Christian Vocation: Antoine Claiborne, nonprofit/construction

because we couldn't get the screen to work.

Well, good morning everyone. Thanks for coming out this morning.

The title of my presentation is going to be

Competent Person Training, How to Serve the Human Community.

And kind of this part that I was going to talk about

is being competent in your work and things of that nature.

And if I would have did some proper planning this morning,

I would have figured out that the stuff wasn't working and we would get here.

But I'm a construction manager.

We think on our feet and we just kind of keep things moving.

So in every good endeavor,

Tim Keller gets into this section called

Work as Ministry of Competence.

And he starts that off this way.

One of the main ways you love others in your work

is through the ministry of competence.

If God's purpose for your job is that you serve the human community,

then the way to serve God best is to do the job

as well as it can be done.

So this section really, really struck me.

And I feel like it really sums up

how God has called me to serve in this job.

And Keller in this section,

he puts it a little bit differently than we would define,

like competent person in construction.

We kind of use that as it relates to like safety

and having somebody with like the authority

and the skill to identify like unsafe things on site

and the ability to change those things.

But Keller defines it a little bit differently

as he talks about doing work well

and having this mindset of being competent in your work

is something to satisfy you

in a way to love others through your work.

And in my role, I don't always have the time to be on site

and supervise every nail that's driven.

But I do have the ability to kind of set the toll

in the way that we build our homes

and the way we treat our volunteers

and the way we serve our homeowners.

And a little while ago,

Hurricane Michael happened in Florida.

And then this article came out in the Washington Post.

There's this picture of these five houses

in the middle of this picture still standing

and the rest of the neighborhood

is kind of demolished by the storm

and they've stuffed with heavy damage.

But the five houses in the middle of this picture

are five habitat homes that were built.

You kind of see these five metal roofs

in the middle of this kind of scene

that you're going to kind of see

when the handouts get here

of these five houses still standing

suffered only minor damage.

I know a lot of people,

when you put the word affordable in things,

they think that it's cheap,

but that's not really the way we operate a habitat.

Cheap doesn't really factor into

what we call affordable housing and affordable homes.

And those kind of go around.

You kind of see that picture as well.

And just kind of reading this book

and thinking about work and the way I work,

kind of a bit of my origin.

I started working at eight.

I was put on the riding lawnmower.

And I was mooring about six acres of grass a week

at that point.

So starting at a very young age,

getting out and working and growing up on a farm.

I guess some of my aspirations were going up.

Maybe I saw a movie once,

like in elementary school,

I said I wanted to be a stockbroker

because I wanted to make a lot of money.

And then I started kind of drawing a bit in middle school.

I wanted to be an artist or architect

and going into high school

and being kind of mechanically inclined,

wanting to be either like an engineer

or a custom car builder,

those type of things.

I really didn't consider construction

until I got to college,

which at that time is where I met Christ.

And I was also considering full-time ministry as well.

And even along that process,

kind of picking up some other jobs,

I worked in the brake manufacturing plant one summer.

I detailed boats another summer.

I worked at Target for a couple years

when I was in college,

waking up at 3.30 in the morning

to go stock shelves there

and then go into class.

So just from that young age of like working

and always having a job,

I think it's kind of affected the way

I kind of approach work now

and the effort and ethic I put into that as well.

So yeah, so when I got to college,

I started to seriously consider construction.

I went there thinking I was going to be a civil engineer

or some type of engineer,

got put on the wait list,

had time on my hands to kind of think about

what I wanted to do,

what major I wanted to end up in.

And as I talked to my advisor,

she introduced me to the building construction program there.

And as I just started to look through the courses,

it seemed to kind of line up to

where I wanted to be in life.

And then also around that time is

I met four guys who introduced me to Christ

and seeing them live out their salvation

also changed the way,

started to change my worldview

and changed the way I started to think about work

during that time.

So over the course of my college career,

like becoming a Christian

and learning more about service

and how that impacts our lives

and the people around us

and going to a college whose motto is

ut prosum that I may serve.

So all those factors kind of feel like

I've been being pushed along this journey

into a life where I'm serving people

through this nonprofit.

So probably around my senior year,

I really need to start considering some things,

looking at a few other nonprofits,

looking at Habitat.

I had a friend on the Gulf Coast

who was doing AmeriCorps year

after Katrina with another nonprofit.

He's like, hey, you should check out this program.

Like around that time,

things weren't so well for the construction industry,

2009, 2010.

There weren't a lot of jobs out there.

And I think that's another thing

God kind of used to force me into this path.

But I was still considering

for-profit opportunities.

There was a few companies I was talking to.

And I was pretty deep into talks

with this one company

that I thought I was going to be working for.

And kind of through the interview process,

I kind of emailed them saying like,

it wasn't the right fit.

It wasn't going to work out.

And at that point,

I really hadn't applied for anything else.

So I was just kind of being a bum,

working at Target,

hanging out in Blacksburg with my friends.

But yeah, through that,

God still remained faithful.

I applied for this AmeriCorps position

to come up here and work with Habitat.

Came up in July.

I think I emailed Greg or something like that.

And we kind of met.

I met a few other people around the church at that time.

And then a few months later,

when I was moving up here,

I was called Greg.

I was like, I don't have a place to stay.

And luckily, Susan and Ivor had an extra room

that they so graciously let me stay there

until I found a place.

So that's how I kind of got to New Haven,

got involved with Habitat,

got involved with Trinity.

So kind of seeing like all these things

kind of come together

to bring me to where I'm at today.

So I'm a construction manager.

What is that?

What do we do?

This definition,

organizing, scheduling, mobilizing,

and directing equipment, materials,

and personnel in performance

of a construction contract.

And that word contract

is very big in construction.

All things hinge upon that word

and everything that exists in it.

But that's a talk for another time.

So what I'm doing on an everyday basis

is organizing, scheduling,

mobilizing, and directing.

How those things play out, organizing.

Do I have plans?

Do I have permits?

Do I have subs, materials?

Do I have those things lined up for the project?

Scheduling.

What do I need to do?

What do I need?

Do I need?

When do I need this tub?

When do I need the electrician to show up?

When do I need the plumber to show up?

When do I need the roof on the house?

Trying to coordinate all those things

and get those together.

Mobilizing the site

is when is the portage on showing up?

That's always the first question

that everybody asks,

especially my excavator,

since he's the first one on site.

Temporary power,

getting all those things set up

so the guys can work

and not listen to the generator run all day.

And directing,

delegating tasks,

coordinating volunteers,

all those things

that kind of go into my job.

And I'll kind of elaborate

on some of that

as we kind of move along.

So the thing,

I guess,

the main thing with construction

is we're just trying to,

construction management,

we're trying to make the project

run smoothly from start to finish.

In our world,

we call that mitigating risks,

trying to think of everything

that can go wrong

and mitigate those things

so the project can go smoothly.

And then that kind of next slide

with Bob the Builder

in the middle there in that house,

that's kind of a representation

of kind of how my mind works.

Like I have to take

all these hundreds of tasks

and materials and things

and I have to boil that down

into one cohesive project

in the end.

which takes quite a bit of work.

I think on an average project,

I probably manage

about 3,000 man hours

worth of work.

And we probably have

anywhere from probably

50 to 80 volunteers

out a week

on a regular basis.

Some of the bigger days,

I've had 18 or 20 people out.

So it's quite a job some days.

So what is construction?

There's many different avenues

that I can fall into.

It could be transportation,

petroleum, buildings,

power plants,

water management,

manufacturing,

sewer and waste,

telecom.

All these things

are different parts

of construction

and where you can fall

as a construction manager.

construction in America

employs about

10 million people.

There's a lot of different sectors.

There's a lot of different

places you can fall

and as construction managers,

we make up about

6% of that fill.

And as a habitat

construction manager,

there's maybe

five or six of us

in the whole state.

So the group of people

that do what I do

gets even smaller

as you kind of

dig deeper into it.

And non-profits,

coming across a lot of people,

a lot of people have

a lot of different ideas

of what non-profits do

or what non-profits

look like.

I'll put a definition

there for you.

Pretty much,

non-profits,

they're dedicated

to a mission.

All the revenue

and all the money

comes in,

we usually try

and push out

into the programs

or the missions

that we're aiming towards.

So trying to keep

staff overhead low,

trying to keep

all that other

miscellaneous stuff low

so we can put

all the money

that people are donating

towards these programs,

into these programs,

so that we're

supporting that

mission and vision.

And the fact

that I've learned

through kind of

doing some research

on this,

non-profits

employ 11 million people,

which is higher

than construction

these days,

which I found surprising.

And Habitat,

the specific non-profit

that I work for,

we're an international

organization

in over 70 countries

and there's 400 affiliates

around the United States,

each focusing

on its own

geographical area.

and that's mainly

to kind of get

the people

in that community,

the businesses

in that community

to feel like

they're investing

in their community.

So we have

several sponsor groups,

one called Sleeping Giant,

which is businesses,

churches,

and individuals

from the Cheshire,

North Haven,

Hamden area

that raise

$50,000,

$50,000 or $60,000

for us per house.

There's another one

on the shoreline

called Raise the Roof.

They raise around

the same amount

and that's Madison,

Branford,

and all those towns

out that way.

They kind of come together

to support

and raise a house

and I guess

raise money

for the house.

And we also have

some bigger sponsors

as well

like Yoling Haven Hospital

who donates property.

They donate $75,000

per house

and we've had

a pretty good run

with them

as being one

of our sponsors.

And since Habitat

was formed

in 1976,

we've served

around 13 million people

and not all that

is home building.

There's other programs

that Habitat does

to get behind people

and get behind

having people

have decent housing

through microfinancing

in certain countries

and haven't really

dug much into that.

I'm not sure

how that looks

but helping people

with financing,

financial education.

We do disaster response,

neighborhood revitalization

which involves

small projects

and fixer uppers

at different people's houses,

a brush with kindness program

where they were

painting people's houses

from time to time

and all these things

are kind of catered

to the community

where that Habitat chapter is.

So they're specifically

like pinpointing

the needs of that community

and going about

learning how to serve those.

So Habitat in New Haven.

We haven't done

any microfinancing

or neighborhood revitalization.

We stick to purely home building.

Over the past decade

most of our construction

has been new construction.

A couple rehabs in there

but we've been buying

vacant lots from the city

at a pretty good price

and building new homes

from the ground up.

been around since 1986.

Over 100 homes.

Like I said before,

50 to 80 volunteers a week

and this year

we're on track

to do about four homes

because we do

a rehab in there

of an 1830s captain's house

that we had to do

some extensive work on

which only has

three foundation walls

right now.

But yeah,

we're getting there

on that one.

So our motto is

a hand up

not a handout.

We look to partner.

Our main goal

is to partner

with these families

not to just build

a house for them

but to partner with them.

So we do that

through the 400 hours

worth of sweat equity

that they do.

They come out,

they work on projects

on houses leading up

to theirs

and on their house.

So they're like

connecting with the

other homeowners

and other volunteers

and you're kind of

building all these

relationships

through that process

and kind of seeing

them kind of grow

and their construction

knowledge

and they're kind of

out there framing

their house,

they're tiling their

floors,

they're painting the walls,

they're kind of doing

all these things

along the process

as well.

And they also have

a mortgage.

It's zero interest

over 25 years

so it's a pretty

good mortgage

I'd say.

And all that money

from that mortgage

kind of goes back

into the program

and building more

homes as well.

Any questions

at this point?

How much does

the average house

cost?

Our average house

is about $95,000.

And that's a

three bedroom?

Three bedroom,

bath and a half,

full basement.

Yeah.

Anybody else?

So after that

overview of

kind of what

construction management

is and

what it

looks like

for Habitat

here in New Haven,

I'll just

come back to

this section

from Tim Keller.

thinking about

what does it

mean to

be competent

in your work?

What does it

mean to

work well

and to

serve others?

So

I'll read

this section

one more time.

It says,

One of the main

ways you love

others in your

work

is through

the ministry

of competence.

If God's

purpose for your

job is to

serve the human

community,

then the way

to serve God

best is to

do the job

well as it

can be done.

And

thinking about

examples of

that,

we have a lot

of figures

in the Bible

of people

who served

and worked

well.

And I

think we

tend to put

them on

pedestals and

kind of

idolize that.

But these

were real

people doing

real work.

people

and the

first example

that came

to mind

when I

thought about

that was

Joseph.

So we'll

go to

Genesis

41.

So in

Genesis 41,

this is where

Joseph interprets

Pharaoh's

dream.

He tells

him about

the years

of plenty

and the

years of

famine.

And then

Pharaoh kind

of sets

them up to

kind of

handle all

of this.

So if I

could get

maybe a

couple people

to read

this.

We'll read

verses 41

through the

end of the

chapter.

Somebody maybe

wants to start

reading and

kind of

somebody else

picks up

after that.

Somebody can

read the

whole thing.

I can start.

Cool.

Let's

read all

of it.

Cool.

41.

And Pharaoh

said to

Joseph,

See, I

have set

you over

all the

land of

Egypt.

And Pharaoh

took his

signet ring

from his

hand and

put it on

Joseph's

hand.

And put a

gold chain

up.

They made

him ride

in his

second chariot.

And they

called out

for him,

bowed

to knee.

Thus he

set him

over all

the land of

Egypt.

Moreover,

Pharaoh

said to

Joseph,

I am

Pharaoh,

and without

your

consent,

no one

shall

lift up

hand or

put it

all the

land of

Egypt.

And Pharaoh

called

Joseph's

name

Zephaniah.

And he

gave him

in marriage

a son,

the daughter

of

a priest

of

mom.

So

Joseph

went out

over all

the land

of Egypt.

Joseph

was 30

years old

when he

entered the

service of

Pharaoh,

king of

Egypt.

And Joseph

went out

from the

presence of

Pharaoh and

went through

all the

land of

Egypt.

During the

seven plentiful

years,

the earth

produced

abundantly.

And he

gathered up

all the

food of

the three

seven years

which

turned in

Egypt and

put the

fruit in

the cities.

He put in

every city

the fruit

and the

fruit of

the

mountains.

And Joseph

stored up

grain in

great abundance

like the sand

of the sea

until he ceased

to measure it

for it could

not be

measured.

Before the

year of famine

came,

two sons

were born

to Joseph.

Asaneth,

the daughter

of Potipha,

priest of

An,

bore them

to him.

Joseph called

the name of

the firstborn

Manasseh.

For even

poor, he

said,

God has made

me forget all

my hardship

in all my

father's house.

The name of the

second he called

Ephraim.

God has made me

fruitful in the

land of my

affliction.

The seven

years of

plenty that

occurred in

the land of

Egypt came

to an end.

And the

seven years

of famine

began to

come.

As Joseph

had said,

there was

famine in

all lands.

In all the

land of

Egypt,

there was

bread.

When all

the land

of Egypt

was famished,

the people

cried to

Pharaoh for

bread.

Pharaoh said

to all the

Egyptians,

go to

Joseph.

What he

says to

you,

do.

So when

the famine

had spread

over all

the land,

Joseph

opened up

all the

storehouses

and sold

the Egyptians.

For the

famine was

severe in

the land

of Egypt.

Moreover,

all the

earth came

to

Joseph

to

buy

rain,

because

the

famine

was

severe

over

all

of

Egypt.

So here,

what do we

see as

Joseph's

work?

He's an

administrator,

basically,

right?

I guess

today you

call him

bureaucrat.

In some

sense,

yeah.

He's like

measuring

grain,

but he

couldn't do

it anymore.

Storing it

competently.

Yeah.

Making

the spoil.

manager.

Yeah,

he was a

bit of a

project

manager here.

He has a

lot of

authority,

but he

has a lot

of

responsibility.

Yeah.

Yeah,

so as

we look

at this,

as we

see,

like,

Joseph

interpreting

Pharaoh's

dream,

like,

that was

only part

of the

work that

God sent

him there

to do.

And as

we see

him after

that,

like,

he gets

all that

responsibility.

He has

to administrate

and manage

all these

things.

We see

him,

he has

to organize,

he has

to schedule,

he has

to mobilize,

he has

to direct,

he has

to do

all these

things to

make this

happen.

Like,

he's,

it says

like several

times here,

he's like

over all

Israel.

So,

so not

only did

God send

him there

and put him

before Pharaoh

for this

dream,

but for

the people

as well.

Because when

he comes

to that

verse

55,

when all

of Egypt

was

famished,

the people

cried to

Pharaoh for

bread,

and Pharaoh

said to

all of

Egypt,

go to

Joseph,

what he

says to

you,

do.

So we

see here,

and Tim

Keller says

in this

section about

competence,

it's a form

of love.

Joseph had

to love

his people,

love the

people of

Egypt enough

to think

about their

well-being,

not only

in the

years of

plenty,

where they

could have

ate up

all the

grain they

had,

they could

have

neglected

storing as

much as

they needed,

but through

that,

through his

competent

work,

he was

able to

save for

them for

these next

seven years

that are

going to be

very hard,

and we

see here

at the

end of

that,

because the

famine was

severe over

all the

earth,

all these

people started

coming,

and all

these people

were taken

care of,

because Joseph,

he was

competent in

the work he

did.

It was

more,

and in

the book,

in this

section,

there's

this example

of this

pilot who

has to

land this

badly

damaged

plane,

and in

that we

can really

kind of

grasp,

like,

oh,

he needs

to be

confident,

he needs

to think

about these

things to

land this

plane,

and to

make sure

these people

get down

safely,

that's like

this

immediate

impending

doom,

but we

see Joseph

as more

of a

longer view

of things,

14 years

of him

having to

plan and

care for

and think

about the

needs of

the people

around here.

So with

that,

as I think

about how

that applies

to me,

how am I

competent at

my job,

how am I

displaying this

ministry of

competence,

how am I

being faithful

in the

small things

of my

work,

and how

am I

doing those

things on

a larger

scale as

well to

make sure

and ensure

that we're

building the

best home

that we

can,

we're

serving our

families

in the

best way

that we

can.

And one

of those

comes through

our mission

statement,

decent and

affordable

housing,

making sure

our housings

are sized

properly for

our families,

like not

some big

monstrosity,

not something

too small

and cramped,

but this

three-bedroom

bathroom

half-house

seems to

have worked

for us

over this

past decade

or so,

and it's

allowed us

to house a

lot of

families.

Since I've

been there,

I've built

over 20

or 30

homes in

the last

seven or

so years.

to think

about the

type of

materials

that we

use in

our home

and thinking

about our

homeowners

and how

will they

maintain

those things,

how will

they be

able to

take care

of their

homes.

A lot

of our

homeowners

who qualify

for the

program,

their income

is 50

to 80

percent of

the area

meeting

income,

so they're

not at the

top of the

income

spectrum,

but they're

not at the

lowest level

either.

They're

usually in a

point where

they need

some help

afford

a home

and that's

where we

come in

with this

zero

interest

mortgage.

Also,

our

volunteers

plan it

as well.

All the

free labor

that we

get goes

into keeping

those homes

down and

allows us

to build

in places

around New

Haven where

a for-profit

builder would

lose their

shirt on

a lot of

these houses

and redeveloping

a lot of

these vacant

lots that

have been

around New

Haven.

We also

do that

through

energy

efficiency.

When I

came on

we were

doing a

bit of

that,

but over

the past

few years

we've been

able to

beef up

our energy

efficiency,

apply for

our Energy

Star

certification,

so giving

our homeowners

a home that

they can afford

utility-wise as

well.

We had one

homeowner,

I want to

say this

was four

years ago,

during the

winter,

one winter

he was

paying $800

a month in

utilities,

which he

was living

in some

apartment that

was very

drafty,

terrible

landlord,

ridiculous rent

as well,

that's where

all their

money was

going.

So once

he moved

into his

home,

we got

that down

to under

$200 or

so,

it was him

and his

wife,

and three

kids,

and since

then he's

been able

to take

some of

that money

that he's

been saving,

he's been

sending things

back to his

home country.

He's either

from Sierra

Leone or

the Ivory

Coast,

he's a part

of a group

that came

over the

early 90s,

around that

time,

so think

like blood

diamonds and

all that

stuff,

so him

and a

few of

his friends

have been

able to

get into

habitat

homes,

and we

have been

able to

serve them

in that

way,

and that's

allowed them

to serve

their family

and friends

that they've

left back

home as

well.

And kind

of talked

about site

selection,

like where

we build.

We have

homeowners who

come from

some of

these

neighborhoods,

they have

family in

these

neighborhoods,

and they

want to

kind of stay

there and

build there

and continue

to live

there,

so I'm

thinking about

that through

the way we

select our

sites and

where we

build and

how many

houses we're

able to

build in

the area.

There's one

neighborhood where

we built

eight houses

on one

street,

so it

kind of

helped turn

those things

around,

having those

homeowners there

who are

invested in

their homes

and able to

kind of relate

to one

another,

keep their

yards clean,

and that

kind of reflects

on the other

neighbors as

well.

when we

move into

the neighborhood

you see

them kind

of painting

their houses

or planting

flowers in

the front

yard because

they see

this nice

house next

to them and

they don't

want to be

outdone.

What I

referred to

earlier,

the piece

about resilient

building in

those houses

after Hurricane

Michael,

we were able

to kind of

get in on a

pallet program

with this

about three

years ago

with the

Institute for

Business and

Home Safety

and Travelers

Insurance to

build these,

I guess this

program is

called Fortify

to build

homes that

are like

high wind and

hurricane

resistant.

So learning

from that

program and

kind of taking

some of those

techniques and

putting them

in our home

and kind of

help them to

resist these

storms and

weather conditions

a lot better

and add that

value for our

home,

knowing they're

going to have

a home that

lasts as

well.

Question back

there?

Yeah,

I was going to

say you

talk about

making the

neighborhood

homes,

I've done

construction

on the

family.

We had a

vinyl siding,

a window

door,

and gutters,

and roof

roof business.

We noticed

every time we

went to a

nice table

room,

we'd do a

house.

These three

or four

other people

come to us

and do

a house,

and that's

where we

got a lot

of our

work.

So doing

like that,

I remember

doing five

houses in

a row

off the

neighborhood,

you know,

when they

do good.

But you're

right about

that,

because people

start working,

someone puts

on the side

it's a

facial,

beautiful house

now,

and now

the neighbors

see that,

and they

start going

fixing something,

but we used

to laugh about

them,

and we were

like,

watch,

and that

used to

happen all

the time,

when things

were good,

in the early

80s.

Yeah,

I know.

Yeah,

so you

kind of,

yeah,

like one

new house

in the

neighborhood

could change

the whole

neighborhood.

Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah,

so,

kind of

thinking about

these ways

in which

that,

as a

construction

manager

and kind

of

leading

this

process,

I can

kind of

affect

the

direction

that we're

going,

and the

way that we

do this,

kind of

feeling like

Joseph as

well,

like I have

the ability

to kind

of steward

this,

and shepherd

this,

and care

for people,

not just

kind of

getting them

into the

home,

but trying

to think

about them

over the

life of

the home.

Well,

we have

an amazing

selection

committee,

it's made

up of

volunteers

as well,

so,

when we

have

property

that we

have

coming up,

we usually

have an

application

meeting,

the last

one,

it wasn't,

I think it

was last

summer or

spring,

there was

about 150

people that

came out to

that meeting,

80 or so

submitted

applications,

they narrowed

that down

to 18,

and they

selected seven

families out

of that group,

so they're

checking like

credit history,

work history,

like these

families,

like community

involvement,

and all those

things as

well,

they're trying

to make

sure that

they're in

a place

to actually

afford the

home and

afford the

mortgage,

as well as

be a positive

impact on

their community.

We had one

lady who,

she was an

older lady,

she was single,

and her goal

was to foster

kids,

so once she

moved in,

she was able

to foster a

few kids

while she

was living

there as

well,

but yeah,

it's a pretty

extensive process

that they go

through,

there's a first

application,

a second

application,

and then as

a part of

the application

process,

they come

out and

volunteer for

400 hours as

well.

I mean,

14 hours with

the application,

then they do

their 400

hours.

Are they

free to sell

their home

at some

point?

The equity

works out

up to a

certain point,

like some

of the equity

comes back

to Habitat

up until

whatever year

that's kind

of dictated

in their

closing documents,

but after

that,

they're kind

of free

and clear

too.

do a

state,

please.

Any other

questions?

All right,

thanks,

guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.