Developing My Selfopolis

I had a thought while attending one of the workshops at the Exponential 09 National New Church Conference in Orlando, FL, back in April. It was the realization of the similarity between community development and personal development. The speaker, Efram Smith, was talking about burnout in church planting. He shared his personal experience with burnout as a pastor of a blossoming inner city church plant. The church was growing, people were coming to Christ, but he was emotionally drained and frustrated. He noticed he was becoming bitter at people, short-tempered and consumed with quitting. Everything culminated in a tearful breakdown after a service. Upon reflection, he realized there were some areas of spiritual and emotional immaturity (poverty?) in his life, areas that he had allowed to atrophy through inattention. His solution was to create a personal development plan—a set of weekly, monthly, and yearly goals that he asked several other key people in his life to hold him accountable for accomplishing.

What struck me was his use of "development plan." My work with Orphan Justice Mission and my current graduate studies (I'm pursuing my Masters in International Development Administration and just finished a paper on partnership and paternalism between non-governmental organizations) have re-connotated the word "development plan" for me. I have recently been thinking of it in terms of a community developing a vision for itself, then strategically laying out the immediate, middle, and long-term steps needed to attain that vision, often with assistance. For example, my organization Orphan Justice Mission has assisted a Ugandan NGO in developing a vision for a community that is healthy enough to care for the orphans in its midst. Health for the community is identified as being able to meet certain minimum standards of care in five different areas (Business, Education, Family, Health and Spirituality). This is a holistic approach based on the observation that each of those areas is interrelated; each supports the others and they grow in relative balance. For example, in order for a school to provide a quality education, it may need financial support from the community, mainly in terms of tuition. Yet, without an education, the ability of workers and entrepreneurs to earn an paycheck and pay for their kids to go to school is significantly hindered. Getting a few key business people educated increases their chance of success, which may bring jobs to the community and eventually uniforms and school supplies to the children. Balance across the development areas and prioritization are key; the prime concern is determining what elements should be implemented first to open up possibilities for further growth.

I'm thinking that personal development and community development could be approached in similar ways. If I imagine my self as a city (let's call it Selfopolis), I should have a strategic plan for my life and understand the steps for accomplishing it. The plan should fit the terrain and the demographic makeup of the area (my personality, giftings, interests). I should identify the foundational areas of growth that will open me up for future success and work to achieve those first. At times, I may have to make an investment in infrastructure (education?) so that Selfopolis might take on greater activities. Development should be balanced in order to be sustainable. I can't build factories or skyscrapers without gas stations and parks and grocery stores. And it would probably be a good idea to elect a High Commissioner who can manage the whole process.

I could belabor this metaphor, but I'll resist and make one last mildly related point: I think community development (the real one, not my metaphorical version) is really people development. What if city planners and development workers took their eyes off the buildings and put it on the people? Building Selfopolis's is a different gig than building Metropolis's (Metropoli?). I've come to realize this is what I'm attempting in my work in Africa–building people. My desire is not to develop people so they can develop their community, but to use community development (vision, cooperation, skill-building, philanthropy and volunteerism) to develop the hearts of people. It may be my pastor's perspective, but if we're not concerned with people first in our development work, we're not really concerned with development and we won't know when to stop building the buildings.