Opportunity  

Center for Transforming Mission’s International resource center equips people to see and celebrate Good News in hard places, especially in the context of poverty and violence.  We recognize that the myth of scarcity breeds fear and fuels violence of all kinds.  The reality of abundance – the super abundance of God’s love, is the source of all peace – the kind of peace that liberates and reconciles the oppressed and the oppressor, the victim and the victimizer, the powerless and the powerful.  It is always mutual and always consensual.  The reality of God’s abundant love frees us to live, love and serve in ways that promote peace for all. 

As a peace-making organization we seek non-violent means of transformation in all we do.  We help people map the hurt, hope and heart of the communities they serve.  We offer theological and spiritual formation that calls forth forms of service, art, worship and community that bring healing and hope to hurting communities.  We nurture life giving perspectives and practices that call forth daring acts of love, deep reflection and much needed discernment.

We see the city as a classroom, a parish and a playground and we equip people to engage it as such.  The city is a classroom in that it is a living library of wisdom waiting to be discovered.  It is the parish home to all streams of faith necessary for healing.  It is playground of innovation and creativity that is tested in real time. 

CTM recognizes the most powerful and renewable resource in high-risk communities resides within the communities themselves – the web of people, relationships and institutions that sustain the life of the community.  The critical need is to recognize, network and train local leaders to activate these resources ways that are sustainable.    

Unfortunately, the people who are closest to the needs are often overlooked and overwhelmed.  They do not receive the encouragement or training they deserve.  As a result, high-risk communities are vulnerable to well-meaning but unsustainable solutions that are artificially imposed from the outside.  Solutions that are not owned and led by the communities themselves suffer along with the people.  They fail to experience transformation from the inside out.     

Therefore, CTM is committed to offering affordable and accessible training and resources that equip people to be agents of transformation with and for those who have been labeled the least, last and lost. 

“It takes grace to see grace.”
Karl Barth