Transforming communities throughout Ohio at the intersections of congregational development and community development.
ABOUT
Start small, but start!
Ohio Um CDC is a new 501(c)3 created in 2023 to further the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world through United Methodist churches and ministries in Ohio, East and West. The OUMCDC offers encouragement and support to those already engaged in community development, resources and connections to those getting started, and teaching and mentorship for congregations seeking to venture into community development.
The United Nations defines community development as "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems.”
The United Methodist Social Principles guide us to acknowledge that "the community provides the potential for nurturing human beings into the fullness of their humanity. We believe we have a responsibility to innovate, sponsor, and evaluate new forms of community that will encourage development of the fullest potential in individuals. Primary for us is the gospel understanding that all persons are important—because they are human beings created by God and loved through and by Jesus Christ and not because they have merited significance. We therefore support social climates in which human communities are maintained and strengthened for the sake of all persons and their growth."
​
This is our work together, collaborating together, reinforcing our ministries through assets and engagement, learning from previous mistakes and making new mistakes together.
​
We are the ones we've been waiting for!
Asset-based,
People-oriented
Insurmountable challenges and insurmountable opportunties
"God saw all that he had made. and it was very good." Genesis 1:31
When we look at each other, our neighborhoods, our churches, our communities, it can be easy to see the needs, the deficits, the decline, the too-far-gone. However, we believe in a God of resurrection. Our faith is built on the promise of new, restored, redeemed, resurrected life in Jesus Christ. When we can look at our neighbors and our neighborhoods with the eyes of God at creation, it is very good, we can discover and uncover the assets, gifts, talents, resources, and thoughts that are all around us and inside us.
