2020 Annual Report
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Content/Resources
An unexpected resource from 2020 was the opportunity to develop online training skills while in community.
Because our training is rich in visual, memorable, and sensory learning, we were challenged to translate this into a virtual environment. We invited our global team of trainers to join a large-group intensive as facilitators and auditors. Together, they learned how to manage breakout rooms, handle technical glitches with grace, and utilize a variety of tools to enhance learning. A highlight for many of our leaders was doing this live with women from different hemispheres and multiple time zones. As a result of this "train-the-trainer" experience, more leaders are better equipped to serve and deliver programming in their own countries and contexts.
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Additionally, we revised one of our participant manuals (Alongside Conversations) and translated another (Basic) into Japanese.
Expenses
PROGRAM
OPERATIONS
TOTAL
$312,094
$211,803
$523,897
A NOTE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Parakaleo helps women live in the tensions between beauty and brokenness. With your help in 2020, we did just that.
We mourned with those in our community who lost loved ones and livelihoods due to the coronavirus. Derailed church plants and ever-changing school plans became the norm. In the United States, racial disparities and political division dominated our newsfeeds and dinner conversations. It was a hard year.
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At the same time, it was an exceptional year. Travel restrictions gave our staff team more time to meet regularly online, plan, and strategize. We came up with innovative approaches to virtual program delivery. Our leaders across the globe met together more frequently online to learn and grow together. We welcomed three new board members, gifted leaders with unique backgrounds and perspectives. 2020 gave us a fresh perspective on how to deliver on our mission and vision.
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During one of the hardest years our world has seen in recent history, you were there for us so that we could be there for her. Thank you for the strategic role that you play in our community.
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DENINE BLEVINS
executive director
"...so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well" (1 Thessalonians 2:8)
Mission
Our mission is to come alongside women in church planting with the gospel and our lives as well.
Vision
Our vision is to see every woman in church planting trained, supported, and valued.
2020 HQ Program Offerings with Global Participants
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204 Training Intensive Participants
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189 Virtual Training Cohort Participants
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89 Processing Group Participants
Revenue
INDIVIDUALS
ORGANIZATIONS
IND THROUGH CORPORATE FOUNDATIONS
PROGRAM
MISC
TOTAL
$127,750
$81,300
$176,700
$39,862
$64.00
$425,676
LEADERSHIP COMMUNITY
The Parakaleo Leadership Community (PLC) is a network of support that identified leaders rely on for ongoing training and encouragement. These leaders come alongside one another in order to remain resilient in their roles. In 2020, the PLC drew strength from one another as we faced unprecedented challenges apart, yet together.
Monthly gatherings called Soul Care were especially meaningful this year as leaders experienced additional stress and fatigue. We covered topics such as lament, waiting, and hope in the time of a pandemic. As racial tension erupted in the US, women found space to process and lament together. Our Palm’s Up prayer times brought contemplative practices to women, offering a quiet space to listen to God. In addition to regularly planned events, we hosted virtual gatherings in the Spring that helped women grapple with the pandemic’s impact on them as individuals and on the communities they serve.
While some of our leaders stepped out of their roles due to life changes, we assessed and brought in four new leaders into the PLC, and formally assessed three existing leaders. We celebrated the many leaders outside of the PLC who have taken our training and regularly support women in their context through Parakaleo groups and coaching.
PLC is made up of
48 trained leaders
In 2020, we offered the following training and support oppotunities:
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12 Soul Cares
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12 Palm's Up Prayers
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6 Happy Hour/Team Meetings
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9 Training Cafes
Global Strategy Update
Church planting networks invest a lot of resources into developing lead planters. Yet few are set up to address the unique challenges faced by the women carrying much of the burden of the plant, including wives. Parakaleo has discovered that when both men and women are trained, supported and valued, the plant has a better chance to not only survive, but thrive.
In partnership with church planting networks, we develop Parakaleo sites in local regions resulting in significant transformation in the lives of couples as well as in their churches. We train women in gospel dynamics and they grow in processing groups. Over time, some of them become leaders and mentors for that site, which serves the church planting movement in that region. Local Parakaleo sites offer their own training intensives, cohorts, and/or processing groups, adapting material for their context. Those who are able to work collaboratively partner with other leaders in their region and work across denominations and networks. When the gospel takes root in a supportive community, the result is a contagious energy and refreshment is produced. Others want what they have!
Stories of Impact by Region
Asia Pacific
Partners: City to City Asia Pacific, China Partnership, Gospel City Network, and City to City Japan
Parakaleo in Asia Pacific is growing exponentially with a vibrant virtual community among our leaders in five countries! They continue to work collaboratively to deliver training in their region. Asia Pacific leaders regularly host online meetings to support and encourage their next wave of leaders.
In early March, leaders in Asia Pacific delivered a Basic Intensive in Bangkok for church planter wives. Later, they hosted a Taste of Parakaleo webinar for 80 women, many of whom are from a country that is hostile to Christians. Sixty of these women went on to participate in a Basic Intensive, which included a team of nearly 30 trainers, small group facilitators, and auditors.
One attendee, who became involved with Parakaleo in 2020, shared how isolated she had felt as a pastor’s wife:
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“I am especially grateful to have companionship of pastors’ wives for the first time in my life!…Every Thursday afternoon at the agreed time…we got together to share our recent experience and learn how to apply {the gospel}…I really love this group of sisters who accompany me to cry and celebrate.”
Utako Grateley delivered the first Basic Intensive in Japanese using the manual that was translated under her direction. She shared how Parakaleo has helped her find her strategic role in church planting:
“I am so glad to participate in Parakaleo training! I was more accustomed to attending as a wife alongside my church planter husband. But now I’ve rediscovered my truest identity as a precious daughter of God, and know that what I’m doing will be a great help to further the movement of church planting.”
2020 Asia Pacific Program Offerings
6 Intensives
4 Cohorts
3 Groups
Latin America
Partners: City to City Latin America
On the heels of the Basic Intensive offered at the end of 2019, the team had set their 2020 program calendar with the intent of reaching many more women throughout the region. The pandemic forced them to cancel in-person events. Instead, they delivered five cohorts online, which helped previous Basic participants deepen their understanding of gospel tools and concepts.
2020 Latin America Program Offerings
5 Cohorts
United States
"I’ve noticed that there’s not a lot of training for women."
— Taryn, Training Participant
Partners: Renew Polk, Florida Church Planting Network, Potomac-McLean Presbytery and Mid-South Network
The Mid-South Church Planting Network recognizes the importance of including women in their overall equipping strategy. They contracted Parakaleo leader Emily Hartman to provide support for women in the region, which stretches across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Women from these states had participated in Parakaleo trainings in the past but now they have an ongoing support system and community with like-minded women who know how to carry each other to Jesus. Given stalled church planting plans and the stress of the pandemic, women reported that their virtual group has been a lifeline and source of great encouragement.
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Ashley Bennett and Luchrysta Caswell delivered one in-person training in Central Florida before lockdown began. As experienced trainers, they jumped in to help us pilot the first virtual Basic Intensive for eight participants in the US. Later they helped deliver a large-scale virtual Basic Intensive for women in the unnamed country in Asia Pacific. Other US group leaders came onboard to serve as breakout facilitators so that participants wouldn’t feel disconnected in the large group. At the same time, they continued leading groups for women in COVID-careful ways in their own cities, including Central Florida, Baltimore, Greater Washington DC, North Georgia, Chattanooga, Northern Ohio and Washington.
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There were a lot of things about 2020 that were unknown and unplanned but coming alongside women across the globe was probably one of the highlights of my year. It was an opportunity to be on mission from my desk to connect, encourage and learn from sisters around the world. We leaned in together to remember that the gospel transcends borders and cultures. I’m so blessed that He used that experience to help me look up and look out.
I’m also thankful to lead a group of gospel friends in my own context. God provided a space for us to lament, to laugh and to learn. Normalizing what’s hard, seeing ourselves and our sin, and looking to the Savior helps us better serve those around us.
– Meaghan May, a Parakaleo leader in the Greater Washington DC area
2020 U.S. Program Offerings
4 Intensives
3 Cohorts
15 Groups
Content/Resources
An unexpected resource from 2020 was the opportunity to develop online training skills while in community.
Because our training is rich in visual, memorable and sensory learning, we were challenged to translate this into a virtual environment. We invited our global team of trainers to join a large-group intensive as facilitators and auditors. Together, they learned how to manage breakout rooms, handle technical glitches with grace, and utilize a variety of tools to enhance learning. A highlight for many of our leaders was doing this live with women from different hemispheres and multiple time zones. As a result of this “train-the-trainer” experience, more leaders are better equipped to serve and deliver programming in their own countries and contexts.
Additionally, we revised one of our participant manuals (Alongside Conversations) and translated another (Basic) into Japanese.
Expenses
PROGRAM
OPPERATIONS
TOTAL
$312,094
$211,803
$523,897
Assets & Liabilities
ASSETS
LIABILITIES
2019
$493,226
$2,885
2020
$448,910
$56,790
Change
$-44,316
$53,905
LOOKING AHEAD
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
— Ephesians 3:16-19
Transition
At the end of 2020, co-founders Shari Thomas and Tami Resch decided to transition off staff and instead serve as consultants and trainers in their areas of expertise with a focus on raising up new leadership and maintaining Parakaleo’s DNA. We praise God for His faithfulness through them and for their contributions to the Kingdom work of church planting.
Tami and Shari left a clear vision for the organization, which is to see every woman in church planting trained, supported and valued. Every woman. What a lofty challenge for our small community!
DEEP
FAR
WIDE
Preserving our unique identity through mentored leadership development. The best way for us to grow is through an alongside, relational approach.
Reaching as many women as possible through sustainable systems so that our leaders can deliver programming in their own contexts.
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Including people from different backgrounds so that our community reflects the diversity of women in church planting.
We invite you to help us grow deep, far, and wide through your prayers and support.
PRAY
for a wise board of directors
for a connected and collaborative leadership community
for a lean-yet-efficient staff team
and especially for all the women that we serve, that their solid gospel footing would help them navigate the days ahead.