Our Youth Director, Troy Bryant, and I were able to attend the CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) Conference in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, along with approximately 3,000 other people.  We had a wonderful experience, connecting with fellow leaders from across the country, being inspired from some phenomenal speakers and gaining some new ideas about after school programs, hip hop culture, multicultural organizations and more.

The CCDA was started 20 years ago when John Perkins, a Mississippi sharecropper's son, and Dr. Wayne "Coach" Gordon, an inner-city Chicago transplant from Iowa, invited like-minded people together for fellowship and training in best practices for work in under resourced neighborhoods.

The CCDA philosophy began with the three R's that John Perkins first articulated: relocation, reconciliation and redistribution.  There are now 8 Key Components in the CCDA Philosophy: Relocation (living among the people), Reconciliation, Redistribution (just distribution of resources), Leadership Development, Listening to Community, Church-Based, Wholistic Approach and Empowerment.

John Perkins like to quote an ancient Chinese proverb...

Go to the people.  Live among them.  Learn from them.  Love them.  Start with what they know.  Build on what they have.  But of the best leaders, when their task is done, the people will remark, "We have done it ourselves."

Far too often middle and upper class Christians try to help people in under resourced neighborhoods, but the efforts have little or even negative impact, because it is too easy to underestimate the gifts God has given people in those neighborhoods.  People need to be empowered and given a voice in the process.  The CCDA has helped people understand this for 20 years now, and as our country evolves and changes, I hope that the CCDA can keep the passion and key parts of the foundational vision while adjusting to the times.  Things like gentrification, the suburbanization of poverty, immigration debate, globalization and social media are changing our country and our world, and I hope that the CCDA can continue to provide friendships and resources to workers in these changing times.