New England Center for the Abolition of Poverty
Good podcast to listen / watch: NECAP
The New England Center for the Abolition of Poverty (N.E.C.A.P.) is also known as the New England Storehouse. For more information on the Storehouse Vision click there.
Background
The full background of the Storehouse Vision is too long to explain succinctly here. Suffices to say: the Lord has been speaking about creating Storehouses on the earth connected with His will being done. These are regional Storehouses of capital, but also of all kinds of resources to facilitate the Kingdom of God – including an alternative to the world’s way of central banking and Wall Street style of investment. The Storehouse is in the context of the unity and prayer movements of any region.
In order to well steward, administrate and appropriate such resources, reformation must come to the Church and God’s people with regard to money, business practices, and a return to biblical economic principals. This is part of a new wineskin being formed preparing the way for the Lord’s return to marry a Bride without Spot or Wrinkle. It is also liken to Ezra’s reforms when the remnant of Israel came out of Babylon to rebuild the temple and restore Jerusalem. Ezra took God’s people back to the word of God and pointed out the significant areas of disobedience in God’s people following His commands and the call for Repentance.
To more fully understand the WHY behind the New England Storehouse, we invite you to read the following on the New Breed of Business website:
1. God’s Economy
2. Am I a Slave?
3. Come Out of Babylon
4. Storehouse Vision
Abolition
Why the term Abolition?
Because Jesus has come to “set the captives free” – Isaiah 61
Jesus wants to set people free from :
- Debt Slavery
- Poverty
- Greed
- Financial Fears
- The voice of money (Mammon)
- Career/Corporate Slavery
- Identity/Conformity Slavery
- Income/Money Slavery
We know that the person we used to be was crucified with Him to put an end to sin in our bodies. Because of this we are no longer slaves to sin.
Romans 6:1-7
The New England Church has such an amazing and rich heritage of standing up for the abolition of chattel slavery in the United States leading up to the Civil War. God is calling the New England Church to a reprisal of its abolitionist roots to help people get out of all kinds of slavery in the 21st century, including economic slavery.
Famous Abolitionists: Harriot Tubman; John Brown; Angelina Grimké; William Lloyd Garrison; Harriet Beecher Stowe; Frederick Douglass; Abraham Lincoln; Ulysses S. Grant
Origin Story
Podcast worth listening to regarding NECAP inspiration dream/word -> Banking for the Working Poor
So, sometime in early 2021, we started gathering a forerunner team every two weeks to put together the beginnings of the NE Storehouse.
This had been catalyzed a few different ways:
1. Jonathan Friz (MA) and Gregg Healey (CT) started talking about implementing the Storehouse vision in the New England region potentially as part of the New England Alliance in the beginning of 2020, pre-pandemic. Although we wanted to get things going, Gregg felt in his spirit that New England leaders were not yet ready to receive the fullness of the Storehouse / coming out of Babylon message.
2. Sometime later, Chris Adams (Navy Chaplin, RI) and Gregg were discussing how to come out of Babylon practically – and specifically how to cash out some financial market based assets and reinvest into Kingdom driven investments. Gregg was inspired to share with Chris, this is not a passive type of investment we are talking about, but an active one, where we the people of God have to get involved in people’s lives, to help them, disciple them, and incubate their business ideas. Who do you know in Rhode Island that would be a good ministry/business/situation to “invest” in? Instead of me serving up Chris an investment product on a platter, ready-to-buy, Gregg was challenging Chris to start looking for people / investment opportunities that we could bring a group around to invest together. Like – ‘you are part of the solution!’
3. Also sometime after early 2020, Joel Frazier (CT) approached me with the question – hey Gregg, are there any Christian debt consolidation firms that can help me payoff my credit card debt? To which I said, sure, but you don’t want to really work with them because they lend money just as any other debt consolidation or consultation firm – i.e. they will follow the same lousy business practices of charging more fees, hard money lending, payday lending, and recourse lending. (All of which actually profit from the poor, rather than simply help them.) I also said – hey before you use more debt to get out of debt (debt restructuring), have you ever considered that God wants to release miracles of debt forgiveness? Let me tell you my testimony…and then we prayed together for debt forgiveness miracles.
4. I started sharing the vision of implementing a Storehouse here in New England with several believers in CT and MA. Like “We can do this!”. And “This is happening!”. There was much favor upon sharing the vision with several people just blurting out: “I’ll put in $1000” without me even asking for any money directly. Thus the core team was formed.
5. One night early 2021, after the GameStop discussions we had been having on the New Breed of Business roundtable discussions, Gregg awoke hearing/seeing the following: “NE Center ____ Poverty”. As Gregg meditated on this experience and prayed, he felt the Lord was giving guidance to the NE Storehouse vision specifically. That a core focus was the elimination of poverty. After experimenting with various names, it was like a game of ‘fill-in the blank’ to make an acronym. ‘NEC_P’… so, what might then ‘NECAP’ stand for? Wait a minute, the Lord has already been speaking about the abolition of economic slavery to the body of Christ, so maybe this should be called… “The New England Center for the Abolition of Poverty”. It’s a bit of a mouthful, but boils down to a catchy ‘NECAP’, which is like CAP for Capital, NE for New England, but the NECAP (say knee-cap) is memorable. In fact, instead of being loan sharks – who if you don’t pay will “knee-cap” you (break your legs – take your stuff), we are like loan doves who will help lift people out of poverty and in order to “be fruitful and multiply” as well as disciple people into becoming “the lender not the borrower”.
We presented the name via the dream to the team at the next meeting and they embraced it.
Some Founding Principles
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed
Romans 8:19
You’ve heard it said “God helps those who help themselves”, but in effect, Jesus actually says: “I will help those who help others”.
Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in…
Matthew 25:34-35
The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself
Proverbs 11:25
The Storehouse is not a fund raising engine for ministries, it is a community empowerment model that serves others, not our self interests, nor our our own ministry’s financial needs. When we join the Storehouse Community it should not be motivated by “what can I get out of this?” but rather “how can we come together to help those in need?” and “how can I further God’s interests within my community?”. See Needs Not My Own post and podcast for in depth exploration of this.
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country
JFK
Part of the NE Storehouse is a banking alternative (where can I keep my money?). It is also a stock market alternative (invest in local businesses, business people). It is a type of “United Way” for Kingdom purposes. It is an insurance alternative (“barn raising” through the Storehouse community). With many other possibilities that emerge when a community comes together, “enterprising”.
Projects
- Joel Fraizer – Operation Fraizer Freedom – CC debt consolidation
- Matt Glover, YWAM – Assisted family after financial scam
- All-In-One / Edward Warchick – vocational training in roofing
- Chareese Westbury – 2023 Honda HRV purchase
- Seeding Jinja Uganda Storehouse (Global Storehouse)
- Uganda Missions Trips – Joel Fraizer and Chareese Westbury
- Susan Sevensky – Transition funding and emergency car repairs
- Peter Rondeau – Getting RV back on the road
- Prayer Mountain Cabins – Joel Fraizer and Jonathan Friz
- Mary Bruce – credit card refi and personal financial planning
- 10 Days of Prayer documentary film financing (Global Storehouse)
- Dubai 10 Days of Prayer Summit funding (Global Storehouse)
- Aaron Reeves, YWAM – consolidate and refi CC debt and car loan
- Financing Western Mass Storehouse to purchase a minivan for a family
Connected to Storehouse Network
The New England Storehouse is designed to regionally encompass the 6 states of New England. We don’t want to directly supervise and engage projects outside of our region, but we are happy to assist, equip, seed and work side-by-side with other “Storehouses” outside our region. We don’t intend to be all things to all people. Every Storehouse is supposed to be like that. Limited in its scope. Also, the plan isn’t to only have one Storehouse only in New England. In fact there are already other Storehouses in New England. One in is Western Mass connected with a home church. Each one is independent, yet connected in whatever ways God and each team sees fit. It is always a “coalition of the willing” built on trust, respect and honor. We have talked about starting a Storehouse to serve Bristol, CT as another example. Part of what any Storehouse looks to do is to seed (or help start) other Storehouses. These are all decentralized and entrepreneurial. There is no formal oversite or financial requirement. We rely on the principals of the Kingdom, unity and prayer and mutually encourage one another. These are connected to the leadership of the Church with the guidance of elders, the working together with the 5-fold gifts of Ephesians 4, the unity of the saints, and the orthodoxy of the Word of God. As such, Jesus is the head.
A Learning Community
We have many people outside the New England area who join us on our bi-weekly calls. Why? They are there as observers, listeners, and contributors. Like a theater in an operating room of a teaching hospital, people from around the world can watch the process of the Storehouse is action. Blood, gore, mess and all! We want all the Storehouses to be like this. One, it helps educate people through vocational, experiential, on the job training. People can pick up ideas to bring back to their communities. People can grasp the practical “how to” and often have the “Ah Ha!” moment of the teaching concepts finally clicking in. Part of this is we have other Storehouse elders/board members sitting in as well. They can offer suggestions, wisdom and guidance. Even be a referee at times as we learn how to operate in excellence as we love one another. Sometimes the truth hurts! A birth is messy!
Would you like to join these meetings as a observer of the NECAP?
We meet every other Monday at 3pm Eastern time via Zoom. Email info@newbreed.co to receive the Zoom link. All welcome. The NECAP is open to new participants in the 6 states of New England, but also people are welcome to observe and ask questions by anyone who is looking to create or be part of a Storehouse in their region.
Hope you are inspired to imagine what Storehouse the united Church could build in your city or region !
newbreed.co 