ABUNDANT COMMUNITIES IN UNEXPECTED PLACES:
Talking with The Rev. Mike Mather
Partners for Sacred Places has worked with The Reverend Mike Mather, Senior Pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church in
Indianapolis, Indiana, on dozens of occasions. Mather has often served as a co-trainer for Partners’ New Dollars/New Partners for
Your Sacred Place training program, which helps congregations see their buildings as a bundle of assets, and then connect those
strengths with community assets in ways that can generate new outreach and ministry.
On the occasion of the publication of Mather’s new book, “Having Nothing, Possessing Everything: Finding Abundant Communi-
ties in Unexpected Places” (Eerdmans, 2018) Partners president Bob Jaeger interviewed Mike to discuss some of the book’s themes
and what his experience with Partners has added to his understanding of congregational strengths and gifts.
Bob Jaeger (BJ): I’m excited to discuss
your many years of experience that went
into the book, since Partners has worked
with you for over a decade. Have you
learned what kind of church can really
hear your message and take action to make
the most of their assets?
Mike Mather (MM): Congregations
and leaders come to Partners’ New Dollars
program saying, “We’ve got to be creative
about [our building and our assets]. We’ve
got to think in new ways, because we rec-
ognize that there have been shifts and
movement in our congregation down
throughout history, and we need to be
ready for more change.”
BJ: Have you gotten a sense of the road-
blocks that might make it difficult to rec-
ognize and maximize congregational as-
sets?
MM: I think that the biggest difficulty is
the existing institutional structure. The
challenge is that congregations tradition-
ally come at things from the basis of need.
Rather than focusing on “What are the
gifts all around us,” they ask: “What are we
struggling with?” I’ve been focusing on
helping them change the questions. The
classic story I tell in New Dollars is about
Adele, who came to Broadway to receive
food each week. We used to ask her and
others in the program: “How poor are
you?” a question that focused on what they
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SACRED PLACES • SUMMER 2019
The Rev. Mike Mather participating in “A Cultivating Joy Cypher.” Credit: Wildstyle Paschall