Jeff is a social entrepreneur, experience designer and is always concepting new cause marketing ideas. He is gifted at creatively communicating the needs of the poor to the greater culture and is actively launching macro and grassroots campaigns for many more-than-profit organizations. He is the co-founder of Fermi Project and spent three years as Brand Manager at Catalyst, the Next Generation Leadership Conference. His latest projects include starting a local coffee shop and launching GiftCardGiver.com. Jeff is actively restoring his neighborhood, East Atlanta Village with his wife, Andre, and boxer, Max.

Feel free to email Jeff with any questions or thoughts at jeff@jeffshinabarger.com

(as featured in PRISM Magazine: May/June 2009)

Our vocational life often seems confined to homogenous relationships where people end up working alongside others from similar backgrounds. Few people seem to experience diversity in the workplace. Until now. Our local world is global. We’re becoming a multicultural country, where whites will make up less than 50% of the total U.S. population in just a matter of a few years. And a gap of relationship between the privileged and the poor is increasing. Now is our opportunity to imagine and work together across the lines that divide us.

Here’s how such imagining comes to life. Andrej, a Slovak, partners with me, an Anglo-white originally from suburban Detroit. We are preparing to open a communal, affordable workspace in inner-city Atlanta called Metro Merge Office. A little while later, Leroy, a local African-American community leader, and Mike, who runs a local coffee shop, arrive and begin dreaming with us about the idea of shared office space.

In no time, creative ideas naturally spring up between us. Metro Merge seems to be taking off even before the doors are open. Somehow, our impromptu conversation sparked our yet-to-be-discovered imagination, igniting the kind of creativity that only exists in the context of diverse relationships. We’re neighbors. God designed us for each other. Diversity offers the opportunity for mutual learning, healing, perspective and idea. Like a Rubiks Cube, every angle, every side, every twist is essential to the bigger picture that God intends for our world.

Dream with me for a moment

Metro Merge is a launching pad for new possibilities. When people merge into relationships, the unexpected happens. Vision bursts onto the scene. Stories and business cards are exchanged. Names are remembered, and people’s lives and entire neighborhoods can be transformed. At the core, following Jesus Christ is about relationship.

Rather than only working in our isolated offices all over town, we’re creating a communal office where business professionals, leaders and neighbors can work side-by-side on a frequent basis. Similar to the concept of mixed-income affordable housing, imagine people who need access to affordable office space connecting as “vocational neighbors” who otherwise might never meet. Envision trainings on positive entrepreneurship for young men like Tay. What if suburban and urban churches were cross-pollinating and sharing resources? What if professionals and neighbors were connecting across race and class lines, while partnering on common causes within a distressed neighborhood? This is all possible and within reach.

Let’s take “Facebook” offline and bring it face-to-face with reality, on the ground, in real neighborhoods with real people. Ultimately, our callings are meant to intersect and merge our life and work experiences together.

Collaboration and cost cutting are both important in today’s world. Practically speaking, Metro Merge Office is set up through pre-paid buckets of work hours.

No bills or maintenance.

Simply come to work, meet people and, if you choose, dream alongside vocational neighbors during breaks, lunch or other times. Set your own hours to suit your unique schedule when the doors are open.

Let’s move in together.

We could be roommates.

Imagine that.

To learn more, go to MetroMerge.org

Invest with us.

• completed all furtniture assembly
• completed proposal and business forecast
• finished cleaning
• ordered lockers
• got internet, phone and fax lines
• printed an article to hand out at the night of the grand opening
• confirmed the flow of the grand opening for 3/19
• spoke with the Lock Doctor (front door buzzer), scheduled an appt. for Friday

Today

• purchase and install wireless router
• final touch-ups
• submit proposal and business forecast
• share vision with partners

• furniture almost all assembled
• all painting completed
• story boards hung
• music selection for grand opening night in process
• business forecast/pro forma almost complete
• contacted The Lock Doctor about front door buzzer
• contacted Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta (helping us with waiver form and agreement)
• worked more on pricing of buckets
• spoke with some volunteers for the grand opening
• worked on language for sub-urban.org
• worked on agenda for grand opening

Today

• finish language sub-urban.org and proposal
• complete business forecast/pro forma
• complete furniture assembly
• speak with The Lock Doctor about the quote on the front door
• measure signs and provide text to Kris
• create a copy of sub-urban.org for Black Inc.
• clean/vacuum

• contacted the locker company (it’s in process)
• worked more on language and proposal
• met with Alethia (accounting) about key codes for cash/credit processing and brainstorming about legal issues (liability, insurance, leases)
• sent out the invitation for the grand opening
• met with Selina and spoke about the grand opening event, connected her with a few people
• spoke with Kris about web strategy
• received all furniture from IKEA (except 7 table tops, due next week)

Today

• confirm locker order
• contact property manager about how prepaid bucket of hours can be described in leases, if at all
• meeting with partner to reconnect and share vision
• confirm proposal and SEND TODAY
• phone appointment with Selina about the process of event planning
• find volunteer to paint the stairwell
• get the next awaken neighbor out
• touch base with Mr. Jackson again about the story boards
• contact Alethia about removing the hanging phone line

While I was serving as a pastor at a suburban church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, our family relocated to an urban, multicultural neighborhood in an attempt to catalyze relationships between those two worlds. Over the years, we’ve experienced the redemptive impact of relationships built across race and class lines, and we have also felt the isolation of homogenous relationships that limit the full creative potential of God’s Kingdom. And since moving to a transitioning inner-city neighborhood in Atlanta, we’ve seen first-hand the devastating effect of the housing foreclosure crisis upon those renting from slumlords. Our issues belong to each other.

Spiritual leaders have asked me for practical examples of how their suburban churches can join God at work in local neighborhoods. My responses come out of my own questions as I attempt to engage Jesus followers in issues like the housing foreclosure epidemic. Justice, I am finding, is more than advocating for others. Justice is character and right relationship. Some of the following suggestions might be useful in shaping the direction of your neighborhood involvement:

1. Embrace the whole gospel with a whole neighborhood: Spiritual, social and economic rebirth happens when we display the hopeful way of Jesus Christ, showing how the brilliance of God’s Kingdom transforms everything—our relationships with God, with others, and with creation. Consider focusing your efforts in small geographic areas in order to lock arms with local neighbors, leverage resources, and concentrate your collective impact.
2. Raise awareness about Jesus, justice and the city: Face the reality of racism and poverty by inviting urban practitioners to educate your congregation about how to take steps toward reconciliation that can transform neighborhoods. As life-long students of Jesus, let’s unearth new ways to be church for, with and of our neighborhoods.
3. Innovate through neighboring: The great command is foundational to the great commission. Our U.S. cities are changing fast. Urban professionals are moving downtown and the marginalized are moving to the edges of our city and suburbs. We have a new opportunity to re-imagine our commuter, “attractional” model of Sunday-drive-in church and move toward becoming a “missional-familial,” neighborhood-focused model of church. We must learn to be church where we live, work and play, asking the question, “How can we become family with those we’re serving and doing life beside?”
4. Be sure your budget reflects your blog. A strategic budget can empower intentional action. Consider leveraging your financial resources into community development projects in our urban communities and suburban cul-de-sacs. Invest into the assets that already exist in a given neighborhood, making room for experiments that flow in tact with creative research and development for God’s Kingdom.
5. Pursue interdependent imagination: Bono said, “Dream out loud, at high volume.” What if Jesus-followers led the way by dreaming out loud (with others)? We are invited to be part of the new, reconciling family that Jesus came to bring (Jew and Gentile). What untapped creativity are we yet to discover in our diversity? The future of healthy neighborhoods is dependent upon our interdependency.
6. Give yourself away: Build God’s Kingdom, not an institution. Find quiet ways to serve behind-the-scenes. Channel your church’s “hipness” (“culture of cool”) toward humility, in pursuit of mutual listening, loving, giving and investing into relationships that honor the dignity of vulnerable people. Caring about issues of injustice goes beyond a cool trend. It’s always been God’s heart.
7. Find ways to collaborate: We need each other. True generosity involves reciprocity. Give-and-take relationships make for the healthiest of partnerships. Urban and suburban neighborhoods are overlapping more than ever, and Jesus followers must collaborate across race and class lines in order to love their neighbors well.
8. Jump in for the long haul: Rather than focusing on short-term projects, suburban churches have most impact when seeking long-term partnerships. The transformation of a neighborhood can take as long as 10-15 years, and establishing God’s shalom requires an ongoing commitment.
9. Build a diverse staff: The challenge of sharing strategic leadership is essential. The future of our changing U.S. landscape is a multiethnic world, and Jesus followers everywhere can experience the joy of unity in diversity. Submitting ourselves to multiethnic leaders, giving room for the capable, skilled and strong leadership of others, will enhance our churches, offices and communities more than ever. * May we also submit to wise, elderly leaders who have gone before us, while listening to the voices of female leaders who round out our limited masculine perspectives.
10. Channel action toward community development: Most churches are great at providing “relief” and “betterment” service projects. Our cities are filled with these kinds of ministries. Consider how your church can partner with those focused on long-term measurable change in local neighborhoods. * To learn about Christian community development, visit www.ccda.org and consider a must-read entitled, “Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life” by Dr. Bob Lupton. Most churches are great at providing “relief” and “betterment” service projects. Our cities are filled with these kinds of ministries. Consider how your church can partner with those focused on long-term measurable change in local neighborhoods. * To learn about Christian community development, visit www.ccda.org and consider a must-read entitled, “Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life” by Dr. Bob Lupton.

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW.

The following are a couple of potential, highly practical starting points for your church to consider:

Call out the few in your church to become “Strategic Neighbors.” Many couples or students long to invest their lives for justice, acting as bridges between church and neighborhood. A definition of Strategic Neighboring: 1 a: faith-motivated people who reside in specific communities while making a significant contribution to the life of a neighborhood. b: individuals or families who live with intentionality, building long-term relationships among neighbors from all walks of life.

Invite the majority of your church to become “Vocational Neighbors.” Churches often create internal “business fellowship networks” that could be flipped outward for the sake of empowering the poor (local and global). Evaluate your church’s collective personality. Are you a church of mechanics? Connectors? Entrepreneurs? A definition of Vocational Neighboring : 1 a: leveraging one’s professional skills and connections for the benefit of less-resourced neighbors b: working for the benefit of everyone, including the poor and marginalized.

Invest in comprehensive community development strategies: As one example, our ministry is currently seeking sponsors to meet our goal of attaining and rehabbing 50 foreclosed homes in the next 3 years. We’re walking with local urban families in the midst of a complicated, now global market force—the housing foreclosure crisis. We’re focusing our efforts within one neighborhood, as a national demonstration project, and looking to establish “church-to-church with community” partnerships. Are you in?

Invest with us.

Imagine new possibilities.

Let’s change our local world together.

Carrie’s contact information is:

b|enhanced
carrie allen
creative consultant & implementer
enhancing environments. decor. fashion. events. concepts.
carrie@b-enhanced.com
770.855.5127

• went to and purchased furniture from IKEA
• purchased couches from Craig’s list
• sent an email to Comcast wondering if they could come install connection before 3/11
• spoke with Kris from Black Inc. about metromerge.org and sub-urban.org phase 2
• worked on language for proposal and web

Today

• Meet with Selina who’s going to help us with planning the grand opening (3/19)
• Order Lockers
• E-invite to go out today
• Finish proposal numbers and language
• Schedule furniture assembly dates with Mike
• Inquire about any legal matters and processes
• Send proposal if the above details fall into place