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Sacred Settlements
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Planting a Sacred Settlement works much the same way.
Sacred Settlements start small, like a seed. Your church is made to do this work, so trust that even if it’s hard to imagine the final result, it’s good to remember that the people of the church tend to develop stage-by-stage alongside the settlement itself. A Sacred Settlement, at its most basic level, is an extension of the Church's calling: “loving our neighbor as ourselves.” Keep in mind, at no point will you be left to figure this out on your own; Settled will partner with your church every step of the way.
So what exactly does this look like in practice? The first step is for the church to answer the question,
"How might a Sacred Settlement enhance our church's existing mission?"
Interestingly, the church benefits from this arrangement as well. Having a Sacred Settlement builds on your church's existing strengths, making it achievable by most churches. All you need is a willing heart and some under-utilized church land; Settled will help you fill in the rest.
We call them Discern, Plan, Build, and Steward. Each one can take an average of 3-9 months to complete—with the exception of the final stage, Steward, which is the ongoing commitment to shepherd the enduring community and encourage everyone to grow in healthy relationships with one another.
If you and your church are interested in potentially planting your own Sacred Settlement, we invite you to come and see it in action first. We will educate you about the Full Community model, help you build a leadership team, give you a tour of a couple of existing Sacred Settlements, and lead your church through a discernment process to see if this is the best fit for your unique ministry.
Then, we will work with your church to design an operational framework for implementing the five elements of Full Community, using our best practices, processes, and procedures and adapting them to the needs of your church and neighborhood. This process is about preparing your heart and space to fully express your mission and commitment to love your neighbor. An important part of this stage is listening to and receiving input from your congregation, city, and community so that you can continue to shape your Sacred Settlement and leverage your unique strengths and mission.
At this point, your church will be ready to renovate its land and build the Sacred Settlement. This phase is also about training and equipping volunteers and making sure everything is in place to open the Sacred Settlement. Settled provides construction expertise, helps maintain momentum, and ensures that all elements for a Full Community are in place before the grand opening. (Everyone’s favorite part!)
Once your Sacred Settlement is established, we help you practice Full Community. Through regular support and communication, your Sacred Settlement will become a lasting place of peace and community. There’s challenges at every turn, but the good kind of challenges that help everyone involved grow and develop. You will have the ability to share insights you’ve gained and benefit from our expanding ecosystem of settlements and church partners.
Sacred Settlements can be built on former parking lots, odd-shaped lots, and otherwise unbuildable corners of church property, bringing beauty and purpose to underused spaces. These church grounds can have clusters of tiny homes, gardens, and sitting areas. There are often underutilized areas in the church building as well. Think closets, Sunday school rooms, or a library space that can be transformed or doubled in its function. A carefully chosen portion of the existing church building can be renovated to accommodate a common home where community members have access to laundry, toilets, and showers. There is also a community kitchen, living room, dining room, and work area that function as an extension of their home.
Sacred Settlements are more than just another tiny home village because Intentional Neighbors occupy one-third of the homes. These are resourced people who have a calling and volunteer to live alongside the formerly homeless like an extension of family. (An Intentional Neighbor can be an individual, a couple, or a family—we have all three types living in Sacred Settlements). The remaining two-thirds of the homes are reserved for our neighbors who were formerly homeless to live in.
But it's not just about providing more housing; it's about solving a social problem in a way that God designed from the beginning. Settled believes that God has an answer to homelessness. He puts the lonely in families. To that end, we have developed the Full Community model—a research-based and biblically-grounded approach to healing chronic homelessness. Learn the five key elements of Full Community here.
At this point, you may be thinking, "This sounds amazing, but overwhelming. How do we get started?" That's where Settled comes in. We don't do the work for you, we do it with you! Settled provides operating models, templates, best practices, training, and community design. We facilitate workshops and ensure that your church is set up for success at every stage of planting and stewarding a Sacred Settlement.
We provide order and structure right from the start with a proven model, standard operating procedures, and paving the way with legal research. You have the benefit of our experience and can step forward in confidence knowing that you're not the first to create a successful Sacred Settlement; we have churches that have gone before you and have thriving communities.
Your church provides the site, property management, supportive community, and communication to stakeholders (city and county, neighborhood, congregation) and provides a level of customization to common practice elements established by Settled. You are not doing this alone! Settled will be with you every step of the way. This is completely doable; we break the process down into manageable steps and your church can go at the pace that you are comfortable with.
Central to the Full Community model is the idea that churches across the nation welcome their homeless neighbors off the streets and into a supportive Sacred Settlement.
Settled envisions a future where the local church lives in Full Community with its homeless neighbors, modeling healthy relationships, purposeful work, and meaningful abundance, and cultivating places where everyone is valued, celebrated, and functioning according to their gifts for the benefit of the whole.
If you would like more information about planting a Sacred Settlement on your own church campus, please fill out the form on this page.
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