Thousand Acre Church

Okay… I admit that the title of this post suggests that I think churches have evil intentions when they address poverty.  That’s not exactly what I intend to say.  But I can’t think of any way to title this post that is shorter (I’m open to suggestions) and still communicates the content of the post.  So, forgive me if you’re offended by the title. 

This list is from Beyond Guilt: Christian Response to Suffering by George Johnson.  He thinks (and I agree, otherwise I wouldn’t post it, duh) that hunger and oppresion are in some ways fostered by poor theology, preaching and teaching in our churches.  He adds, “This might be called the underdevelopment of theology or the captivity of the church to cultural values.”  I think its interesting that he thinks of the pollution of the church by cultural values in different ways than you might expect to hear from the “family values” folks… but that’s a digression.  Here’s the list (straight from the book in bold with any of my comments in italics): [Read more →]

We’re reading a book for our JustFaith class by George S. Johnson titled Beyond Guilt: Christian Response to Suffering.  Here is the author’s take on the “give a fish or teach to fish” thing:

There is a saying that helps explain this challenge to work for justice, not just for charity.  It goes like this:  “If people are hungry you can give them some fish and they will live another day.  It’s called relief.  But if you not only give a fish, but teach them how to fish for themselves they will be helped to feed themselves in the future.”  This is often called development.  That sounds good but it can be misleading if it is not followed with the next step.  There is a third part of that saying that is critical to our efforts to move beyond guilt.  We must not only offer the fish (relief) and assistance in knowing how to fish themselves (development), but we must move over in the pond and give them a place to fish.  Or as someone has added, we must stop polluting the pond where they fish and give them a fair price for their fish.  This third step has many facets to it.  It is called working for justice, fairness.  Justice includes efforts to end oppression and unfair practices of what Walter Wink calls the domination system.  Moving from charity to justice is difficult because it calls for careful listening, increased awareness and critical thinking about attitudes and values that have brought us to this current crisis.

I thought this was an interesting addition to the old metaphor.  I feel like I’m struggling to reserve more than my fair share of the pond.  I think most of us are doing that.  I don’t know what to do about it, but awareness of the issue can be the beginning of living more simply and fairly.

There is a danger in talking about injustice in the world.  Sometimes, well intentioned people think that by TALKING about injustices they are actually DOING something about them.  It’s the inverse of “Show me; don’t tell me.”  We become hearers (or speakers) of good words, but not doers of good works.  I’m afraid, by blogging about books I’m reading or things I’m learning, that I will slide into that habit of talking instead of doing.  I invite you to call me back to action if you notice me drifting away from being an instrument of peace and provision in the world.

There is also a danger in nottalking about injustice in the world.  By remaining silent, we allow people, wealthy and poor, to live lives that are not fully human.  We refuse each other the invitation to express out humanity in ways which respect the dignity and humanness of our neighbors.  We accept the illusion of spiritual wholeness being bought and consumed at the mall.  We can remain blind to the opportunity to experience wholeness through sharing and community.

In this political season,  I haven’t been able to decide for myself whether I am more impressed by the example of one candidate’s deeds or by the challenge of the other candidate’s rhetoric.  What I HAVE decided is that if decent people would do more to voluntarily create a society of shared resources and shared spaces then we could see more of the Kingdom of God on earth than we would by waiting for politicians to deliver on empty yet hopeful speeches.  I don’t care how you vote this Fall.  I hardly care IF you vote at all.  But, if you think that you’ve exhausted your opportunity to make the world a better place by spending an hour in line waiting to vote, then you are wrong.  We can do so much more.  We can do more together.  For a list of ideas of ways we can bring life to our neighborhoods, check out the Ideas for Your Neighborhood page at this site.

Over the next several posts I’m going to blog about what I’m learning in a class that I’m taking with my wife.  It’s called JustFaith, and we are about 5 weeks into the 30 week course.  Eventually I’ll create a page of links to resources which might help you make the difference you want to make on your thousand acres.  Let’s get busy.

We hardly ever (if ever) eat a full meal when we observe the Lord’s Supper a.k.a. the Eucharist.  The best we can do is guess at what significance the meal would have in connection with this sacremental observance.  As part of this ongoing meal-sharing dialogue, I’ve received more than one comment about the observance of the Eucharist as a special, community-defining event that should happen only with believers in Jesus present (i.e. paganless, Phariseeless, postituteless, tax-collectorless).  The result is a distintction in church practice between the Lord’s Supper and a “Jesus-style” meal (complete with unobservant Jews or pagans).  I understand that position, and so any disagreeing that I do with an is done in humility and in fear.  That said, I think I’ve gone far enough in previous posts to begin blurring the lines drawn around the Eucharist celebration.  Once the lines are blurred, I think we can begin to feel more freedom to invoke and expect Jesus’ missional and accepting presence at our meals, and coffees, and snack-times, and cook-outs with followers and non-followers and not-even-curious-non-followers alike.  So… here are some thoughts: [Read more →]

I’ve been ingesting a stimulating book on the meal practices of the early church titled Of Widows and Meals: Communal Meals in the Book of Acts.  I’m getting close to the end of the book, and I keep getting smacked around by these questions:

• If sharing meals was important to Jesus, then why isn’t it as important to the church as I know it. 
• Why isn’t meal practice more important to my family as followers of Jesus?
• If koinonia (having things in common, sharing) was important to the early church, then why don’t we practice it more often?

[Read more →]