Read my notes and see my photos from Sojourners' Pentecost 2007.
Speakers and workshops to explain how to put poverty on the agenda of our Church
Rich Nathan, a pastor from
Shane Claiborne inspired my specifically. Have you heard of Shane Claiborne? He traveled to as part of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) to end the war, lives in an impoverished region of
The New Monasticism is living in a small intentional community in the abandoned places of the Empire, such as the inner city and other places where God’s children are oppressed. It’s “New” because this monasticism is for both celibate singles and married couples. Christians don’t start new churches, but breathe life back in the old shell of the Church. The three R’s of Christian Community Development explain this well.
The first R is Relocation. Jesus did not live in the suburbs. He neither gave charity nor did community service once in a while. His ministry was incarnational. He gave up his position of prestige to serve and know the most oppressed with ALL His life. It is more popular to give charity to the oppressed than to live with the oppressed. The problem with Christianity is not that we do not serve the oppressed, but that we do not know the oppressed. We won’t have a revival until we know the least among us.
The second R is Redistribution. Once we relocate and build a relationship with the oppressed, we will naturally want to help our friends. This will cause a natural redistribution of wealth. The poor will have their needs met, and the rich will realize they really did not need very much.
The third R is Reconciliation. Once we are living with the oppressed and sharing with them, there will be reconciliation among the different races, nations and social classes. It is the
The three R’s of Christian Community Development are (ALL TOGETHER): Relocation, Redistribution and Reconciliation.
The way we put poverty on the agenda of our church is by putting poverty on the agenda of our own life. Jesus did not go around forcing people to follow his agenda. Jesus even told people to keep his agenda a secret. Serving the most oppressed starts with community service, but it is much more than community service. It consumes all parts of our life. God is either Lord of all or Lord of none. Once we start loving God and others with all our lives, it is contagious.
Speakers and workshops to explain how to put poverty on the agenda of our Congress
Covenant for a New America tracts
Candidates Debate
Third day:
Lobby Day training
March from Church to Capital building
Compared to the January 27 Anti-War rally, people did not yell angry chants, but sang beautiful Christian songs of love. It was amazing.
Rally by the Capital building
Met with the aides of Senator Levin, Senator Stabenow and Representative Dingell
Aides told us that they were happy to hear from us and prefer hearing from us more than lobbyists.
I had a big question coming to this conference.
Do Christians try to influence their politicians? Would Jesus lobby His congress?
I’m going to talk about two main ideas I learned during Pentecost 2007.
First, talking with our politicians is not lobbying, but instead community service.
Second, Christians do much more than community service; Christians challenge the Empire, the state religion, by building the
What Would Jesus Do (WWJD)? Jesus would talk with politicians as far as they would listen, and at the same time He would build God’s Kingdom that consumes the Empire.
Talking with your politicians is community service, not lobbying. We were not lobbyists, but constituents. Lobbyists try to influence all politicians, but constituents only talk with politicians that represent their community. As an analogy, imagine you are at a university. Your professors are your congresspeople. Your classmates are your community. Your classes are your district or state. You are a constituent in your class. If your professor is hurting someone in class, you have a responsibility talk with your professor. A lobbyist tries to influence classes they are not a part of. Imagine if an unwelcomed stranger tried to influence your class. You probably would not like it. But if one of your classmates suggested a way to improve your class, it would be helpful and appropriate. You can send emails or letters to your professor or congressperson, but sometimes it is necessary to go to office hours. That’s what we were doing. We were going to office hours with our congresspeople. We went to office hours because God’s children are hurt by the policies of congress.
There are 9 million uninsured children in . It would take $50 billion over five years to decrease this number by more than half. Congress spends $10 billion per week, $10 billion per week!, on the war in
Politicians care what others think of them more than most people. Speak up! To proclaim the Gospel is the opposite of being silent. We worship God by giving a voice to the oppressed. It is a true church service. Before talking to my congresspeople, people mentioned that we ought to be like the widow who kept coming to the king incessantly until he agreed to her demands. Christians are holy gadflies. However, a king is not an elected official. Our elected officials want to hear from their constituents. When we speak with our politicians, it is community service, rather then just making demands.
Although Christians do community service, community service is far from the Kingdom. Christians challenge the Empire by building the Kingdom. Our hope is not in an improved Empire, but a radically different way of life: the
Originally published at Interconnectedness. Please leave any comments there.
