Join a challenge

Challenges like this one on Facebook are an awareness raising tool that are based on a taste and see model. The idea is to do a series of teaching sessions that enable you to get a taste of how someone like me can help you. The aim is to offer you so much of the sort of help you need that you are willing to exchange digital money for help with the next stage of your journey. (Exchanging cold hard cash gets a bit complicated when you are working online.)

The free five day what does it mean to H.E.A.L. challenge starting August 5th 2024 7p.m.

In this challenge I will go over the basics of the H.E.A.L. model. This is not healing as most people understand it whether in medical or theological terms but it helps people help people. Better still it helps people in a way that minimises the pain of those offering help and those receiving help.

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The h.e.a.l. model

H stands for hear or more accurately get yourself into a position where you can hear

E stands for endeavour to find solutions

A stands for activate the plan

L stands for listen as you learn because you love

How did I get here?

I have had a dream of helping people develop a business or a community group for years. That was why I was so pleased that I finally found a church that was willing to support my dream. It turned out that this craft group was what some people in business world call a minimum viable product. I was desperately sad because I saw what those who had struggled to support me had missed out on.

My sense of the church missing out was even worse when lockdown came in. I had realised ten years earlier that a church that had experience of serving the community in practical ways during the good times would be better placed to serve them during the not so good times. I looked around and realised that I was far from being the only one whose way of serving others was shut down. Yet I thought I knew better.

Instead I went back to my usual fall back position yet more learning. I long ago burst out of the file I was given to store my certificates in and now I am bursting out of the bigger one I organised for myself. In the process I have learnt a lot and even picked up a certificate or two.

One certification I started working towards during lockdown shows that I am a 100x Certified Kingdom Entrepreneur. The name is linked to the sort of harvests Isaac reaped during the time of famine i.e. a top notch harvest in biblical terms. Kingdom refers to the idea that the aim is to bring God\’s best into the world as we know it. An entrepreneur is someone who brings ideas to life often in the form of a business. I know shock horror a bible based course for those interested in doing business online. On the other hand it reflects what I would like to see more of in the church.

Included in the qualification file are the certificates that I would need to teach business start-up to those over 16. I have been in and around the online business world since before Facebook and YouTube actually got off the ground.

With all that behind me it doesn\’t matter that I am not an ordained minister does it really. That takes a master\’s degree these days and all I have is the equivalent of a foundation degree in theology. In fact it is possibly better that I am not as how would I have time to do the business stuff.

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My background

I have survived over 30 years in small congregations (mostly churches associated with the Church of England and the Baptist Union of Great Britain). I do mean survived. I have been the tall flower who had her head cut off. I have been the chameleon. It is not as though I ever stopped loving God but loving the church has been a bit more challenging.

It was obvious what I had done to upset them. I was the one full of ideas and they were not happy making changes. The sad thing is one church I attended that struggled with change has since closed. Another seemed to have a lid on it. It did not seem to matter where ideas came from very few if any were pursued. I was so pleased when I heard that there had been a church split. All of the naysayers and their closest allies left at once. The church was free to look outside again and consider the needs of the community.

I must admit that, although that situation was not the cause of me moving house, it did nothing to encourage me to say in that area. You see that is what happens if people are not supported by the church when they want to do stuff to serve the community.

When I did move everything changed rapidly. Within two months of getting all my stuff moved into my new home plans were in place to start a craft group . Not just any craft group but one specifically for people with learning disabilities. My friend and I soon discovered that the real need was to provide activities in a loving environment for people with profound learning disabilities.

It was amazing. We ran that craft group for 4 years until it was forced to close due to the Covid regulations. We tapped into a need in the community serving people we had all but forgotten about. We were using the skills and talents that we already had and grew as people as we depended on God to help us do what we could not ourselves. The church\’s profile went up as we were doing things for people.

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