Network Towards One Common Vision -- Interview with Tamara Beth Gavin

Jean Chan
October 2011

Tamara Beth Gavin is currently working as the National Ministry Support Developer, the Lovin' Life Learning Center Director, and the Ministry Creative Director for HSA-UWC, USA. She lives in Bloom field, New Jersey with her husband. She is a second-generation Unificationist and is 27 years old.

Question: Why and when did you decide to be involved in National Ministry Support and Development?

In the first year of working with Lovin' Life Ministries I realized early on just how big of a position Volunteer Coordinator was. However, without a pre-established ministry framework and structure, it was actually quite difficult to perform the tasks that I was hired to do, which was to coordinate volunteers for Sunday Service from all over the metro area. The challenge was that these people also had ministry activities happening near their homes during the week.

There are so many new activities that Lovin' Life Ministries has given birth to, but they only happen when there are people there to run them. We realized that by organizing all these people into teams led by a team director or leader, all these activities that make up the Lovin' Life Ministries experience can be accomplished. I started to work with Camia Gavin, Curriculum Development, Ministry Support and Marketing Team member, and Heather Thalheimer, Director of Education for HSA-UWC USA, to produce tools that would inform church communities on just what these teams are and how to begin building them. Now, instead of acting as the New York City metro area Volunteer Coordinator, I am supporting the dozens of local volunteer coordinators sprouting up across the country. This is how I got involved with National Ministry Support and Development.

Question: You have an educational and professional background in interior design. Have you been putting your skills to use in your role in ministry support? How?

My background as a professional interior designer has allowed me to develop a number of skills and talents that have manifested themselves in ministry in a variety of ways. From graphics, to event planning, to marketing, I've been using my trained eye to help create the Lovin' Life Ministries experience from a visual standpoint. Interior Design is a balance of creative thinking and technical problem-solving. Building a church that continues to reach people is all about thinking outside the box in creative ways. Since we have a unique church, there are a lot of unique problem-solving exercises that go with it! In the end, though, the solution is always about finding the best way to make all the independent parts work together to create a beautiful overall composition. Like different spaces of a building work together to create one experience, all the different people that make up our church community create one culture. I have been using my experience as a designer to help find solutions to the different situations that come up as we try to build Lovin' Life Ministries.

I also continue to work as the interior designer for the renovation project at the New York City Lovin' Life Learning Center, as well as consult on church properties across the country, so that their church experience is packaged in a high-quality facility and space for worship. I still find myself drafting up floor plans, selecting materials, and overseeing construction projects here and there.

Question: How much time, energy and emotional expenditure would you say you invest? Do you feel that it's worth it? Why?

I have never been so invested in a job as I am now. It's hard to quantify time, energy and emotion, but I definitely see that this job is who I am right now. It's not just what I do; it's my life. It's worth it because I feel a unique sense of responsibility to do this at this point in my life, and seeing the small victories along the way -- lives changed, relationships healed, and goals realized -- makes it possible to continue this huge effort. I feel I am in a partnership with both my husband, Jaga Gavin, National Youth Pastor for HSA-UWC, who also feels uniquely called to his position, and with God who always has a bigger picture for my life than I do. I feel more connected with my husband and Heavenly Parent now more than ever, because I have sort of surrendered my ideas for a higher purpose than just myself.

Question: What do you feel the National Ministry team hopes to gain from Launch Pad?

Launch Pad is a quarterly tool that goes out across the country to help implement the ministry model in each community, small, "bite- size" pieces at a time. The national team hopes that this tool will help to create successful, growing Lovin' Life Ministries churches across the country and strengthen our unity at the same time.

Question: In your opinion, will Launch Pad serve to bring noticeable change and move towards progress for the Unification Church in America? How?

Here's how I look at it. What's better than one church succeeding? A hundred! The more we support each other and leverage our talents through our national network towards one common vision, the bigger the victory. The degree to which communities unite with the Launch Pad is in direct relation to this one "voice" that is declaring the Breaking News. If we aim to "out-shout" each other with our own concepts, so to speak, then we will just drown each other out and create static in the air. Or if we feel we have no voice because of our individual limitations, then we won't create any buzz at all for people to hear. If we join forces and do the same thing at the same time, then there's no doubt the country will hear what all these thousands of Unificationists are saying. This is what the Launch Pad does -- it makes it clear what it is we are shouting and how we are going to make it heard. Coincidentally the summer quarter's theme was "Live Out Loud," which was about just that.

Launch Pad puts us all on the same page and allows us to get organized and work together towards a common goal. That goal is to bring noticeable change and growth for the Unification Church in America. Of course, each community is different and will adopt the Launch Pad tools in varying degrees, and that is perfectly fine and expected. Reverend In Jin Moon says that the more we seek to act as one national church, the more freedom and creative license we will have to focus on loving life and creating a generation of peace.

Question: And what results have come about since its launch?

So far the ministry support team has released two Launch Pad packages: one before the spring 2011 quarter, and one before the summer 2011 quarter. We are hearing from different churches across the country that this tool is a breath of fresh air. Churches are beginning to build their teams in order to implement the 5 Practices of Lovin' Life Ministries: Inspire, Empower, Connect, Contribute, and Inherit, through the various ministry activities that support them (Project Connect, volunteer teams, the VISION membership class, educational curriculum, and powerful church services). We are getting calls from pastors across the country, who are excited about using the tools and, of course, we are also getting great questions! That's why we put this out four times a year, so that we can continually address concerns out in the field, build our resource bank of people across the country and at the same time continue to find ways to make our church fresh and exciting on a regular basis.

It's been great to have this tool available to the Lovin' Life Leadership Initiative students in New York City, because they are able to not only use it as an educational resource, but also as a guide to assume the defined ministry roles themselves, as well as help develop the theme for the Fall quarter. Both Launch Pad and the Leadership Initiative have been developed by the National Ministry Team in an effort to raise up new leaders that can take the model of Lovin' Life Ministries and multiply it nationwide.

Question: How long was the planning for Launch Pad? How does Launch Pad affect the Learning Center?

It's hard to say how long we've planned for each Launch Pad. There are a lot of parts of the ministry model already developed (which have taken up to 3 years to develop) that are, after careful consideration, into simpler, digestible pieces of information that we've been launching in spaced intervals rather than all at once. Other parts, such as our educational curriculum, website, literature and media software, are still being developed. When we feel that they are ready to launch, then we include in the next quarter's Launch Pad. For the first two Launch Pads, we spent about three weeks completely devoted to creating the content, aiming to send them out 3 weeks before the beginning of the next quarter. Part of the implementation process of the Launch Pad is for each community's ministry team to spend 3 weeks (the downtime in between the 10-week quarters) to really digest the information and launch into the new quarter using a "3, 2, 1, Launch" timeline. By breaking up the information into small pieces and spacing it out across three weeks, we hope that each community's leadership can feel prepared for the next quarter, which is marked by the quarterly Launch Party.

Just as Starbucks state managers receive marketing campaigns and leadership tools for implementation, so does the Lovin' Life Learning Center receive Launch Pad. Launch Pad goes to all the church communities across the country and Manhattan is no different. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a New York City pastor to play the role of the "Starbucks store manager," but there has been talk about that changing in the near future. The Lovin' Life Learning Center is the church home for the Manhattan Unification Church community, so it would be the job of the Manhattan city pastor to implement the tools outlined in Launch Pad at the Lovin' Life Learning Center. The Learning Center is also unique, because it is also an educational facility that strives to improve the internal and external excellence in others on a daily basis. In that sense, I could see the programs at the Learning Center piggybacking off the Launch Pad in different ways.

Lovin' Life Ministries has become much more than just a two-hour gathering on a Sunday. It has become an experience that is being multiplied across the country. This experience is what I believe Reverend In Jin Moon is bringing under her leadership, but it's the members that define what that experience actually looks like. It's more than just a facility with walls -- it's a community of people who are defining a culture and a lifestyle. These people are mostly volunteers, but without organization and direction, these volunteers end up just maintaining instead of building. These people aren't just setting things up for a weekly service and running Sunday School anymore; these people are now taking care of our guests, performing in bands, creating testimony videos, designing fun graphics, leading small groups and helping our members live their best lives.