Today, I’d like to connect you to four organizations and their up-coming conferences. These conferences offer direct connections to the issues of poverty, ministering to the poor and in poor neighborhoods, and much encouragement to get involved. (Mostly the script below is from these organizations' websites.) 1. Urban Reload RELOAD East Coast (NY) 2015 September 12 @ 8:00 am - 4:30 pm RELOAD (East Coast), is a one-day training event that teaches best practices in youth ministry and connects you with like-minded leaders who share your calling & understand your challenges. Whether you are a veteran, seasoned, or a brand new youth worker, You and your team will be inspired, equipped and refreshed by this leadership development experience. Reload is a national non-profit organization that trains & resources urban youth workers to effectively evangelize and disciple youth in at-risk zip codes throughout the US.. This organization exists to empower the urban youth workers so that urban youth have the leaders and role models they need to live transformed lives by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Reload seeks to engage 75,000 urban youth in life-changing discipleship with local youth workers by 2020. Go here for more information on Reload's website >> 2. Christian Community Development Association, Illuminate, national conferenceCCDA National Conference, Illuminate November 11-14, 2015 Memphis, TN Many communities and neighborhoods experience a continual battle with darkness. Yet, out of our encounter with the valley of the shadow, a great witness is born. Such a witness has the profound power to expose injustice, pushing into the darkness with the light of Christ. As Dr. King stated, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” The gospel of Matthew invites us into the light of Christ, the light of the world. As followers of Jesus, we embody the light of Christ, illuminating the darkness and shining light into the shadow of oppression. We declare that this light is the light of personal salvation and the light of good works of the Kingdom of God, together bringing about transformation, justice and an immediate and eternal hope. As vessels of Christ’s light, we expose areas of injustice, calling for a different reality, rooted in the hope of Jesus. When we engage with our neighbors in community transformation, issues of injustice are exposed and brought out of darkness and into the light, furthering the work of transformation. Go here for more info on CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) >> and Illuminate >> 3. The Justice ConferenceThe Justice Conference June 3-4, Chicago, IL LIVE JUSTICE TOGETHER. Our vision is to serve the discovery of ideas, celebrate the beauty of justice, and foster a community of people who live justice together. Now, more than ever, people of faith need to come together to wrestle with the injustice in our world. This is the time. This is the place. Our vision is to serve the discovery of ideas, celebrate the beauty of justice, and foster a community of people who live justice together. The Justice Conference has emerged as a premier gathering for Christian leaders, justice practitioners, students, and learners from all over the world. We want to leverage the power of community and catalyze the work of justice globally, nationally, locally and personally. ow, more than ever, people of faith need to come together to wrestle with the injustice in our world. Go here for more information on The Justice Conference website >> 4. Movement Day (NYC)Movement Day October 29, 2015 New York Hilton Midtown 1335 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10019 Movement Day is catalyzing leadership teams from the world’s largest cities to serve their cities more effectively by advancing high-level, city-changing collaborative partnerships. The Mission of Movement Day is to Cultivate Gospel Movements in Cities by:
Go here for more information @ the Movement Day website >>
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We do not typically approach the subject of evangelism and social action impartially, but with political, demographic, and religious preconceptions and biases. Opening up a conversation to re-assess the nature of evangelism is difficult, especially when social action and issues of poverty are injected into the discussion. The intent of Wasted Evangelism is not to debate the subject, or to review the history of the various positions regarding evangelism and social action, but to offer an exegetical and biblical theological approach to the question, Can social action be evangelism? It is important, nonetheless, to recognize there are barriers that can militate against an open discussion on the subject of evangelism and social action. For many, the meaning of evangelism is self-evident because of its association with “proclamation” activities (e.g., preaching, proclaiming, witnessing, etc.). Evangelism’s etymological relationship to the term “good news” (i.e., the evangel) can box one into defining evangelistic activity as passing on information, that is, to tell, preach, or share the news of Jesus Christ—that is, to evangelize. For many conservative evangelical Christians defining evangelism any other way causes the gospel (i.e., the news) to lose its meaning, robs the people of this important information, and diminishes the work of salvation in Jesus Christ. Evangelism’s strong association to the news of the gospel suggests to some that anything outside verbal, cognitive-based activities is a threat to the fundamentals of the faith. Additionally, those who have the highest interest in evangelism are often those least interested and least skilled in critical, theological reflection. Since evangelism is understood as a self-evident activity, rarely is the subject examined exegetically or evaluated theologically, but is usually consigned to matters of practical theology (e.g., missions, preaching, personal witness, church outreach programs, and church growth). (Meaning is often confused with application.) This, then, does not promote biblically relevant criteria to precede the discussion and, thus, limits the possibility of new, creative, and potentially sound understandings of biblical evangelism. Within evangelical circles, to advocate that social action can be evangelism is challenging, for such subjects as poverty and the poor are often relegated to the private sphere. Therefore, anything related to the public arena of rights, laws, and taxes or the confronting of social or governmental systems on behalf of the poor are often associated with the “social gospel” and the theologically liberal church. Although historically the church was deeply involved with issues of poverty, a “great reversal” took place between 1900 and about 1930. Evangelical fundamentalists turned away from their social responsibilities as a reaction against the social gospel that was perceived to be aligned with liberalism, which had diminished Bible infallibility and inspiration and weakened biblical views of sin, hell, salvation, and the deity of Jesus. When civic and political social concerns became suspect in the minds of evangelical academics and popular revivalists, social action responsibilities took on a minor role for much of the evangelical Christian community. Anything associated with the social gospel was considered a distraction and, to some, a betrayal to the fundamental essence of the gospel (i.e., the information, that is, the news of Jesus Christ). This history spills over into any contemporary discussion on evangelism and social action. There are also demographic barriers to an open discussion regarding the association between evangelism and social action. Over the last seven decades, people have been moving out of urban centers and into the suburbs, including Christians and their churches. The twin demographic forces of urban flight and suburban sprawl contribute to the evangelicals’ disassociation with issues of poverty and the poor. As a result, this social transformation helped reinforce a one-dimensional understanding of the gospel [see note below], which determines, for many, the nature of evangelism. Suburbanization of American society has moved much of the evangelical communities of faith outside populations affected by poverty. Rather than church communities promoting social action on behalf of poorer communities, the (upward) mobility of American families toward the suburbs demand that suburban churches serve a socializing and stabilizing function. Not a very likely set of social forces that will generate social change on behalf of the economically vulnerable hidden outside their neighborhoods and unknown within their circles of friends and acquaintances. The barriers reviewed here are not exhaustive, but are limited to those most relevant to the arguments and conclusions of the studies found in Wasted Evangelism. To overcome these barriers, these studies focus our attention to the text of Scripture, particularly the Gospel of Mark, as a basis for entering into a discussion on the biblical relationship between evangelism and social action. *From the "Introduction" to Wasted Evangelism. [Note] A one-dimensional gospel indicates solely a person/God dynamic relationship; whereas a multi-dimensional gospel includes the person/God dynamic and, also, creation/God, person/creation, and person/person. Wasted evangelism considers the multi-dimensional gospel more representative of a biblically sound narrative definition of the gospel. Martin Luther King Jr., from a Birmingham jail, wrote to the sleepy, indifferent church of his day--we need to rehear it again, perhaps to awaken Jesus' church today once again:
Too often involvement in the public square for the church is limited to issues that threaten its existence, comfort, and the status quo. The faith community is publically relevant, not when it acts as a critic of societal patterns, but when it engages in advancing positive and adequate alternatives to public issues. The question is, to borrow from Richard John Neuhaus, “no longer about relevance but about relevance to what and toward what end.” A church’s public voice must promote the interests of more than its own membership for it to actually be a public voice. Adapted from "Widows in Our Courts," chapter One of Wasted Evangelism, an exegesis of the Widow story in Mark 12. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, we need to “smudge” ourselves with “the hard complexities of the world.” Jean Bethke Elshtain reminds us that Bonhoeffer wrestled with “the problem of dirty hands.” She wrote:
This morning I am drawn to the popular 3:16 verse of John’s Gospel: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Mostly, we read John 3:16 without much contemplation or connection to where the verse sits in John’s narrative. We simply wretch it out of its place and attach it to those sinners outside the church. This is a Billy Graham verse to move the crowds of the unsaved to a personal decision for Jesus. The words of John 3:16 are the content of a Christian evangelistic tract to make it easier for us to “witness” to total strangers, asking, “Are you going to heaven or to hell?” John, the apostle condemned to die in a vat of boiling oil and when he would not die, banished to a desert island because of the testimony of Jesus (Rev 1:9)—this John--however, did not record these words for “the sinner,” but for the church to get their hands a little dirty.
John 3:16 is hinged on an Old Testament story (John 3:14-15; Numbers 21:4-9) where the people of Israel had complained about God’s provisions and rebelled against the original windy Spirit who led them into a dangerous place, and, then, how God sent poisonous snakes to kill off the rebels. (How dare he; God is love—no, he is also messy and holy and like that windy Spirit that does whatever it wants.) Snakes. It’s now more of a dangerous place to which the Israelites had gotten themselves into. And they wanted out. The only way: cry for help and repent. The only means: Live with the snakes, but trust a bronze snake statute to cure the poisonous bite. Just look at the raised symbol made of bronze and you will be saved.
This is the connection of John 3:16, the place where, amid the rebellion, we find our own way home, our own salvation as a church. John 3:16 reminds the complaining insiders (here at church) that God saves sinners—even those rebellious, stiff-necked, outsiders, for it is “whosoever” believes (and that can be scary, even dangerous for a church). There goes that windy Spirit again, blowing down and on wherever it so desires. We can’t choose the “whosoever.” But our own—our own church’s—rebellion against God is often seen in our refusal to identify with the messy places God’s Spirit chooses to blow us. For, we see in the next chapter (John 4) that the windy Spirit blows Jesus right into dirty territory, filled with outsiders, to talk specifically to a whoring, half-breed Samaritan woman (the truly marginalized of Jesus’ day). That windy Spirit, with the news of God’s love, has the habit of showing up in all the wrong places. If we truly believe what John 3:16 says, we will accept that that windy Spirit might put us in places where are hands might just have to get dirty, with and among some very messy "whosoever." |
AuthorChip M. Anderson, advocate for biblical social action; pastor of an urban church plant in the Hill neighborhood of New Haven, CT; husband, father, author, former Greek & NT professor; and, 19 years involved with social action. Archives
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