Photo by Sarah Waller.
Common Thread
Chalice Howard, owner of The Sara Jane Project, stuffs plush bunnies created in Uganda at Common Thread’s West Homewood office space.
What is the Common Thread Community? The question makes Taylor McCall, one of its founders, pause in thought.
“There are about eight different directions I could go with this question,” he said.
Common Thread could be described in a variety of ways: a missional community, a system of home churches or an international missions center. Homewood residents may also know it as the folks behind Seeds Coffee. But its most unique feature is a focus on business, operating as an incubator for small, non-profit start-ups.
“Common Thread is a non-profit, and it’s really seen as an umbrella non-profit for innovators and creators who are passionate about helping people – who are passionate about the kingdom of God, and who are passionate about serving,” McCall said.
Created in fall of 2013, Common Thread began as a grassroots organization, simply asking people how they could help.
“Many people have amazing ideas, but they don’t have the capital, the synergy or just the empowerment to do it,” McCall said. “Ideas don’t come to fruition because they aren’t great ideas or because the people aren’t great. It’s because it’s stinkin’ hard.”
Common Thread strives to help its “works,” or adopted businesses, in four areas: coaching, training, media and finance. If a business has a funding need, McCall says they go to its network, the church, to raise the needed support.
They also provide an office space. Common Thread purchased a building in West Homewood located next to Seeds Coffee in the fall of 2014. It serves as a hub for its operations. All who come under the Common Thread umbrella have equal access to it.
“We share cost. We share responsibility. It makes it so it’s not a burden for anyone because everyone is sharing it. Everyone takes ownership,” McCall said.
Common Thread does not have set criteria for assistance. Instead, they seek people who share their philosophy of faith and purpose and who have passions that align with their own.
“Our ultimate desire is to build a community that has a thread, this same ideal or philosophy running through them, and they are always working together,” McCall said.
Chalice Howard, a 24-year-old, full-time nanny, started a non-profit called The Sara Jane Project in 2011. She decided to partner with Common Thread earlier this year. Employing skilled women in Uganda, The Sara Jane Project sells fair-trade, plush bunnies for children, with the profits in turn supporting families in the midst of an adoption.
“The Sara Jane Project is a great example of amazing vision with an amazing leader, but there were things that were falling through the cracks,” McCall said. “[Howard] needed a community around her that would say, ‘We are with you, we believe in what you’re doing.’”
Howard admits that she is naturally an independent person, but partnering with Common Thread gave her advice and encouragement and in turn, her non-profit is growing exponentially.
For the past four years, Howard has orchestrated an annual spring shipment of bunnies from Uganda, selling them online with a promise of an Easter delivery. But under the guidance of Common Thread, she has expanded her orders to seasonal shipments, four times a year.
“We call most of our works ‘micro-churches’ because they are small families, and that’s what church means: the family coming together with an intentional purpose,” McCall said.
Learn more at commonthread.org.
