High Expectations

I once read a front page article in a magazine about the science of failure. One of the interesting ironies I remembered in the article is that failure often helps people and organizations become better and often have more positive lessons to learn than success does. In fact, success can often blind us to factors that were never in our control in the first place, but we take credit anyway (like a good economy!).

Yesterday's Prayerwalk and Harvest Fest was a successful Kingdom Causes event as any, but we also realized a factor beyond our control was the weather--a strong rain storm went through before our event--and how much that kept people inside, especially our senior neighbors who had said they would come. Quite a few were sick too!

Also, we realized that perhaps we were competing with the Church of the City rather than truly collaborating on this Halloween weekend--so many other "harvest fests" including the church who hosted the site who just had theirs the night before. Why not hold this event embedded within another congregation's event? Or better yet, pool our resources in the ministerial association and do one large event for the community?

Finally, I had high expectations for getting people out from the community who weren't part of our existing network to this event, and there were a few. But the truth of it is that we never really promoted it in the city nor did we really engage community members who would be interested. I felt a bit like we did the typical church outreach event which is attractional: "build it and they will come." But then we don't really allow the community to be at that table to help in that planning process.

"We're still learning," as my co-worker said. Not reaching our high expectations is a great learning opportunity. Extending ourselves some grace in the process helps us not to navel gaze but learn and persevere for the next time!

Neigbhorhood Gardens Reflection: Goals and Reality

I had a chance to talk to someone this week who was interested in doing something with growing food, like what we are doing in our neighborhood gardens. His enthusiasm was apparent even if he didn't know what he was going to do, what his goals were, etc.

But as I recounted our brief journey in our own neighborhood, I realized how similar I felt when this idea of growing food as a vocation came about: so much passion, but a scattered focus.
Perhaps because food is so basic to life, it's the reason there are so many ways of approaching it in the non-profit world:
food banks, food co-ops, childhood obesity, school lunch reform, farmer's markets, community gardens, school gardens, self-sufficiency/empowerment, job training programs to name a few.

I kept repeating the refrain talking to this enthusiastic gardener that you need to have some goal in mind when you start, and then let reality sharpen your focus. This has very much been the lesson learned for us. Neighborhood Gardens started with the idea of growing food that would benefit residents and also low-income residents by donating a portion to our local food bank. But reality was that our few gardens weren't big enough for regular donations. There was no way we could provide a significant amount of food for the food banks.

That's why I hope next week's Harvest Fest on 10/30 will have as one of its outcomes a local network of neighbors and their gardens and fruit trees becoming regular contributors to our food bank while in the midst of forming community around local food. In many ways, the reality of our limitations provided an opportunity for us to look for creative solutions that are far more sustainable and community-oriented than if we strived to do it on our own.

Thank God our goals don't always work out the way we thought they would!