Since our founding in 2002, we’ve created various tools and resources focused on transforming relationships of power in finance. We connect with social change leaders across different sectors, to bring people together to reframe and demonstrate new ways to shape our financial systems.
Below we’ve highlighted some of these and we will continue to add to this as new resources are created.
We hope you find these useful in your work and encourage you to reach out to share your thoughts at info@criterioninstitute.org.
Featured Resources
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Milwaukee Methodists Motivated by 1K Churches
Solomon Community Temple United Methodist Church is a small black congregation that sits amid Milwaukee’s north side. What Solomon lacks in size, it makes up for in spirit! On any given Sunday, its members gather in its culturally decorated sanctuary to lift spirited praises to God for being safely...
Why not just make it a gift?
Congregations considering the 1K Churches Bible study and micro-lending program often ask: “Why not just make it a gift?” Churches are good at giving. Our gifts reflect God’s free love for us. Churches know how to serve people who are sick or hungry or down on their luck. Churches...
The Stars are Aligned
In late September, I fell in love with a congregation. It’s easy to do. Like many small urban churches, Westminster Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey, punches way above its weight. With fifty or sixty people at worship on Sunday, they manage to serve many more people in their community...
Faith and Finance: One Pastor’s Reflections
Meet Rev. Philip Waite, a new friend of Criterion Institute, who has a passion for connecting faith and finance to do God’s work in the world. Rev. Waite is pastoral team leader of College Mennonite Church on the campus of Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana. If you are interested in...
Congregational Stories: Relationships and Microlending’s Best Dividend
Now in our third year of interest-free lending to small businesses in greater Austin, University United Methodist’s most valuable “dividend” is our relationships with our neighbors providing the “sweat equity” to start or grow those businesses. Our loan partners include the ride-share driver from Sudan who used his loan...
Congregational Resources: Stories and Testimonials
Swapping stories is how we make friends. It is also how we learn from one another and build community. Hearing stories about what others have done often gives us courage and confidence to try something new. We have put together a collection of these stories that you can access...
Congregation Stories: It’s All About Relationships
The Union Church in Waban, Massachusetts, extended its first 1K Churches loan in October, 2017 to Sandra Okiror-Njoroge, owner of Wham’s Café in Lowell, MA. The loan was needed to expand the restaurant’s food prep area, repair equipment, purchase new equipment, and boost marketing. The Union Church’s1K Committee member...
Congregations Stories: Emmanuel Lutheran’s Micro-lending Initiative Part II
From Mountaintop through the Valley of Implementation Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Naples, FL conducted its first 1K micro-lending retreat in April, 2018. The retreat lasted 7 hours on a Saturday at the church. Although we had never done any project like the IK micro-lending initiative, especially using a one-day retreat...
Implementation Guide: Lending Through a Group of Small Business Owners
Most 1K Churches choose the simplest, most direct pathway for their loan to a small business. We call it the Angel Investor pathway. It is a simple agreement between the church and the business owner to invest and repay a small loan according to certain terms. Other congregations have...
Hope and Grace Abound
Hope was the first word spoken. Members of the 1K Churches team at Napa Valley Lutheran Church (Napa, California) had been asked to use one word to express what they were feeling now — four years since they first began with the Bible study. It was also two years since...
Transforming Power
In God’s economy, members of the human family work together for the common good – producing, growing, building, trading, serving and caring for one another. Everyone contributes and everyone shares in the benefits. Everyone has a place at the table. Power is shared. Abundance is God’s gift to us....
Congregational Stories: Youth and Adults Combine to Complete 1K Bible Study in a One-Day Retreat
Leaders from Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Naples, Florida, report this month on their highly successful intergenerational retreat, during which they completed the entire five-session 1K Bible study on a single Saturday, engaged significantly across generations and cultures, and planned how to move forward with two micro-loans in their community....
Congregational Stories: When we Hold Hands Together, Magic Can Happen
In October 2017, after nearly two years of study, prayer and planning, the Union Church in Waban, Massachusetts, officially became a 1K Church when they extended a $2,500 loan at 1% interest to Sandra Okiror-Njoroge, who is the owner of Wham’s Café in nearby Lowell. This small business is...
Congregational Stories: Lending, Learning, Leading
More than two years ago, The Church of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal) in Ruxton, Maryland, launched its Micro-Lending Program. To date they have made 11 loans totaling $34,750. How did they do it?
Congregational Stories: Extending Healing in East Baltimore
The following is a story of Amazing Grace Lutheran Church in East Baltimore and its 1K Churches ministry of micro-lending, as told by Pastor Gary Dittman. When I was called to Amazing Grace 8 years ago, I had no idea how idea how this small urban congregation would be...
Congregational Stories: Micro-loan Curriculum by University United Methodist Church
In 2016, University United Methodist began offering interest-free micro-loans of up to $1,000 to existing small businesses and start-ups in greater Austin, Texas. Through their experience, they developed this two-Sunday curriculum and PowerPoint to introduce church members to church-based micro-lending. They’ve made these resources publicly available congregations. Here is their...
Congregational Resources: Getting Started with a Bible Study
The Bible Study is a resource to support congregations and individuals committed to discovering God’s Economy and transforming our own. Through participating in a Bible study and investing in a community business, church members explore their call as economic actors. Here is how it works. A small group from...
Congregational Stories: This is What Discovering God’s Economy Looks Like
Criterion Institute’s develops congregational guides and support in an initiative to build a base of congregations and individuals committed to discovering God’s Economy and transforming our own. The idea is that a congregation or small group becomes engaged by starting a process of Bible study and discernment that helps...
Reflection: Convergence Over the Years
The beauty of Convergence is its format. Convergence is not like other conferences. There are no speakers, no panels - just conversations designed carefully around the people who attend. We collect information about the passions, interests and experiences of each registrant before the conference and work carefully to design...