In order to survive and build a better future for ourselves, our children and our grand-children, we’ve got to come together and help each other. We’ve got to love each other as ourselves and understand that if it’s to be it’s up to me (us). It’s important that we attend city council, school board, parent-teacher, and county commissioner court and other community meetings to stay informed about what’s going on and react appropriately. Believe us, we can make a difference!

And, we're encouraging all community leaders, where ever you are, to step it up. Are you proud of the results we have achieved to this point: too many locked up in prison; too many branded with a felony for life; higher than average school dropout rates; poor graduation rates and graduating not ready for college or available technical jobs; and unemployment rates twice the national average, etc.? If not, we need to remember that "we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us" and provide our young people with the support they need. Neither they nor we can do it by ourselves, but when we do our best, we can trust God to do the rest.

What comes of this? People here are disconnected from each other. And because we are disconnected, we aredisempowered. Acting alone, we cannot change our environment. We cannot influence the government, the schools, the businesses. We have no influenceover the forces around us that shape the quality of our lives.

Because we are disconnected and disempowered, many are in despair. This causes some to drink alcohol excessively, use drug, gamble, commit domestic violence, get divorced, drop out of school, run away, etc. etc. etc. Disconnection may not cause all of our social problems but it contributes to them. It exacerbates them. And it paralyzes us to do anything about them.

Community Excel is engaging some of our social problems.  The issues are important and we are on track to do effective work and make a difference. But that’s not the main thing. The main thing is the relationships we are forming in the process of addressing particular problems.

At the core of our mission is building anetwork of relationships. Some maybe just public which means we may or may notbe personal friends, but we know each other and are able to work together forshared goals. We are building a network of relationships that will reconnectand re-empower people, lifting us out of our collective despair, our “what canI do about it?” sense of helplessness.

The human network of relationships we are building is like an energy grid to deliver power where it’s needed to make positive change for people. When new social problems arise, problems we cannot now foresee, this network of relationships will be in place. It will be in place to share experiences and identify the problems as the affect our members. And the network will be already up and running, ready to act constructively and creatively to improve the situation.

But there’s more to be gained even than the building of a network among our congregations, organizations, businesses, schools. parents, families and individual citizens in our communities. We strengthen each other. There are skills and methods we use to build this network, to construct this power grid we call Community Excel International. The people we train can take those skills and methods and build their own relationships. Everyone grows stronger within themselves. And that benefits all.