12.31.2012

For many people this time of year brings frenzied holiday schedules, road trips to see relatives, and swollen credit card bills.  It may also bring unwanted house guests, awkward company parties, and anxiety or depression.  Year after year I fall prey to some of these seasonal trappings, but honest reflection reveals that I prefer the holiday season as it now exists and enjoy the “obligations” that accompany Christmas and the New Year; the credit card bill withstanding. 

At the end of each year, despite the holiday rush, I fight for time to reflect on the previous twelve months.  For me the time of reflection helps distinguish between the temporarily meaningful events and those with enduring significance.  So today, December 31, I sit at my Stewart Center desk to secure the memory of important events and to say goodbye to many pleasant, and some unpleasant, elements of the Andrew P. Stewart Center 2012.

In 2012 the Stewart Center engaged over one hundred children in summer camp activities, took six middle school students to New York City, established a food cooperative, hosted multiple fundraising events and secured the necessary resources for next year’s pilot reading initiative.  While these and other accomplishments are worthy of recognition there are three elements of this year’s ministry that carry the most significance for 2013 and beyond. 

Converting the program director’s position from part time to full time was a major progression for the organization that will greatly enhance the Center’s presence in our community.  Although Megan has been serving full time for over a year, fully funding the permanent position provides the Center with the leadership and continuity necessary to pursue aggressive goals such as the reading initiative and a second ministry location. 

This summer, for the first time in many years, the Center engaged in ministry outside of the Reynoldstown neighborhood.  In addition to our eight week camp in Reynoldstown we also hosted two weeks of camp in the Pittsburgh community of south Atlanta.  The two week camp was the first step towards engaging Pittsburgh in what will hopefully be a long-term ministry relationship.

While the aforementioned accomplishments carry great significance, it was the collective effort of everyone involved with the organization that helped expand and enhance the Center’s ministry in 2012.  This year we employed the most proficient after school and summer staffs since I have been here.  We utilized a large number of volunteers that added value to the programming while being conscious of our ministry model.  Our board of directors provided strategic guidance and oversaw successful fundraising efforts while our individual, church and community supporters increased their giving and enlisted new partners. 

The Center is a small organization but a large family.  While engaging children, youth and families in the Reynoldstown and Pittsburgh communities of Atlanta we partner with staff, volunteers and supporters from all over the city, state and nation.  I am amazed when I think of all the people that have come through the Stewart Center in 2012.  I sit here today physically cold- the Center is poorly heated- but warm of heart because of the significance of the Center’s ministry and the enduring commitment of those that love the Center and care about its mission.  If you have been a part of the Center’s ministry in any way during 2012 please know that we are very appreciative of your involvement and count you as a member of the Stewart Center family. 

Happy New Year,

Clayton

At this Rate...

A friend sent me a quote some months back that characterized leadership as being restless for change, impatient for progress and deeply dissatisfied with the status quo.  While I might not be characterized as a visionary leader that brings out the best in those I lead, I am most certainly impatient.  I could write textbooks on leadership if all you had to be was restless, impatient and dissatisfied. 

As an idealist, I dream of a brighter day for the Stewart Center when we provide under-resourced children with educational opportunities that rival those accessible to children from middle and upper class families.  As a realist, I acknowledge that the Center’s finances, leadership, facilities, and fundraising potential are seemingly years away from supporting the Stewart Center that resides in my dreams.

Jim Collins, in Good to Great and the Social Sectors notes, “To make the greatest impact on society requires first and foremost a great organization, not a single great program.” With that in mind, the Center is working to become an organization capable of impacting our community well into the future.    If the Stewart Center is on the path to greatness it has not been a straight and narrow road.  Over the past three years the Center’s journey toward greatness has been slowed, if not detoured, by our perpetual fight against the age, condition and vandalism of our facilities along with school redistricting, unrealized ministry partnerships, staff turnover, fundraising struggles and my own lack of experience. 

Our middle school students are currently engaged in an introductory study of the life and ministry of Jesus.  We are exploring Jesus’ life from birth to resurrection though a survey of the Gospels so that our students might have a basic knowledge of Jesus and his centrality to the Christian faith.  Recently, while preparing for the study, I was reminded that Jesus’ life was not an uninterrupted march toward death and resurrection.  His journey to the cross and empty tomb, events most Christian’s find salvific, was not without detour.

Instances such as Jesus’ infant flight to Egypt, the surprising request by the centurion for his servant, the paralytic being lowered while Jesus was teaching, the healing of the woman with a hemorrhage while on the way to heal Jairus’ daughter, the syrophoenician woman’s interruption, the disturbance caused by the woman caught in adultery and the repeated inquisitions by religious leaders can appear to be detours on Jesus’ journey to reconcile God and humanity.  I wonder if these, and other events like them, were not detours but were in fact Jesus' actual mission veiled by our human tendency toward ambition, success, pride and the unquenchable desire to be right. 

The Stewart Center is not where I want it to be but it might be where Jesus wanted to be; with the people.  When I see the joy on our children’s faces at the fall festival, listen to our first graders read with confidence, receive the heart felt gratitude from grandparents and see our middle school students stare down at the world from atop the Empire State Building I cannot help but think, ‘at this rate we may never be great but we might just be moving slow enough to experience others as Jesus did’…

Peace,

Clayton

Stay or Go? Yes.

Five months ago our family moved from Tucker, a suburb of Atlanta, to a house two miles from the Stewart Center.  Our new proximity to the Center and our oldest son’s entrance into kindergarten have linked my personal and professional lives and given urgency to my work as director of the Stewart Center. 

Our new (very old) house has blessed our family with more space, a great neighborhood and the opportunity for me to ride my bike to the Center.  The new location has also allowed my family to connect to the Stewart Center’s ministry more than was ever possible when we lived in Tucker.  The new neighborhood has introduced new schools, stores, doctors, churches, restaurants and relationships.  By living near the city’s center we have developed relationships with people from diverse backgrounds who have enriched our lives and broadened our perspectives.  Our connection with the city has grown as we have built bonds with others that inhabit the urban environment before, during and after the work day. 

Before the move my thirty minute commute gave time for decompression and provided distance between my work and family lives.  It is now a challenge to distinguish the personal from the professional.  The Stewart Center’s Kroger is now my family’s Kroger.  The Grant Park pool is now a place where the Stewart Center kids and my kids swim together.  My son, Ty, now attends one of the schools served by the Center’s after school program.  Because the Stewart Center is a part of my community I take more seriously how the ministry impacts its neighborhood as well as specific people.  When work and life intermingle relationships based on shared experiences replace those that originate from vocation or calling. 

I have worked to improve the Stewart Center’s ministry and build the organization since arriving in December of 2009.  The Center’s board of directors and staff have committed to a plan designed to establish the Stewart Center as a leader in academic enrichment in Atlanta.  This goal is pursued daily by staff, volunteers, and board members and is supported by the contributions of individuals, foundations, businesses and churches. The Stewart Center’s cause has always been noble but it turned personal for me when my kindergartener began attending the after school program this semester.   Ty only attends the Center once a week but his presence has pushed me to increase the pace at which we improve our programming.  I am more critical of our efforts and attentive to our progress now that I have ‘skin in the game.’  

As it turns out ministry should not be confused with volunteerism or a period of time or a special place or a calling from God.  Ministry is living the presence of Christ wherever we are.  I wish I had known that while living in Tucker, and Montgomery, and Auburn and Clemson.  Where we are is where we are called.

Peace,

Clayton

Big Apple Grows Confidence

Each May the Stewart Center facilitates an educational travel experience with participants from our middle school program.  In order to secure a spot in the traveling party students must meet certain academic, conduct, attendance and service project requirements.  Of the nine members in our middle school group six qualified for this year’s trip to New York City.

General George Patton, referencing a nineteenth century German military officer, once said “No plan has ever survived contact with the enemy.”  This statement proved applicable with regards to our New York travel itinerary.  Thanks to a ticket snafu, multiple delays, a cancelled flight and a stop in Detroit, the Center’s six students and four chaperons landed at New York’s LaGuardia airport 26 hours after leaving the Stewart Center.  Although only one of the middle school students had previous flying experience the youth handled the situation with relative ease and predominately good behavior.  Upon arrival in New York it was apparent that the ordeal had not dampened the students’ eagerness for air travel or their expectations for the week’s activities.  The students’ positive attitude help bolster a weary group of chaperons. 

Metro Baptist Church was our host while we were in New York and provided us with affordable lodging and easy access to the City’s many attractions.  Among other things our group toured Ellis Island, spent an afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History, ascended to the top of the Empire State Building, saw a Broadway show and dickered with merchants in Chinatown.  Whether riding the subway, taking in a Mets game or playing in Central Park each passing experience increased the students’ confidence as travelers.  At the trip’s outset it was difficult to determine which was flying faster, the airplane or the butterflies in the students’ stomachs.  But by the second and third day of the trip the middle schoolers, who had never been out of the southeast, moved through the City and later the airport with the ease of experienced travelers.

I am not sure if the students’ confidence rose because of numerous successful experiences, group dynamics or the naiveté that accompanies being twelve.  Regardless of the cause, our educational travel not only enriches the mind, it emboldens the spirit.  Former Auburn University football coach Pat Dye has been quoted as saying “If you don’t believe you are going to win, you’ve already lost.”  The irony of that statement is that many under-resourced children believe they are going to win on the football field but they don’t believe they can be winners in academics or business, or in their family and community lives. 

Not everything went smoothly with our travels and not every element of the trip lived up to my educational expectations but the Center is committed to providing our students with the experiences necessary to grow their confidence for success.  It is not enough to offer traditional academic support and faith development opportunities; we must help our children realize their value, potential and capabilities.  To succeed our students must have the intellectual, emotional and spiritual maturity to pursue their full potential but they must also believe that success is possible and that it is within their reach…for without belief they have already lost.

Peace,
Clayton