Equipping the Saints
This page highlights the in-person trainings for the Episcopal Diocese of California.
Studies show that churches learn best when they learn from other churches. Diocesan wide trainings allow congregations to send teams and learn from the wisdom in the room as well as from facilitators and guest speakers.
“Equipping the Saints”
Revealing Gifts, Cultivating Opportunities, and Creating a Culture of Abundance
Date: Saturday, May 3, 2025
Time: 9:30 a.m.– 4:30 p.m. (check-in opens at 9:00 a.m.)
Location: Trinity Episcopal Church, 330 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025
De’Amon Harges and a team from The Learning Tree will lead an abundance-based gathering for the Diocese of California.
Bring a team from your church! This workshop is appropriate for priests, deacons, lay leaders, outreach teams, and Vestry and Bishop’s Committee members, and anyone else who is interested. All churches in Vital & Thriving are strongly encouraged to attend and bring their MIT and Steering teams.
Participants will experience key practices of The Learning Tree:
Roving Listening, (the practice of listening)
Dialogue Walk (the practice of discovery)
Basics of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), focusing on asset mapping and asking new questions.
Identifying and naming Archetypes of the beloved community
Mo Rocca calls De’Amon Hargis a “talent scout for the soul” at about 3:00 mins into this clip on “Promoting the Power of Kindness” on the CBS Morning Show.
The Learning Tree provides professional development consulting services to local, regional, and national institutions, teaching them the practices of asset-based community development and helping to shift the mindsets of people with power. Asset-based community development emphasizes and leverages a community's existing strengths, resources, and capacities for sustainable development and overall well-being of its residents.
Cost: General Admission - $20.00, Partial Scholarship - $10.00, No cost if member of host church or Youth 18 and under.
In preparation for this event, participants are encouraged to read one or both of these books if possible:
Mike Mather's: Having Nothing, Possessing Everything
Mauricio L Miller's: THE ALTERNATIVE: Most of What You Believe About Poverty is Wrong (the first 3 chapters are available on this link to Google books preview)
De’Amon Harges – faculty member of the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute, Community Organizer, Creator of The Learning Tree, and featured in the 2020 documentary The Antidote: On Kindness in America – is a frequent speaker on ABCD in secular and religious groups around the world, and is a layperson at Broadway UMC, Indianapolis, IN. De’Amon’s creative work as a faith-based community organizer and speaker reflects his attempt to live out his own theology through connecting neighbors and building community. The bulk of De’Amon’s work is based on the principles and practices of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) that brings neighbors and institutions together to discover the power of being a good neighbor. He utilizes the intangible currencies that are cultivated and used by human assets and relationships to build a more abundant community.
To give you a taste of what is to come, here is a TEDX Talk with De’Amon, and here is a wonderful, recent podcast with De”Amon.