires confidence to “awaken” its immediate community to also begin to address its poverty using God-given resources | |
Introducing the concept of Resources and how to use them to address needs. | The church understands the concept of “resources” and “needs”, and that needs can be met and poverty reduced, depending on the way resources are identified and used. | 3hrs |
Resource Mobilization bible study 1 – Jesus Raises Lazarus from the dead (Jn 11:1-44) | The church understands the biblical perspective of meeting needs using God- given resources. | 3hrs |
Resource Mobilization bible study 2 – Jesus feeds 5000 ((Mark 6: 30-44) | The church understands the biblical perspective of meeting all needs using God-given resources even when they seem so little. | 3hrs |
Resource Mobilization Bible study 3 – Elisha, the widow and her oil (2 Ki 4:1-7) | The church understands that with God’s help, and using the local resources, needs can be adequately met. | 3hrs |
Identifying Needs | The church identifies needs that affect it today. | 3hrs |
Prioritizingneeds | The church prioritizes needs in order to determine the most appropriate intervention(s) to undertake to meet particular needs. | 3hrs |
Matching needs to resources | The church links the prioritized needs to the resources identified in order to determine priority projects | 3hrs |
Planning for the projects identified and agreed on. | The church makes a full plan that it will use to implement the projects identified, and thus begin to meet the priority needs. | 5hrs |
Selecting a committee to oversee project implementation | The church puts in place a structure to oversee implementation of the prioritized projects to meet the church needs. | 3hrs |
Training the committee(s) to oversee project implementation | Equip the new committee(s) with skills to oversee implementation of the prioritized projects to meet the church needs. | 4hrs |
C. Relationship building bible study | The church understands the biblical perspective for relationship building with its immediate community and. Prepares to begin engaging the community in practical ways.Ultimately the church and community agree to join hands to address issues affecting the entire area.. | |
Relationship building Bible study – Who is my neighbor? (Lk 10:25-37) | The church to understands the biblical perspective for relationship building with its immediate community and prepare to engage the community in a formal manner | 4hrs |
Relationship Building – preparing the church leadership to meet and build relationship with leaders of neighboring denominations | Prepare the church leaders to meet and build relationship with leaders of neighboring denominations and leaders of other religions in the area. | 4hrs |
Relationship Building – preparing the church leadership to meet and build relationship with the community leadership | The church leaders prepare to meet and build relationship with the community leaders. | 4hrs |
Preparing the Church to meet the community for relationship building. | The church prepares to meet its immediate community for the first time, to begin building relationship | 3hrs |
Church and community leadership actually meet for relationship building | The church leaders build relationships with the community leaders | 3hrs |
Church and community meet for the first time for relationship building | The church and community meet and begin to discuss how they could join hands to address common issues and therefore change their situation. | 5hrs |
Training the church and community Resource persons (CCRePs) | Equip the team of CCRePs with knowledge and skills | 5hrs |
Stage 2: Church and Community Description
CONTENTS | OBJECTIVES | DURATION IN HOURS |
Stage 2: Church and Community Description | The church and community “read into” the reality of their situation and desire to transform it. | |
Understanding biblical perspective for Description | The church understands the biblical perspective for describing its situation. | 3hrs |
Starter: Secret-in-a-box game | To build confidence in the community that they are the “experts” of their situation (they are the best placed people to “tell the full story and to determine the best way forward for | 2hrs |
Writing a general Baseline report | The community/church understand the need for documenting their ‘story and select a team to do so | 3hrs |
History Tool 1 – Community and church History Map | The community/church to discover things about its history that will inform the people why they are what they are today. | 3hrs |
History Tool 2 – Community and church History Narrative | The community/church to discover things about its history that will inform the people why they are what they are today. | 3hrs |
History Tool 3 –Historical Trend of Events | The community/church to discover events in its history that have contributed to make it what it is today | 3hrs |
History Tool 4 –River of Life | The community/church to discover events in its history that have contributed to make it what it is today | 3hrs |
Church and Community Description – People Describe their Current Situation | ||
Current Situation – Understanding “Resources | The community/church understands the concept about “resources”, how it uses them, and the effect of this use on the lives of the people today (Note: This is the second time this tool is undertaken in the church). | 3hrs |
Current Situation Tool 1 –General Map/Picture | The community/church consolidates its description of its situation today, and thus identifies positive as well as negative factors that affect it. | 3hrs |
Current Situation Tool 2 – Community/Church Resources Map | The community/church deeply discovers the resources that it has, and gains the confidence to use them to profit everybody in a fully sustainable manner | 3hrs |
Current Situation Tool 3 – Seasonal Calendar | The community/church to discover factors that affect the life of the people and when the effects happen in a typical year, in order for the people to predict when the issues might arise, determine how best to address the issues | 3hrs |
Current Situation Tool 4 – Typical Day | The community/church to discover how they use the resource “time”, and how they could improve on its use so as to improve their lives. | 2hrs |
Current Situation Tool 6 – Drama /songs | The community/church describes its situation in a non-threatening and enjoyable manner, and thus gets motivated to transform it. | 2hrs |
Validating the general baseline | The community/church validate all the information documented from each tool, resulting in a complete General Baseline Report | 6hrs |
Stage 3: Information Gathering Stage
CONTENTS | OBJECTIVES | DURATIONS IN HRS. |
The information Gathering stage aims to empower the church and community to investigate their issues deeply so as to emerge with specific information that deeply describes the issues affecting the church and community, and thus enables them to make informed decisions that when implemented will transform their situation. | The church and community have accurate information that truly describes their situation, and when analyzed, will enable them to make informed decisions. | |
Understanding the need for specific information | Church/community understands the need for more specific information. | 5hrs |
Understanding some biblical perspective for information gathering | Church understands the biblical perspective of information gathering | 2hrs |
Developing a plan to gather specific information | Church/community has information gathering teams (IGTs) and a strategy to gather more specific information. | 3hrs |
Training the IGTs to gather information | Church/community has information gathering teams (IGTs) who are well- trained and ready to gather more specific information. | 4hrs |
Compiling information gathered | IGTs have skills to condense together information gathered ready to validate it with the church/community. | 4hrs |
Validating church/community information | Church/community has accurate, validated information and is ready to analyze it. | 4hrs |
Stage 4: Information Analysis Stage
CONTENTS | OBJECTIVES | DURATION IN HRS. |
Understanding the Biblical perspective for analysis | Church understands some biblical perspectives of information analysis | 2 hrs. |
Preparing for Analysis – Writing the Specific Baseline | Church and community select a team to document the details of the information being analyzed. | 8 hrs. |
Analyzing the information validated | The community/church deeply understands their situation and is motivated to positively and holistically transform it. | 8 hrs. |
Analyzing problems using “Problem trees” analogy | The community/church analyzes the root causes of issues that emerge as they examine each category of information. | 4 hrs. |
Turning Problem trees” into “Objective trees” Analogy | The community/church identifies the most appropriate solutions to the identified issues/problems. | 4 hrs. |
Writing the full baseline report | The community/church has a document that describes in detail, the situation that they are in, as discussed during the analysis of the information. | 5 hrs. |
Validating the full baseline report | The community/church has a document that describes in detail, the situation that they are in, as discussed during the analysis of the information. | 4 hrs. |
Stage 5: Decision Stage
ACTIVITIES | OBJECTIVES | DURATION IN HRS. |
Introducing the Decision Stage | The community/church understand that following the analysis of the information they had, the time has come for them to make informed decisions about the change that they will make of their situation. | 2 hrs. |
Understanding the Biblical perspective for Decision | Church understands some biblical perspectives of reaching informed decisions. | 2 hrs. |
Undertaking Decision 1- To change or not to change? | The community/church decide whether they desire to change from their current situation or not (It is important to not always assume that people want change – give them the opportunity to decide it themselves). | 4 hrs. |
Undertaking Decision 2 – “Dreaming dreams” | The community/church determine the changes they desire to have (short- term as well as long term), resulting in their new vision. | 6 hrs. |
Undertaking Decision 3 – Prioritizing the desired changes | The community/church determines the top priority changes to focus upon. (NB: To do this, the facilitator may use several tools. Here, we give two tools as examples that could be used for prioritization) | 4 hrs. |
Undertaking Decision 4 – Setting goals | The community/church makes clear targets to achieve of the desired changes – these targets are the specific goals the people will set. | 5 hrs. |
Undertaking Decision 5 – determining Indicators | The community/church decides on the indicators that will enable them to know that they are achieving their goals as desired. | 5 hrs. |
Undertaking Decision 6 – Designing monitoring systems | The community/church design a system to keep track of the indicators | 4 hrs. |
Undertaking Decision 7 – Action planning | The community/church develops detailed plans of action to begin implementing the priority projects and thus achieve the desired goals. (NB: Two types of action plans will be developed, i.e. Time line, and Detailed action plan) | 4 hrs. |
Undertaking Decision 8 – selecting structures to oversee implementation of the action plans | The community/church decides about the structures that will oversee implementation of the priority projects to meet the set goals, and thus achieve the desired change. | 6 hrs. |
Part I: A historical background of the CCMP
The CCMP discussed in this manual has emerged from the learning and practice that the Francis Njoroge ( the author)has gone through, as a worker in the field of community development over the years. The section here below describes the process that CCMP has evolved through.
The Participatory Evaluation Process (PEP)
The Participatory Evaluation Process (PEP) was designed by Dr. Judy Hutchinson in 1982 – 1984 when she was Director of Evaluation at the World Vision International. Hutchinson, now professor at the Azusa-Pacific University in California, United States of America, first trained the team of field staff (called Project Coordinators) of World Vision Kenya in 1983. The author was a member of that team. It was then that he first came into exposure to the philosophy and practice of participatory processes in 1984 while he worked for World Vision Kenya (WVK). Around that time, World Vision International (WVI) was shifting its focus from relief to one that integrated aspects of community development, where target communities would demonstrate some level of self-reliance. While introducing the curriculum on Participatory Evaluation Process (PEP) that was to be used to train WVK team, Hutchinson shared that most evaluations she had conducted in projects that WVI supported showed that at all levels of the organization, decisions were made “for” instead of “with” and “by” the grassroots communities. She had therefore designed the curriculum with the aim of equipping the team of field coordinators with skills to facilitate communities to reflect on their current situation in order to determine their future. Three words summarized the theme of this curriculum – participatory, evaluation and process. First, the term ‘participatory’ was considered because the team was to change the way it interacted with communities, from deciding “for” the community, to enabling them to participate in all areas ranging from decisions, to designing interventions, to implementing plans, to monitoring and evaluating progress. The second term was ‘evaluation’, because this facilitation was to enable communities to assess their current situation and generate baseline information that they would use to envision a better future and plan how to achieve it. Finally, the word ‘process’ became important, because the team was to move at the slow pace of the community rather than moving at the fast organizational pace. The team was to listen more than talk, learn more than teach, spend more time with the communities, and provide people with the opportunity to express themselves. Overall, the objective of PEP was expressed as ‘to empower people to read into their reality, and take charge of it in order to determine their destiny.’
We are very grateful to Francis Njoroge for compiling this detailed study material from his wealth of many years of experience as facilitator/trainer and East Africa CCMP Director.
Bibliography
Chambers, R., Rural Development: Putting the Last First. 1983, New York: Longman, Inc
Chambers, R., Whose Reality Counts, Putting the first Last, 1997, New York: ITDG Publishing.
Corbett, S. and B. Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself. 2009, 2012, Chicago: Moody Press.
Freire, P., Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 1970, New York: Herder & Herder
Hope, A. and S. Timmel, Training for Transformation: A Handbook for Community Workers. 1984, Harare, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press.
Hutchinson, J., PEP Curriculum. 1991
Hutchinson, J., PEP Handbook. 2007.
Hutchinson, J., Evaluation & Planning at the Grassroots: What Happens when they do it? 1983
Kretzmann, J.P. and J.L. McKnight, Building Communities From the Inside Out. 1993, Evanston, Ill: Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, Northwestern University.
Myers, B.L., Walking With the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development.1999, Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.
Srinivasan, L., Tools for Community Participation: A Manual for Training Trainers in Participatory Techniques. 1990, New York: PROWESS/UNDP.
Tearfund Resources
Cadaing, Loui; Evaluation of the Participatory Evaluation Process for the Africa Inland Church of Tanzania (AICT), Mara and Ukerewe Diocese (MUD); July 2001.
Facilitation skills workbook; Sophie Clarke, Rachel Blackman and Isabel Carter; 2004 Mobilizing the church – A Pillars Guide; Isabel Carter; 2004
Partnering with the local church; Rachel Blackman – Roots; 2007
Peace building within our communities; Rachel Blackman – Roots 4; 2003