The Rescue Mission » David Curry posts

Step Back, View Yourself from a Distance

davidc — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:50:40 +0000

With as much time as most of us thinking of ourselves, it’s amazing that our self-perception is so often wrong. In my opinion, truly healthy people seek to see themselves accurately. To do this, you need to step every once in a while and try to view yourself (actions, motives, words, performance, emotions, etc.) from an distance.

How was is the gap between the way you see yourself and the feedback you get from others?

Often when we are thinking of ourselves we are using “explanatory theory”. We are explaining our actions to ourselves. Usually in the most complementary terms. This kind of rationalization often sounds like this: “You deserved to go off on that person”, “Yes, you were short with that person, but you are busy today”, and so on.

Are you letting yourself off the hook for bad decisions? Are you explaining away rudeness, anger, addiction? Do you justify poor performance at work, or lazy leadership with mental excuses without even realizing it? Do you explain away your faults, giving yourself maximum grace while holding people to unrealistic standards?

It’s not unusual to get caught up with your own mental rationalizations, we all do it. Yet to be healthy, happy people, we have to be willing to face reality, even when reality means that we’ve been wrong.

David Curry

What You Don’t Know About The Tacoma Rescue Mission

davidc — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:57:24 +0000

Every week I give tours of the Tacoma Rescue Mission facilities to donors, supporters and volunteers in addition to speeches at churches and civic groups. Without question the most common refrain I hear from those who see and hear about all the Rescue Mission is: “I didn’t know how the Mission was doing!”

Clearly, many people have an idea of what a Rescue Mission does, they feed the poor. But We do so much more than that. We provide shelter, transitional housing, educational services, case management, financial assistance through Need a Break ministries, jail chaplaincy at the Pierce County Jail, after school and summer youth programs for homeless children and much more. Click here to see all we do.

More than that, you need to take a tour of the Mission. call Jocelyn at 383-4462 to set up a tour of the Mission and it’s facilities. What you don’t know about the Tacoma Rescue Mission is a lot. Come see what we do and get exciting about adopting the Mission as your cause.

Keeping Sharp

davidc — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:12:25 +0000

Our work here at the Mission requires most of us to deal with more crises in one day than many pastors deal with in a month. Some of the Pastors reading this blog may question that statement, but having been a pastor for many years I say it without fear of contradiction. With over 450 people in our care each night and serving meals to hundreds more who are struggling with addiction, homelessness, medical issues, bi-polar, legal issues, prostitution, abuse, etc. the sheer number of overwhelming problems we face is amazing. How do you keep sharp and avoid burnout?

Here’s what I challenge all of you to remember each day to help you stay sharp and to keep focused and motivated on helping reach the hurting, hungry and lost of your community:

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Remember to put your concerns and burdens in the hands of the Lord. There is nothing we can accomplish outside of Him and there is nothing we cannot accomplish if we are working in His will. I believe that EVERY problem has a spiritual solution.To all our staff I remind you to rely upon the power and joy of the Lord today to make a difference.

David

Learned Optimism

davidc — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:29:49 +0000

There is such a thing as “Learned Optimism”. Many people think you are either born positive or are optimistic by temperment, but the fact is that optimism is a way of thinking that can be learned. This isn’t a new idea, biblical scripture tells us to “think on things that are pure, righteous, good…” and to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind”, and many more concepts and principles along these lines. Unfortunately, many of us shut down and revert to pessimistic negative thinking when in the midst of problems. This effectively focuses us on the problem, but usually keep us from looking at potential solutions and opportunities. We allow the problem to become such a focus in our life that we become tunnel visioned, nurturing the excuses and circumstances that will keep us mired in our current situations.

Solutions call for outside-the-box thinking, negativity shuts that down. Knowing that a person can learn to think positively and optimistically is little guidance when faced with difficulty and real-life challenges.

Here are some ideas about how to shake off the blues and to focus on possibilities:

1. Think Spiritually – Knowing God has a plan and purpose for your life can help to shake lose the “why me” thinking and start up the “What’s God’s Plan” thinking that could reshape and reinvigorate your life.

2. Dream and brainstorm solutions with someone not tied to your problem. Brainstorming is great, dreaming is great, but often when done in isolation we can easily shut down the process before it begins. We need a second party to help us think outside the box. We all edit ourselves but negativity magnifies the editing process. ”I can’t afford it”, “I can’t do that”, I don’t have the education”, “my family wouldn’t like that” are all excuses that stop the brainstorming process. Find someone who won’t put up with those excuses and get started dreaming.

3. Make thinking positive a routine. Negative thinking is so ingrained in our minds that we don’t even realize we are doing it. You need to find a way to make thinking positive a part of your system. Positive affirmations, scriptures, quotes, books, are just a few ways to make it a routine.

4. Become a Student. Read books about positive thinking. I know the wrap against “positive thinking” and I don’t buy it. I’m not suggesting living in a fantasy world, I’m suggesting rigorously deciding to stay on the offensive. Don’t shrink back from life because you’ve got serious challenges in life. Many of our graduates and success stories at the Tacoma Rescue Mission will tell you that they had to stop thinking negative, blaming others for their problems and get busy living a positive purpose for the Lord.

Give me some of your ideas on how to learn to be optimistic.

TRM Board Mtg./09′-10′ Budget to be approved

davidc — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:08:21 +0000

Our board meets this monday to discuss the budget for the fiscal year to come, which begins July 1st. The Finance Committee has already met to approve the budget and has recommended that it be passed. This is the only major agenda item for the meeting.

Read my past blogs on the budget to discover how we have reached this point and what the major challenges are for 09′-10′.

As always, we are thankful that we have reached our ministry goals for this year. While we do all that we can do, I’m sure you agree with me that it is God’s blessing upon this work that allows us to have the resources to feed, house, and reach out to the poor with the love of God.

Women’s Retreat a Success – Feedback wanted

davidc — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:42:29 +0000

Every year the female members of the Mission team have a weekend retreat to build community and get to know each other better. It’s so important due to the fact that we have so many sites and shifts that many people don’t know each other well and cannot connect on a regular basis.

Talking with members of our team who went to the event I understand it was a great event. Thanks to Kathy Austin, Marlene Hamilton, Juliet Lee, Jann Sonntag and everyone who made it possible. Special Thanks to Cynthia Tobias for coming a sharing on the Strong Willed Woman.

I’d love to get feedback from those of you who attended. What was the best part of the retreat for you?

Leading from the Middle

davidc — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:00:47 +0000

Several years ago I saw an interview with Brett Favre, at the time a quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, talking about the hiring of his quarterback coach at the Packers to a high-profile head coaching position on another team. An all-star player at that point, Favre seemed genuinely bummed out that he was losing the quarterback position coach, despite the fact that the head coach, offensive coordinator and other coaches would remain the same. I remember thinking: Why would he care who his position coach is? Especially since he’s one of the best in the game, does it make a difference?

Now flash forward to a new book I’ve been reading, A Leaders Legacy by Kouzes and Posner. Kouzes and Posner conducted massive research to write the book and it’s predecessor, The Leadership Challenge. One of the most interesting findings of their research was that the most important leader in any organization to the staff wasn’t the CEO, it was THEIR DIRECT SUPERVISOR.

When you think about it you know it’s true. Most people don’t see the big boss every day and their environment isn’t directly affected on a minute by minute basis by some unknown vice president. But if they have a supervisor that is a good leader, or more commonly a bad leader, they feel it every day. No wonder Brett Favre was bummed about losing his coach- that was the person who most directly affected his life on a daily basis.

This should be incredibly encouraging to managers who wonder if anyone notices the time and effort they put into being a good leader. Conversely, it should be a wake up call to bad manager who make excuses for why they are not doing what they need to do.

To quote from the Leaders Legacy, “You can’t pass the leadership buck. Just because your manager doesn’t do leadership well doesn’t excuse you form doing your very best. Your direct reports don’t really care about what your manager does, but they care a lot about what you do.” ”Whatever your role in life may be, you make a difference. There’s a 100% chance that you can be a role model for leadership.”

$3,000,000. Awarded to Adams Sq. Family Center

davidc — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:42:05 +0000

I’m pleased (ecstatic) to announce that the State of Washington Housing Trust Fund has awarded $3 Million to the Adams Sq. Family Center project. This project, which is to begin construction shortly, will provide 36 units of housing in addition to supportive services to homeless families. Here is a link to a past post on the Adams Sq. and some videos of the project. This brings the total raise to date to $9,262,793! Praise the Lord!

Thanks to all the great people who are contributing to this project and to those who helped us raise the total we have so far. Special Thanks to Mar Corpuz, Lynette Grubbs and Jann Sonntag. Without these three and many more we couldn’t have gotten this far.

I know I speak for all of them and the board when I say that we feel this is a miracle and that God has again provided for the poor that are served at the Tacoma Rescue Mission.

New Mural at New Life Sq.

davidc — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:20:07 +0000

Past, present and future are all represented in the new mural at the Tacoma Rescue Mission’s New Life Square facility. Created by BCRA and using an old photo of the Tacoma Rescue Mission from 1932, the new mural will inspire clients in our Good Neighbor Cafe for years to come. Covered with inspirational quotes and scriptures, it sends a positive message to those we serve. Please take some time to come by New Life Sq. to check it out.

Finance Cmtte mtg. June 11th

davidc — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:50:20 +0000

Thursday June 11th the Finance Cmtte for the Tacoma Rescue Mission board will meet to go over the budget that we are proposing for the new year, which begins July 1st.

Here is an earlier blog on how our budget meeting with staff went.

After meeting to discuss the budget in detail, our finance staff tabulates all the numbers and comes up with the sum total. After that I take one final look at it and decide if anything further needs to be added or subtracted before we propose a final budget to the Finance Committee. When it’s all said and done we will be proposing a budget that will be $4,764,128. This will be a growth of 11.7%, a large number considering the economic challenges-but a number which I believe is an achievable figure.

Here’s the reason for the growth:

We’ve added a new department this year, Need a Break Services, which is direct aid for people who need direct financial assistance with things like car or home repair. The addition of this department is a large reason for the growth in our budget.

In addition, we have scheduled to improve salaries of the front line workers at the Mission, the shift managers. This will be a big help. Most importantly, I feel like we are making a statement that we believe we are not only going to survive this economic downturn, but with the partnership and support of our donors we will do more than ever before to reach the poor with the love of God.

If the finance committee approves the budget, we will present it to the board at the June 29th board meeting.