Moving Missions Beyond Simple Charity and Short-Term Fixes

Is your organization torn between conflicting needs and priorities? Are you using resources that are given to your organization, but have “strings attached” which threaten to pull you away from your primary objectives, or cause you to question or compromise your true mission?   As someone on the frontlines of ministry with the poor, you know better than most that shifting the church’s understanding of what is and is not “helping that hurts” is no short-term fix.  What we do at Significant Matters, through our Missions 3.0 Workshops, Peer Learning Communities and SATtalks is accelerate the learning curve for churches.  Our particular niche in this space is to help churches reframe their missions work around sustainable solutions and create room for business-minded people who can help that happen.  We call that Missions 3.0.  In short, we help churches become better partners for ministries trying to create lasting change.

Presenter:  Tom Bassford is the founder and President of Significant Matters, a nonprofit organization working with churches and other faith-based groups to tackle complex societal issues in sustainable ways.   Before founding Significant Matters, he pastored for over 30 years and has been involved in the work of church missions both locally and internationally for over 40 years.

In 2014, under his leadership, Significant Matters launched SATtalks, a TED talk type of gathering and video website to explore and demonstrate ways to create sustainable transformation through church missions.  They also launched the Missions 3.0 Network and Peer Learning Communities for churches wanting to move their mission work beyond “helping that hurts.”