Luther K. Snow, The Power of Asset-Mapping: How Your Congregation Can Act Upon Its Gifts. Alban Institute, 2004.
Referenced in: Strategies for Church Renewal: Whole Systems, Large Group
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
Asset-Mapping is a Whole Systems “assets-based” approach to organizational renewal that has been useful in churches. Many approaches to congregational renewal are based on evaluations and assessments that emphasize weakness, accentuating and clarifying the gap between what a congregation is and what it wants to be. This has validity, as crippling weaknesses often need to be addressed. Asset-Mapping is more positive. It helps a congregation focus on gifts rather than needs or deficiencies. It is designed as an expression of stewardship, faithfully building on current assets. Asset-Mapping is a Whole Systems approach to congregational renewal, which is detailed a separate Resource Guide.
Asset-Mapping builds on the ideas of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) and applies this practice to congregational life. Snow was also a participant in the National Demonstration Project on Congregational Asset Mapping for the 11,000 congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.
The book is divided into three parts.
Part One answers “What is Asset Mapping?” Snow provides two “learning by doing” exercises to demonstrate the asset-mapping approach and whet the appetite for more. The first is “Personal Asset Starter,” helping individuals uncover basic and hidden assets as well as to find the assets that are inside one’s needs. The second is the “Quick and Simple Congregational Asset-Mapping Experience,” which equips churches to not only affirm assets but then take action based on them, or to learn by doing.
Part Two builds on the momentum created by Part One, answering in more detail “How Do We Map Assets?” It is an excellent three-step (and an optional pre-first step) user’s guide for both facilitators and participants.
Part Three provides a stronger theoretical and theological base for asset-based practice. Chapters cover the concepts of open-sum vs. fixed-sum thinking, learning by doing, and theology of power and justice (expect a strong emphasis on the relationship between church and community renewal, social justice, etc.). Chapter 11 and the Epilogue tie asset-based theory and practice to biblical concepts of stewardship (e.g. parable of the talents), grace and abundance, compassion, social justice, and evangelism.
The following details the three important foundations to Asset-Mapping from Part Three. First is the distinction between fixed-sum and open-sum thinking. Fixed-sum, or cup half-empty, results from assessing our deficiencies, comparing our weakness to others’ strengths, acknowledging what we have lost, what others have taken from us, or what was never ours at all. The problem is that after such an assessment, we have merely arrived at a list of things we do not have. By definition, a deficiency is not a resource. “Deficiency” means we need something we do not have and cannot act until we have it. We are unable to go forward until someone makes up for our deficiency, which also creates dependency on others. This is the fixed-sum idea, i.e. images of our scarcity eclipse the light of God’s abundance.
On the other hand, open-sum thinking uses the image of the cup half-full. Here, “nothing has changed outside of our mind; we are still in exactly the same situation. What has changed is how we think about our situation.” (96) Through the asset-mapping exercises, participants list and affirm all of God’s gifts, including those that are overlooked or unappreciated. Here, visions of God’s abundance replace the limitations of our scarcity. This also helps reframe needs, revealing the assets inside the needs. Unlike the deficiency emphasis with the fixed sum, gifts are actually resources we can use. Theologically, this means we have merely discovered God’s abundance that was always there. We have been “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” (Romans 12:2)
The second foundation is learning by doing. Armed with the resources of our assets, we act, and are encouraged by what we see. Earlier in the book, Snow describes this as a backward approach as compared to other methods. Most renewal efforts try to look at all the complexities of a situation and use planning methods to screen out all the possibilities and narrow things down to a small number of actions.
Asset mapping is just the opposite. It is a way of opening up possibilities. First we take action, which gives us experience and confidence. Then we reflect on our action, which helps us realize new actions we can take to build on what we’ve done. Every action opens up new possibilities, which leads us to more learning and more actions. (ix)
The third foundation is the relationship between assets and power and justice. Asset-based approaches seek to build reservoirs of shared power. In congregations, this creates synergy and cooperation in fulfillment of the metaphor of the church as a body, a living and thriving organism. The same result occurs in the original context of asset-mapping, community development, where the collection of assets encourages a kind of shared power and social justice, where abundance is used to enhance a community’s existing resources rather than take them away. Throughout the book, Snow suggests congregational interfacing with communities in social justice projects. Regardless of the ways in which the shared abundance expresses itself, there is still the discovery that as all assets are piled on to the table, everyone is happy to affirm others assets and see that “your gain is my gain is our gain.” (97)
Asset-mapping may be used quite effectively in churches, especially those that suffer from corporate depression and need a positive base of renewal. Snow’s guide is an excellent place to start.
From the Publisher
Asset mapping isn’t a new system or theory. It’s a way of thinking, a doorway into an “open-sum” perspective rooted in the Bible and common experience. The Power of Asset Mapping, by long-time community developer Luther K. Snow, shows congregational leaders how to help a group recognize its assets and the abundance of God’s gifts and to act on them in ministry and mission.
Congregations will find the book easy to read and immediately useful. Leaders can begin with the tested “Quick and Simple Asset Mapping Experience” to strengthen and inspire any group in the congregation in as little as an hour. Further tips, techniques, stories, and lessons drawn from the experience of diverse congregations will help readers discover how asset mapping works. Finally, Snow provides lessons about why asset mapping strengthens faith and community.
With Snow’s guidance, readers will find new, positive energy to break out of the negative cycles of need, dependency, and inaction that sometimes trap congregations. As they experience asset mapping, they will learn how God empowers us. Snow shows us how to turn over control and open ourselves to the unexpected and amazing gifts of God.
About the Author
Luther K. Snow has worked with congregations and community and faith-based organizations on asset building for more than 25 years. He served as the director of the Congregational Asset Mapping Project for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He now conducts workshops and offers consulting to congregations and community organizations.
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