The Festival Center

Greetings

In a way, it seems an odd time to be making this appeal for funds. There is so much good news to share! The pendulum of momentum swings forward as the Servant Leadership School strives to be a light and a guide for Christian discipleship. Enrollment has increased each semester with a robust Spring Semester term that just ended with eight classes full of enthusiastic students and teachers. The Servant Leadership School and the weekly dinner Speaker Series has garnered many positive comments about the quality and diversity of relevant offerings. There has been a palpable buzz from those who have attended our classes.

Our core curriculum of Servant Leadership, Racial Reconciliation, Prayer, Call, Scripture, Community, Mutually Liberating Relationships, and Divine Power is going strong with the elective classes that address issues on social, economic, and ecological justice. Two special events so far this year have also found rich soil - the Affording Hope Project a one-woman show supported by Ched Myers and created, enacted and produced by Tevyn East, one of our Discipleship Year alums; and a workshop with well-known author and speaker Shane Claiborne, about whom Gordon Cosby noted “…[he] speaks to the wisdom of the elders, and the energy and enthusiasm of the young.”

The School is attracting new student and teacher participants, who beautifully complement our existing student and teacher base. I work with the "fierce urgency of now" to connect the dots through partnerships with other Church of the Saviour ministries and organizations, as well as with other ministries and organizations throughout the metropolitan DC area. Such efforts are bearing first fruits with plans for other pastors to teach in the school, and the sharing of resources and congregants to build a community of neighbors-in-Christ.

We have partnered with Becoming Church and Jubilee Housing to support our brothers and sisters who have been incarcerated in an unjust criminal system that honors profit margins over rehabilitative services for inmates, and we are including classes and speakers in upcoming terms that will focus on these issues. We continue to connect with Christ House as we support relapse prevention classes, and continue our work to amplify and enhance our racial reconciliation and healing curriculum.

Our future is bright as we plan next steps, including a certification program for Servant Leadership, an expansion of the core classes into differentiated levels, and examining the potential for online – and off-site – classes.

So why do we need your contribution now to the Servant Leadership School?

1. Your contribution is needed today to help us continue to provide tuition scholarships so that anyone who wants to take classes in the school can do so, regardless of ability to pay. Our open enrollment policy is faithful to our beginnings and we remain firmly committed to it. Approximately 50% of our students in 2009 and 2010 attended classes on full scholarship (i.e., at no cost to them). This represents an average of $3,300 per semester in potential revenue deficit.

2. Your contribution is needed today to help us continue to provide the community dinners and speaker series, where good food, warm fellowship, and enlightening talks are trademarks of the School. Each meal costs the School about $200. Although we rarely (if ever) break even, we remain firmly committed to the series so anyone can participate, regardless of ability to pay.

3. The School’s budget is determined in large part by your giving. Our ability to operate is directly linked to your contributions to the Festival Center and/or The Servant Leadership School. The difficult financial environment that we all face these days has significantly impacted our usual donor support.

Our web site is a convenient way to donate. Go to www.festivalcenter.org today and enter your donation (set up in increments of $25). Other pledges or donations can be mailed directly to the Festival Center, 1640 Columbia Road, NW, Washington, DC 20009, Attention: Servant Leadership School.

Thank you so much for your support of the Servant Leadership School, and for helping us meet our $7,500 email campaign goal. I will keep you updated on our progress over the next couple of weeks.

Blessings,

Joseph P. Deck III

Program Director for The Festival Center, Inc.

Director of The Servant Leadership School

(202)328-0072