CORE STATEMENT REALIGNMENT - Mission, vision, objectives
First and foremost in this process, The Hartford Project has updated its mission, vision and objectives statements to summarize the direction that God is calling the ministry to in this season. Please take some time to look over these pieces, as it informs the rest of this information, which explains how THP puts its mission into practice.
Click here to hear how The Hartford Project sees the Lord at work in Hartford, and why we are part of this work!
Click here to hear how The Hartford Project sees the Lord at work in Hartford, and why we are part of this work!
how thp adds value to the work of the church
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We CATALYZE in our work by bringing people into contact with a wider expression of God's Work, and challenge them to see God's direction in their life.
We INVEST in those who want to intentionally walk that out in their lives. Our main programs have people exercise themselves as assets to God's Work, with Hartford as the venue, and we encourage them to continue to walk that out. Some people will continue to learn from THP in that posture, and as people become more confident the impact of God's Kingdom grows around us. As more people see God at work, they join in as well. Along the way, Hartford is blessed at different points of this growth journey. |
We continue in our original call to unity... All of our programs are comprised of participants from multiple churches and groups from Hartford, the region, and beyond - bringing together a cross-denominational, multi-cultural, and often cross-generational expression of the Church in the work that we do. These churches are invested in the Church of the Hartford region coming together to proclaim the Word of God in word and deed in these days.
we carry out our mission in three types of programs:
BUILDING PROGRAMS - These multi-day programs pair church-based groups with Hartford nonprofit and neighborhood ministries, in order to immerse students in the range of ministry expressions, and to guide students to see themselves as ambassadors in their own lives in response to their experiences. These ministry experiences can include soul-winning evangelism, direct aid-in-service, or informal ministry such as car washes and street festivals.
DISCIPLESHIP PROGRAMS - These year-round activities help deepen participants' ministry expressions, through peer settings. By going into the Word, working through challenges together, and developing activities that draws others in the confidence of purpose, folks seeking to live a life of purpose for Christ will grow in these programs.
SERVICE PROGRAMS - These single-event programs are designed to bless the work of Hartford ministries by bringing together the Church to come alongside them to help them accomplish their tasks, giving them capacity to carry their work further and bless the city of Hartford.
DISCIPLESHIP PROGRAMS - These year-round activities help deepen participants' ministry expressions, through peer settings. By going into the Word, working through challenges together, and developing activities that draws others in the confidence of purpose, folks seeking to live a life of purpose for Christ will grow in these programs.
SERVICE PROGRAMS - These single-event programs are designed to bless the work of Hartford ministries by bringing together the Church to come alongside them to help them accomplish their tasks, giving them capacity to carry their work further and bless the city of Hartford.
how we arrived at this work plan
- Our main event (the Summer Outreach) forms the basis for our Building Programs. In typical years, the Summer Outreach may be offered more than once, but the requirements for a group to participate have been the same. As years have done by, there have been more pressures on church groups that sometimes make participation in a Summer Outreach difficult. Moving forward, we want to reconfigure our "Access Model", by having different iterations of the Summer Outreach that have different demands on participation, so that a group can choose which iteration works for them. (Note that Serve Saturdays are considered Service Programs, as the goals of Serve days and an Outreach tend to be different.)
- Folks involved with The Hartford Project have wanted to have a college offering for several years. We see this as an additional opportunity to expand our "Access Model" to our Building Programs.
- The Youth Advisory Board and The Bridge have been tools for THP to continue to invest in our network in an ongoing basis. They form the basis for the Discipleship Programs. Two future opportunities have come forward to expand our "Access Model" for our Discipleship Programs:
- While exploring programming options, we connected with 3DM Communities which helps church communities thrive as discipling teams. They have been looking for a Hartford-based partner, and we are excited to see how this partnership grows.
- With a program track for middle school, high school and college students coming to view, it was happily discovered that an organization helps churches launch regional fellowship programs for post-graduates. Hartford has many good seeds to host a fellowship program in the future, and we hope to begin investigating the launch needs soon.
- In our Service Programs, part of expanding the "Access Model" includes relaunching our Serve Saturdays to happen more often, giving worksites and participating groups more opportunities to bless our communities in Hartford.
- As a key desire is to foster partnerships between ministries that we connect, we see a stronger partnership with Urban Alliance who already has specialty in fostering partnerships.
- FYI: Our Program Director uses the term "Access Model" to describe the number of ways people can engage with a particular program based on factors such as cost, time commitment, and volunteer recruitment.
questions & answers
What is the role of THP's network? As a collaborative ministry, the network comprises of churches in Hartford and the region (and the Northeast), as well as ministries and community groups within Hartford. It is a dynamic engagement of so many expressions of the Kingdom of God! A key facet of the Program Director's job is to continually interact with members of the network for recruitment and networking purposes. As they are engaged, we constantly evaluate how our programs facilitate how God is collectively calling us to equip believers in living out service-minded lifestyles.
What are some strategic challenges to accomplishing this? The key word here is "capacity". For most of the year, all of THP's work - from networking, to event planning, to registration management, to social media engagement, and everything in between - is done by the Program Director. As programming expands, the detail-oriented work of facilitating programming would hinder the strategic work of networking and program development. Because of that, program expansion is contingent upon available capacity. Currently, our financial capacity does not afford us to hire additional staff outside of the summer, but we seek to find avenues past that.
Why is this the time to move in this direction? In the years leading up to the pandemic, we were feeling the pressures that many of our youth ministry participant groups were feeling. We began to wonder if being a program specifically for youth ministries was the best course for us. The pandemic increased those pressures, but also led to an enormous amount of leadership change in our network. THP also saw leadership change, and the Board of Directors saw the new season of re-acquainting with ministries as a great opportunity to develop a strategic direction from those conversations. We saw the Lord's hand in this: over and over these new leaders continued to share a common refrain of wanting to see students and believers walk out active lives for the Lord. We realized that our programs very much point in that same direction, and that the Lord had carried us into this new season prepared to join in with His mission in these days. With that energy and a determination to address some of the pressures on the ministry, these are the steps we see God bringing together for us in these days.
How will THP look different in this new season? One of the most exciting things about following the Lord to this place was seeing that God had led THP to develop a program that has been used powerfully in the past, and yet has so many assets for what He is directing so many leaders around us to pursue now. So our events, such as the Summer Outreach and Serve Saturdays and other events of those type that we develop, will still very much be the same experientially. What you may notice is that the teaching will generally be more intentional in our desire: that the Lord would encourage you through your experience to continue living in this posture of seeing God move around you and joining that work in whatever context God has you in - whether that's in Hartford or not.
How can I become a part of this next chapter? Our greatest energy comes from our network. If you're part of a Hartford ministry, or a leader of a youth group or Bible study, reach out to our Program Director Phil Shattuck. He is happy to meet for coffee or lunch - even just to talk about what God is doing in our ministries. Fundraising is also an important piece of this growth strategy, and if you would like to talk further please reach out to Phil Shattuck. Or, if you feel the Lord calling you to invest in this vision, you can donate here. Thank you for your support and interest, and most importantly for your prayers.
What are some strategic challenges to accomplishing this? The key word here is "capacity". For most of the year, all of THP's work - from networking, to event planning, to registration management, to social media engagement, and everything in between - is done by the Program Director. As programming expands, the detail-oriented work of facilitating programming would hinder the strategic work of networking and program development. Because of that, program expansion is contingent upon available capacity. Currently, our financial capacity does not afford us to hire additional staff outside of the summer, but we seek to find avenues past that.
Why is this the time to move in this direction? In the years leading up to the pandemic, we were feeling the pressures that many of our youth ministry participant groups were feeling. We began to wonder if being a program specifically for youth ministries was the best course for us. The pandemic increased those pressures, but also led to an enormous amount of leadership change in our network. THP also saw leadership change, and the Board of Directors saw the new season of re-acquainting with ministries as a great opportunity to develop a strategic direction from those conversations. We saw the Lord's hand in this: over and over these new leaders continued to share a common refrain of wanting to see students and believers walk out active lives for the Lord. We realized that our programs very much point in that same direction, and that the Lord had carried us into this new season prepared to join in with His mission in these days. With that energy and a determination to address some of the pressures on the ministry, these are the steps we see God bringing together for us in these days.
How will THP look different in this new season? One of the most exciting things about following the Lord to this place was seeing that God had led THP to develop a program that has been used powerfully in the past, and yet has so many assets for what He is directing so many leaders around us to pursue now. So our events, such as the Summer Outreach and Serve Saturdays and other events of those type that we develop, will still very much be the same experientially. What you may notice is that the teaching will generally be more intentional in our desire: that the Lord would encourage you through your experience to continue living in this posture of seeing God move around you and joining that work in whatever context God has you in - whether that's in Hartford or not.
How can I become a part of this next chapter? Our greatest energy comes from our network. If you're part of a Hartford ministry, or a leader of a youth group or Bible study, reach out to our Program Director Phil Shattuck. He is happy to meet for coffee or lunch - even just to talk about what God is doing in our ministries. Fundraising is also an important piece of this growth strategy, and if you would like to talk further please reach out to Phil Shattuck. Or, if you feel the Lord calling you to invest in this vision, you can donate here. Thank you for your support and interest, and most importantly for your prayers.
