Turnaround Churches

Scott Forbes had turned his life around.  Overcoming addictions to drugs and alcohol, he then earned a bachelor’s degree in addiction and several counseling certifications  He also has a master’s degree in organizational management.  And then a false report undid it all.

Forbes had spent 22 years working for various programs that assist those with similar addictions to what he had overcome.  In November 2004, Forbes became director of Hope Haven in Madison, operated by Catholic Charities of Madison, WI.  It was a promotion and job change from a related job with Catholic Charities.  And it meant he moved offices.

Then in October 2005, a computer disk was found in his old office back at Marquette County Chemical Dependency Service.  The computer disk contained a “significant amount of pornographic images” that included those of children.  They also found working files created by Forbes.  The fact that it was a “read/writable” disk for adding new files later didn’t register with the police.

He was arrested in April and charged with with 17 counts of child pornography, including pictures of two boys between the ages of 13 and 15 and one girl about 8 to 10 years old.

He was fired from his job immediately, before the charges were filed. He challenged the firing, and eventually the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development ruled in his favor.

“The state ruled that I had been terminated without cause,” he said. “But that did not save my career.”

He had lost his job; he lost friends. He had to sell off some family property.   He became a carpenter to make ends meet.

Finally last week, the judge ruled that he had not been given enough evidence when he authorized the search, and if he had he’d known the evidence was too flimsy to make a case.  He ruled the evidence inadmissible.  The jury of 10 women and two men unanimously found Forbes not guilty on all charges.

Vindicated, he admitted it has made him stronger, but then added “I’d have been fine with being less strong.”

(reference:  capital newspaper)

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The lesson for us is to have adequate liability insurances for your church.  A false accusation based on the slimmest of connections ruined his career, his reputation and – but for the faith of his wife – could have ended his marriage.

Angels must be awesome creatures, because every time one apears in the Bible, he has to start the conversation by calming the person’s fears.  Or maybe that’s their job.  To be the messengers of the king of peace.

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the end of fear, in a variety of contexts.

First, there’s Rich Dad Poor Dad, a great little book about taking control of your money.  Toward the back (where I read today) is a description of why some people choose to stay poor.  It is their fear of failure.  They are so afraid to fail they never get started.  The runner runs toward the finish line even if there’s a world champion in the next lane.  He didn’t show up to admire the starting blocks – he came to run.  And even if he finishes fifth, he finishes well, and far ahead of the one who never started the race.

In church today we talked about the need for failure to grow us.  The lesson said it is unlikely you will ever love deeply if you never risk being hurt.  The sermon said that in your failures you learn the life lessons that refine you.  Psalm 23 doesn’t say God will rescue us from troubles, but that He gives peace as we walk through the trouble toward an uncertain future.  Going all the way through the troubles makes you stronger on the other side.

Tonite I let wordpress do it’s thing by suggesting random blogs, and I came upon Alli Macisaac’s posting about the end of fear.

I believe that God has a plan for all of us and these trials and tribulations are what are there to make things interesting.

Alli’s solution is to “Do one thing every day that scares you.”  She goes on to say “Even if these things don’t work out they are definitely worth it – it is only then you can say you have truly lived.”

Sarah Palin made fun of Barack Obama being a community organizer, but there are a lot of people who add value to their community by organizing neighborhood citizens to accomplish more together than they could individually.

It’s no accident most organization starts within a church, and most community activist leaders are church leaders.  In this context, it’s no wonder Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy were both pastor and civil rights leaders, and why seminary student Jesse Jackson got diverted from the pulpit toward community action.

The people who trained Barack Obama were trained at the Gamaliel Foundation.  I went to their website and found a list of great manuals.  I recommend the Conversion Toolkit in the “Faith and Democracy” section.

The purpose of that manual is to engage people in our congregations more deeply about what they hope for in their lives.”  It is written to get people trained to solve social problems, but the lessons about the process are useful to teach you how to lead them in learning the church mission and purposes.  (It also resembles some of the building fund campaign literature I’ve read.)

It won’t write your message for you, but once you know where you want to take your congregation, it will help you structure your approach to training them to take action in your community.

You know the concept of the bystander effect.  That is the sociological term where a person in a group is less likely to get involved in an emergency situation or request for help than someone standing alone.  The research shows that people will watch a crime but not get involved, thinking they are not qualified or out of fear for their own safety.  Not until one of their number acts will anyone else move to get involved.  Usually it takes a direct personal appeal to a single individual (by name or with eye contact – even if randomly chosen) to get them to get involved. (more…)