This blog can also be downloaded as a free e-book that includes worksheets and space to write your mission and goals. You can download the e-book here.
It’s easy to take a look around at our world and feel overwhelmed by the pain and brokenness. The voices surrounding sexuality and gender are almost deafening. Everyone has an opinion and many people are getting hurt. Sometimes it feels easier to just stay quiet.
But what about the sexually broken person who approaches you for help? Are you ready for that conversation?
You...yes, you!...can have a voice of compassion and conviction for those who have been broken by sexual sin. But first, you need to know where to start. But before you can determine your goals and what resources you need, you must understand clearly what God is calling you to do.
When I was walking through the streets of Chicago in 1998, God’s spirit spoke to me.
“Your mission is to encourage men and women of all ages to live lives of purity
,equip them to heal from past impurity if it exists in their lives, and to experience a vibrant, passionate marriage that portrays the love of Christ for His Bride, the Church.”
It came clearly, word for word and with great urgency. I ran into an office center to write it down so I would not forget it, but I have never forgotten. It is imbedded into my spirit.
Perhaps yours has come as clearly. Or perhaps it has come clumsily. Perhaps it came in a moment. Or over the course of years.
What is your mission?
Once you have established your mission, you’ll have specific demographics or projects assigned to you. The Lord has called me to follow this specific mission as I minister to tweens, teens, college-aged women, single adults
In each situation, my goals are different even though my mission remains the same. One of my new assignments is partnering with leaders in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic. According to the United Nations, it has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy on the globe with 13-15-year-olds commonly becoming mothers.¹ The rate of teen pregnancy in the country—105 out of every 1,000— is double the world average. The rate of teen pregnancy in Jarabacoa itself is again double that of the rest of the nation. After two years of research, our goals in Jarabacoa are:
- to decrease out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
- to increase marriage.
- to increase father involvement.
Given the specific assignments God is asking of you recently, what are some of your goals?
Once you have determined your mission and goals, it’s time to start determining what assets you have to accomplish your goals. This is called asset mapping.
ASSET MAPPING is a process of identifying your resources and presenting a plan of how to engage them into communal change.
Using an Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach to achieve your goals is a method that builds in the strengths of a community. It is a method developed by Jodi
While it begins with getting people to identify the needs and problems in their communities, it moves quickly to the task of mapping the assets and strengths. The method provides a completely different emotional experience for the community. After focusing on needs, people tend to look to others for solutions. But after focusing on assets, people begin to think of all the things they could do with what they have at hand to improve their community. The glass is no longer half empty. It is half full.
“Many Christian community development experts have discovered the benefits of using “asset-based community development” (ABCD) as they seek to foster reconciliation of people’s relationships with God, self, others, and creation. ABCD is consistent with the perspective that God has blessed every individual and community with a host of gifts, including such diverse things as land, social networks, knowledge, animals, savings, intelligence, schools, creativity, production equipment, etc. ABCD puts the emphasis on what materially poor people already have and asks them to consider from the outset, “What is right with you? What gifts has God given you that you can use to improve your life and that of your neighbors? How can the individuals and organizations in your community work together to improve your community?”
-Steve Corbett, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself, page 119,120
Making your own asset map
THE ASSETS of your community include:
- Individuals with strengths and interest in your problem including you.
- Ministries and organizations that reach your target demographic.
AN ASSET will contribute any specific need that helps you achieve goals such
For example, some of the assets I found I had for my mission in the Dominican Republic included local churches, my friend Marlene Luna who has a passion for her country, and the years of learning I’ve done on sexual theology. Now it’s your turn to create an asset map! Where are you already equipped to begin fulfilling your mission? Start there.
Sometimes it is more helpful to write your mission, goals, and asset map out on paper, so we’ve created a downloadable PDF for you that includes these instructions, a sample asset map, and room for you to brainstorm. You can download it HERE.
This blog is a small piece of my Pure Freedom Master Class. I would love for you to join me and my husband Bob in State College, PA this June for three days of accelerated sexual theology training, coaching, and healing capabilities of leaders through collaboration and education. We’ll mentor you through the tough topics that you’re facing in your churches, classrooms, and ministries. Apply today or find more information HERE.
1 Teen Pregnancy Rate Doubles U.N. Averages, July 2013 http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/poverty/2013/7/12/48276/Teen-pregnancy-rate-doubles-the-world-average-UN