How Can Church Property Bring Repair? with Rev. Chris Dela Cruz and Rev. Melissa O’Keefe Reed

This week, Shannon Hopkins and Rev. Mark Elsdon continue their takeover of the Igniting Imagination podcast with guests Rev. Chris Dela Cruz and Rev. Melissa O’Keefe Reed. They discuss the transformative project, Barbie's Village, where a Presbyterian church in Portland, Oregon, took a groundbreaking step by giving land back to indigenous leaders as a form of repair and restitution. Chris and Melissa delve into the significance of acknowledging the land’s history and the meaningful relationships built with the Indigenous community. They share how this work has rejuvenated the church’s mission and deepened their faith. 

Listen this week as Shannon, Mark, Chris, and Melissa explore the power of understanding our land stories and cultivating a spirit of generosity and belonging for true transformation.

Co-Hosts

Shannon Hopkins is Co-Founder of Rooted Good and a Locke Innovative Leader. She is an extreme networker and social entrepreneur living in East London. Her passion for community and individual transformation has launched or influenced the formation of fifteen campaigns, projects, and organizations — and trained over 200 social entrepreneurs. In 2008, Shannon was awarded the Women of the UN and UK’s Annual Woman of Peace Award for The Truth isn’t Sexy, a campaign that addressed the demand side of human trafficking. 

Rev. Mark Elsdon is Co-Founder and Lead Builder of Rooted Good. He lives and works at the intersection of money and meaning as an entrepreneur, nonprofit executive, author, and speaker. He is the author of We Aren't Broke: Uncovering Hidden Resources for Mission and Ministry (2021) and editor of Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition (2024). In addition to his role as a Director with RootedGood, Mark is also Executive Director at Pres House, where he led the transformation of a dormant non-profit into a growing, vibrant, multi-million dollar organization.

Guests

Rev. Chris Dela Cruz is a Pastor and Community Organizer. He currently serves as Director of Youth Initiatives with Together Lab, overseeing the Youth Solidarity Movement in Oregon. Previously, Rev. Dela Cruz served as Associate Pastor with Westminster Presbyterian Church Portland, the sponsor congregation for Barbie's Village with the Presbytery of the Cascades. His background includes newspaper journalism, youth, and college ministry, congregational pastoral ministry, and community organizing.

Rev. Melissa O'Keefe Reed was born in Goettingen, Germany while her parents studied theology. She was raised throughout the New England Synod, the daughter of two Lutheran pastors, where she learned the power of community to nurture active, curious, relentless faith in an incarnate, relational God. This faith would agitate her at Boston College (BA in English), through work in a Lutheran Community Services group home, and at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, CA (MDiv, 2008) where she encountered faith-based community organizing in Oakland. Suddenly, the resurrective power of this relational God who dwells most profoundly in the world’s wounds came alive in flesh and blood.

Episode Highlights 

• The church's economic models are evolving, prompting innovative uses of property for community benefit.
• Barbie's Village exemplifies how churches can engage in reparative acts towards indigenous communities.
• Transformative relationships are essential for churches to address their land and property issues.
• Community organizing can foster meaningful change.
• Leaders in the church must confront their historical ties to the land and its implications.

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(01:50) Shannon and Mark’s intro to the episode

(05:08) Interview with Rev. Chris Dela Cruz and Rev. Melissa O’Keefe Reed

(45:00) Chris and Melissa answer rapid-fire questions

Links

Visit our show’s website at www.ignitingimagination.org.

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