Christians Supporting
Community Organizing (CSCO) is a bold national attempt to
change the relationship between the theologically
conservative parts of the Protestant church and community
organizing.
from the report by USC's Center for Religion and Civic
Culture (Fall, '99). For entire report see CSCO website in
"About Us."
PURPOSE
The purpose of Christians
Supporting Community Organizing (CSCO) is to work for the
shalom of our society (Jeremiah 29:7) and of our churches by
engaging Evangelical, Holiness and Pentecostal churches in
congregation-based community organizations. To work for the
shalom is to work for systemic/ structural justice within
our communities and churches. By engaging in this work, we
are seeking to bring all of life under the Lordship of
Christ.
MISSION
The mission of CSCO is to
motivate, enable and support churches and pastors of
Evangelical, Holiness and Pentecostal traditions to become
active members of regionally- and nationally-networked
congregation-based community organizations in their city.
Christians
Supporting Community Organizing,
P.O.Box
8766, Denver,CO 80201
303/573-1055;Fax 303/860-1914;
cscoemail @ aol.com;
www.cscoweb.org
(our new
website and design)
Leadership
Dr. Stephen Mott,
Dr. Dick Righter,
Mr. David Milroy
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CSCO-Discuss!
Most
of you are aware of the CSCO-Discuss email list. This list
provides more regular updates about CSCO and CSCO members. We
encourage you to join the list if you’ve not yet joined.
Please use the list to share updates about yourself, your
ministry and your CSCO commitments! To subscribe, send an
email message from the email address that you want to use for
the list to:
CSCOdiscuss-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
2002 CSCO Annual Meeting
The Annual Meeting was
held at the Walker Center for Global Mission in Newton MA. The
meeting opened with a forum on "How to persuade
Evangelical, Pentecostal, and Holiness people who are uneasy
with ecumenicity to work ecumenically in community
organizing." John Heinemeir, a leading pastor in the
Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, participated; and
other organizers and other guests were present.
Membership requirements were changed to make the annual
financial commitment only $200, while creating a distinction
of sponsors, who are members who continue to give or raise one
percent of their income. Mentoring for prospective
members also was formalized.
Members shared what they planned or wanted to do for CSCO’s
ministry in this coming year. The next annual meeting will be
May 18-20, 2003 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Building
a People of Power" interactive video
Newly printed video brochure are available. Over 200 video’s
have been sold (mainly by Bob Linthicum)! If you can sell one
(CSCO website accepts credit cards at http://members.aol.com/cscoweb/video.htm),
the nice profit for each CSCO sale goes to CSCO. If you need
more brochures, send a self-enclosed envelope to Dick Righter,
1512 Cory Drive, Dayton, OH 45406 and he will send you four
more. Dick reports that his congregation has seen the entire
27 sessions and was thrilled to see it (especially Bob's
presentations). The video is a must. Hopefully in the year we
will have sections of the 27 sessions for sale.
OTHER NEWS
Princeton Theological Seminary student and new CSCO
member David Milroy has agreed to serve on the CSCO Leadership
Team. He has had experience as an organizer in Denver and
brings great enthusiasm for CSCO’s future.
Tim Tseng has stepped down from the Leadership Team
because of the responsibilities related to his new appointment
as the Director of the Asian American Center at the American
Baptist Seminary of the West. This center seeks to equip
Asian American evangelicals for leadership in the church and
the world – thus will have organizing as a central focus of
its ministry. He will remain a member of CSCO.
Stephen Mott reports that the Church and Society
Committee of the New England Annual Conference of the United
Methodist Church has again voted to contribute $2,500 to CSCO.
$5,500 out of a total of $16,000 in its budget is for
Congregational Based Community Organizations (CBCO's), and it
actually draws on another fund to contribute more than $5,500.
All the other contributions in this area go directly to CBCO's
so that we are recognized for our novel approach of education
and recruitment among EPH churches.
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CSCO, P.O. Box 60123, Dayton, OH 45406; email: