Gardening and the Launch of Ally Co
I wrote in May here about my transition to a deep and wide (Ephesians 3) life in my own hometown. I wrote about maturity and upward mobility and what it means to send down our roots for the flourishing of our own communities. I wrote about the Good News in the trenches of our plain lives: our own homes, our own churches, our own communities… And the glorious opportunity to sow for the next generations right here, right now.
And so, I’ve transitioned. Over the summer, I released my work with Boundless Communications to step fully into the work that God has called me to in-these-trenches.
So, allow me to introduce you to Ally Co: a venture studio with redemptive imagination planted in Jamestown, NY.
I use the word planted intentionally [and yes, I’ve made bold in this post every reference to gardening]. A gardening metaphor seems most accurate for what I hope for and what I see. Ally Co is a choice to break out of the pot, out of the container that once held me in (she has lots of names… that pot, you know - I could call her glass ceilings, I could call her imposter syndrome, I could call her lack of platform or accreditation, I could call her lots of things)… a choice to break that pot for me - and a choice to break that pot at a larger scale… for our community (she has many names too…. The trappings of the past, industrial decline, shifting culture, rising poverty + polarity)… a choice to break those pots too so that our little seedlings can grow.
Ally Co will water and feed and nurture growth in ventures of all kinds: for-profits, nonprofits, churches, public-private partnerships… you get the idea. We will water and feed and nurture and give sunlight to through a network of allies… and, plant by plant, so goes the vision, we will grow a new forest…. A forest that will stand ready to give shade and home to the next generations in our community, the fruit of which my children and grandchildren will share in plenty.
Building is an old verb and a boring narrative, at that: it provokes empire and sky-rises and towers and self-gain and accumulation.
Gardening it is, instead, cultivating instead of building… because what we hope to see is for the other to be centered, to encourage growth in what has already begun, and to give opportunity to those whom the pots of society have stripped for far too long of agency, capital, and positioning.
Many have asked me, and had the audacity to question, why I’ve made the move from the church + nonprofit sectors to a for-profit LLC. It seems, at least to them, like abandonment of mission.
It could not be, allow me to assure you, further from the truth.
I’ve made this move with calculated strategy:
To take my entrepreneurial and planting skills (what Alan Hirsch has helped the Church reclaim as the gift of apostleship) and plant them here for the cultivation of an entire ecosystem
To contribute to the Kingdom vision of shalom (right - setting and right - relationships) through localized, real-time good news in community flourishing
To leverage the strategic hope of the Church for a movement of optimism that can pull our wearied humanity forward
This all sounds big and fancy and fantastical and egomaniacal (I do have self-awareness). Ha, it’s not that. I guess I just like big words and spelling out dreams. My own veins pump with life + energy as I type this out.
It’s a lot grittier and humble than that, though. It’s teamwork. It’s messy collaborations. It’s grassroots beginnings. It’s a lack of financial stability. It’s late nights and rolled-up sleeves and not-so-glamourous sacrifice.
I’m not delusional. This work was set into motion many years ago, and not by me. There are many other beautiful players in town who have been laboring hard on this vision for decades. There is a local city government who is brilliantly leveraging their resources. There are funding agencies who are picking up the pulse of the people and re-strategizing their grant-making. There are small business owners who are choosing daily to press forward with creativity despite the economic instability.
There are many in town, and have been many in Jamestown, NY for generations who have held similar dreams.
No visions of self-grandeur here… just a desire to join in on the big picture, to ally my strengths now, and root them in the well-being of our community.
May we all do so … make the choice to plant the best of who we are in our cities. Can you imagine the possibilities?!
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[You can read more about Ally Co at our brand new website here]