Good Works, Inc.

For over 40 years, Good Works has formed a Community of HOPE with and for people in poverty in Southeast Ohio. For several years, Good Works has hosted a fall conference we call Going Deeper. The vision for Going Deeper is for the staff to share what we are learning, walking in and what we believe would be helpful to our friends and supporters.

Our most recent Going Deeper Conference focused on the practices that make or break all Christian Communities. We presented the four practices which cultivate and nourish our relationships and sustain community.

Every healthy Church and Christian Community will be in mission together. In doing ministry, we’ve come to understand the importance of building strong, healthy relationships as we care for one another and for those God has commissioned us to serve.

What are the foundations that sustain long term relationships? What are the shared practices which sustain community?

THE FOUR PRACTICES

HOSPITALITY to be sustainable is something we learn to do together. This is our 44th year of welcoming strangers into a home-like setting and some of what we have learned has come by way of failure. Going Deeper focuses on understanding the practice of hospitality and the language of welcome. We talk through our own experiences of when we felt welcomed and give examples from the Good Works community on what we have learned from welcoming strangers over many years. Many of us are amateurs in hospitality and there is often an awkwardness mixed with joy, duty and anxiety. We will share about some of the biblical roots of hospitality and why, as followers of Jesus we feel compelled to keep offering welcome. We will talk about how hospitality is often a two-way street and we will explore times where Jesus was both guest and host. What does it look like to integrate hospitality into community? The practice of hospitality can be messy but also hold some of the hidden secrets of the kingdom of God.

KEEPING PROMISES that we have made to one another is an essential sustaining aspect of every community. Show me an organization where people can’t keep their word or commitment to one another and I will show you a group that simply won’t last very long. At Good Works, we have developed some protocols and shared expectations for keeping our word to one another. Promise keeping takes work! It is usually the work of humility and the willingness to see one’s blind spots and not be defensive if someone wants to correct you in love. But this is the “stuff” of building community. It is hard but worth it and when we do this together, our mission is fruitful. We remain learners at all times and all that is truly required of each of us is a willing spirit. What can God do with a group of people who all have a willing spirit and who journey together to keep their word to one another?

TRUTH-TELLING.   CLEAR is the word we use in the Good Works community to describe whether our relationships are at peace, and that we don’t have anything in particular that might be considered an obstacle in our communication or love for one another. Each of our teams spend some time each week asking one another “are we clear”? On some days, the answer is no and we must figure out how to talk through the matter that has come between us. Truth-telling is the work of maintaining the unity we have received as a gift. And it is always the work of humility. The biblical basis for this practice comes from Matthew 5:23 when Jesus instructs his followers about the deep interconnection between worship and community. We connect BEING worshippers with BEING in right relationships with one another.

GRATITUDE.   In the culture of Good Works, We think a lot and talk a lot about HOPE and the ways hope is communicated. One way we have discovered is through gratitude. We have developed several different creative practices around gratitude and we are happy to share what we have learned and how these practices sustain us.  This session focuses on the importance of practicing gratitude for one another and gratitude as an expression of worship.  We share five different ways we practice gratitude in community. We will talk about the practice of gratitude in difficult times, some of the hindrances to gratitude (complaining, grumbling, gossip) and how our view of gratitude impacts our view of people we find it hard to love.  Gratitude is a posture and a mind-set, not just something we do.  Gratitude exercises the muscles of resilience!

For information on how you can arrange to have our staff come to your community and present the four practices, email us!

• The Four Practices represent a portion of what we have learned both from a book and by the teaching of Dr. Christine Pohl called LIVING INTO COMMUNITY. This book was the result of a project that 20+ pastors and practitioners worked on from 2003-2007 alongside Dr. Pohl.  Keith Wasserman participated and contributed to this project and ultimately the book.