{Hoffman Holla 2019-5} Campus & Board Governance

Selling the Venture Center

Change is often hard but we trust that God is in control and leading us into our best. This past year Frontier Ventures put part of their property named "The Venture Center" in Pasadena on the market. On March 29th a sale was finalized. A large portion of the property was sold except Hudson Taylor Hall where most of our ministry offices are housed.

In a digitized world where cost of living in Pasadena is so high, localized collaboration as envisioned has been difficult - and sometimes the campus hasn't been the best tool for organizational goals. Releasing the campus from a fixed asset to a liquid asset positions the organization to accomplish its goal in new ways. Frontier Venture leadership has some amazing new ideas of how we can be strategic in this new reality.

At the same time, the campus was a home - a safe "third place" and a part of family gatherings. Our daughter had early birthday parties there and we attending several weddings on the campus. The campus is where we would play ultimate frisbee, volleyball, hang out, pray with our Insight students and so many more sweet memories. Our Pasadena community will look much different without this space and we are mourning the transition.

Ultimately, we give everything up to the Lord. He knows our future and our past and everything is in His hands. This campus sale has unearthed existing dynamics within our organization. With a new General Director (Dr. Kevin Higgins), he is leading us toward healthy interactions, healthy organizational principles, and toward a compelling future vision (more on this next Hoffman Holla'). Even in the mourning we are excited to see where God will take us in the future.

Frontier Ventures Board

The board met together in April for Policy Governance training. Policy Governance is a style of Board leadership that has a strong philosophical background and draws clear boundaries between the work of the board (to represent the owners) and the work of the management team (to run the organization). These new terms allow the board to focus on setting direction (navigating) through looking for the ends. The management team then has freedom to create the means in order to accomplish the ends. The other responsibility of the board is protection - namely through policies that create a big sandbox for the management to play in but within responsible limits. Adam's organization brain geeks out on this a little (if you haven't noticed). In all, it should be a system that better sets us up for leading well and allowing management to create innovative solutions.

Support Update

We are thankful that support has been increasing - 85%! We will be best freed up to concentrate on Perspectives and Frontier Ventures as fully supported members. Thus we'll continue praying for God to ask people to partner with us through prayer, advocacy and finances.

Prayer Requests

• Pray for the Frontier Ventures community through the transition of selling the campus. Pray for compassion, unity and vision as the sense of loss and the sense of hopefulness comes and goes.
• Pray for the support raising process to call people to Great Commission participation by investing in mobilization via Perspectives.
• Pray for engagement with the FV Board. Pray for clarity in vision, strategic thinking, longterm growth and graceful interactions.
• Pray for our Perspectives role in stewarding a mobilization movement. We are honored to serve this volunteer network through the nine state region.
• Pray for our family and the adoption process.