This is an application to join a Learning Cohort in the Faith-Based Animator Network (FAN) program. Our next cohort starts late July/August 2025. Members of FAN, which we refer to as Animators, complete a 14-week training on neighboring and community organizing using Asset-Based Community Development from a faith-based perspective. You can choose to join either as an individual or as part of a team at your church. If you are applying as part of a church team, please have each member apply separately. APPLICATION DUE APRIL 8th.
Learn more:
Webinar (relevant section begins at 14:21)
Who should apply?
Individuals:
FAN is open to all people of faith (though it is rooted in a Christian context) and is specifically looking for people who are deeply passionate about neighboring around their homes with their literal, immediate neighbors. No prior experience is necessary, and it is okay if you don't know any neighbors yet, or know just a few! We are looking for people highly dedicated to pursuing a paid, immersive neighboring opportunity for 14 weeks. Due to the nature of this cohort, we expect a high commitment level, and desire those ready to participate in a learning community that holds each other to a high standard of accountability (like a job), but we will also operate with a ton of grace towards each other! We are limited in our ability to offer spanish-speaking engagement at the moment, though there are still possibilities that we can point to. Applicants not limited to Kansans or US citizens.
Congregations:
The Faith-Based Animator Network (FAN) resources congregations with hands-on, immersive tools that create an identity and culture of "neighboring" in their church, a few lay leaders at a time. We believe that the church's place-based presence and mission to "love our neighbors" makes congregations the perfect conduits for sending out people who build real, reciprocal, relationships with their immediate, literal neighbors. Congregations recruit teams of members who dive deep into the neighborhoods where they live, get to know their neighbors at the speed of trust, and discover what God is already up to on their blocks. These teams are a missional and incarnational presence extending beyond the church walls. We resource each team member with a broad array of neighboring tools and practice opportunities, a supportive community of like-minded, faith-led neighboring practitioners journeying alongside them, and a financial stipend to cover 5 hours of their time each week. There is no cost to churches.
What will I be doing?
The 14 weeks include 2 in-person workshops, weekly 90-minute virtual meetings, and engaging in mini-experiments as we work with the Holy Spirit to weave together the tapestries of our places and all life that lives there. The weekly commitment is about 5 hours per week. This program is great for individuals and small groups who are passionate about finding God already at work in their neighbors and would like to gain resources and peer-support through their journey. In-person workshops will be held in Wichita. We will fly out-of-state participants out here or pay for their driving mileage, and will also cover the cost of acommodations.
Each participant will:
1) Establish neighborhood presence, trust, and familiarity on their block, building relationships with at least 8 immediate neighbors.
2) Learn to see their neighborhood through the lens of God's abundance by putting their experiences in their neighborhoods and their readings from our textbook, The Connected Community, into conversation with their faith and scripture.
3) Find an ally among their neighbors to help them host a small, intentional gathering with the neighbors where they live.
4) Discover their neighbors' gifts and plot them on an "asset map."
5) Present the asset map to their peers.
6) Connect with a broader team of people doing this work from around the country who can hold each other accountable, while supporting and cheering each other on.
7) Learn tools they can take back to their church congregations to help them build real relationships with residential, associational, and business neighbors around the church building.
How can my congregation get involved?
Church congregations can get involved by:
1) Sending us 2-5 passionate team members who are ready to commit to all 14 weeks of the FAN cohort.
2) Publicly celebrating, sending out, commissioning, etc. these team members as Animators who will be exemplars of the Kingdom of God where they live.
3) Gathering others in the church to help hold the Animators to their goals, cheering them on, and otherwise checking in on them.
4) Allowing space for the Animators to share small workshops where they can spread some of the tools that they learn which can be applied in and around the church.
5) Keeping the congregation updated on the work of the Animators, ideally recruiting Animators for future cohorts.
6) Animators guide the church through the process of eligibility for The Good Neighbor Church Certificate., a benchmark on the church's journey to embracing "neighboring" as part of their identity and "connector" as a new role for the church in their neighborhood. An eligible church will make a design change to make their church more welcoming to neighbors. The church's members will be engaged in in-depth, face-to-face "Holy Listening Conversations" with neighbors around their homes and around the church building. These conversations are not about imposing an agenda, but truly about listening and learning about the passions, dreams, and talents of their literal neighbors. They will co-create an asset map, a creative visualization of how God's abundance is exemplified through these gifts, and use this map to connect neighbors to work together for the common good where they live.
7) Churches can decide to start a 4-week worship series on neighboring to coincide with the Animators' time in the cohort.
By focusing on a few key leaders at a time, we can resource those within the congregation who are most passionate about spending a significant amount of time doing this neighboring work without taking over major parts of the church calendar for the entire church as GNE did. Those small teams of Animators diffuse important, but manageable tools and practices to the wider church body. This body engages with these tools and supports the Animators who take a deeper dive. Some church members will be inspired enough to become Animators in future cohorts. After several cohort cycles, we can build toward a critical mass of Animators whose consistent and thorough neighboring work creates ripple effects through the church and begins to change the culture of the congregation. Please have each interested individual within your church apply separtately.
How much do you pay, and what's next?
Time commitment for the learning cohort (FAN phase 1) is 5 hours per week at a $15 hourly rate. Animators who complete a Learning Cohort are eligible to move into the second phase of FAN, the Community Building Cohort, which allows Animators to dive deep into their learnings from phase 1 and create a community project of their choice. This will pay $22/hour for up to 5 hours a week.
Please email ian@neighboringmovement.org or call or text Ian at 972-971-9345 with any questions or clarifications!
* To see last year's schedule for the phase 1 learning cohort, click here. Some activities and initiatives will be condensed, removed, replaced due to limited time, but you can get the gist.