Thanks to everyone for the rich discussion. I found it very educational. So, I guess perhaps my question is this: what examples can we share with each other of how we've used our voice as Christians to be truth tellers and stand for justice? Perhaps the church as institution is not called (although I'm not saying I necessarily agree with that, but I'll assume that for this post) .. but as as organism...and as individual Christians I sense we agree. So what example can we give each other and others of how we have been using our voices? What ideas can we offer the church for meaningful ways to speak up and out?
One thing I think is the importance of convening and modeling healthy civic engagement on hot topics in your community. For me, I've been trying to convene a community discussion around youth at risk. Our community has (unfortunately) a plethora of kids at risk, and it's just a small community. The official response has been a law and order response... no community services for help to address the risk, but arrest and incarceration. I'd like to engage this topic with community leaders in a HEALTHY way. I think that Christians as a community should be able to lead in healthy conversations around hot topics. I think this is a gift we can give to the community at large. Do you think that's true?
Here's another example of people getting together and acting on justice. This is the group Christians Ending Poverty that has a strong representation from Crossroads CRC in San Marcos. A wonderful example and inspiration to what we can do as ORGANIZED Christians to address injustice. Check out this link:
You said, “Increasing high school graduation rates is an obvious good. Who is against it?”
It’s not who can be against it that is the issue. The question that trips us up in the discussion is the HOW?
Well meaning Christians, united to address an issue, can vary widely and wildly in the HOW. So to you what may be an easy assumption… who can be against improving high school graduation rates? For others can be seen as a issue that has political under and over tones…will that mean increased funding out of tax dollars? Will that let the government into private, Christian schools? Will the government require a nation-wide “one curriculum” to be foisted on all schools? What will be the role of the federal government vs. the local school board; will this be a threat to local control of education? Yeah, lots of differing ideas and concerns out there when we start looking at the HOW.
However, I’d love to see more LOCAL CHURCHes jump in. But it’s not hearing the voice of “the church” I’m looking for. I feel a need and longing for the “comfort” of the church, for the church to create safe spaces for Christians to engage their faith and their daily life…struggling with each other and their understanding of Christ’s call on their life and their action in the world. EVEN when we differ on the how.
By the way, yesterday I met with my local representative to Congress (little towns have an advantage..we were at the same lunch counter together, and he’s running for re-election). So I took that moment to tell him my dreams for improved school experience to address youth at risk, and that drop-out rate issue. Yeah, not earth shattering, but you know what? I talked to the guy, at least that’s something. Sometimes just saying something out loud and having someone listen and/or ask questions can help you clarify your own thinking.
So if I can do that at a lunch counter in my small town, I wonder what it would be like to be able to do it in the safety of my own church with brothers and sisters as we examine the issues and struggle out possible solutions?
What I meant about the HOW sometimes being a political issue is that it can happen that two (or more) people who agree on the need for action related to a problem may totally disagree on the KIND of action. For example person A may think that the way forward on youth at risk is to provide lots of city and county funding for programs aimed at the youth and their families to reconnect them to being healthy citizens—restorative justice, Person B may think the way forward is to fund a robust crime stopping program and ramp up the police force to remove troubled teens from the community, Person C may think that there’s no good government/funding solution and that the Church or local sports groups , or the local 4-H should work harder at growing healthy kids, and parents should just do a better job parenting. I think that when we are entertaining solutions that involve our communities’ systems and structures that that becomes a political question as well as a personal response. Political in this sense then is referring to being related to (local in this case) government. It can also be understood as party politics at times because sometimes our political framework corresponds with the way we see that solutions should move forward, but I wasn’t talking about party politics here.
No one is forcing me to respond to social issues; that is for sure! I just happen to believe that as a disciple of Jesus that I am called to be in the world and working toward solutions to problems and suffering I see.
But back to my idea in the original post. That was the dream that the church could provide the “table” for persons A,B, and C and many others to come together and to look for solutions, that it would be great to be able to sit in safety with my brothers and sisters in my church community and talk about this kind of thing even if we differ in our opinions about how. We would grow in our understanding of each other and maybe come up with some innovative response to the issue we’re talking about because we’re together.
I suppose we could also use your point and say “no one is forcing the church to respond to social issues”. That is also an exciting topic.
For me though, I’m less interested in the lofty theological discussion, as important as they are, and more interested in the actual action pieces. For those of us Christians who choose, and are not forced, to respond to social issues, what are we doing that’s exciting? And how is that affecting our church or vice versa?
This is an invitation to kelvin—Please stay! If this site is just for people who want to stay on the surface of the challenge to be disciples of, and community in Christ then it may as well be a news site.
I admire kelvin for (his or her) willingness to be vulnerable with a community of faceless posters. My own experience has been that it takes a brave soul to lead others by example to express their struggles, frustrations, pain.
How others react to our vulnerability opens the door or closes it. If the door is opened, other folks usually start sharing their struggles, because none of us is without pain. What better place to bring our confusion and hurts than to the feet of Jesus and our community of fellow believers who, when they are willing, embrace us and lift us up. I have been blessed (and surprised!) more often than not in seeing those doors open WIDE within various Christian small groups and churches I have been a part of, and beautiful community has been built.
I thank kelvin too because (he or she) points us to the importance of KNOWING one another. One of the most important things for humans is to know and BE KNOWN. All praise and thanksgiving to the God who knows us completely! Enriching further is when our community knows us and embraces us with our vulnerabilities and our strengths, our rough edges and smooth, ministers to us and invites us to minister to each other and beyond.
It is also in this kind of healthy community that we may differ at times and yet fully love one another. Yeah, kelvin, I hope you stay to help build this community.
Posted in: Why Christians Should Be Involved in Advocacy
Thanks to everyone for the rich discussion. I found it very educational. So, I guess perhaps my question is this: what examples can we share with each other of how we've used our voice as Christians to be truth tellers and stand for justice? Perhaps the church as institution is not called (although I'm not saying I necessarily agree with that, but I'll assume that for this post) .. but as as organism...and as individual Christians I sense we agree. So what example can we give each other and others of how we have been using our voices? What ideas can we offer the church for meaningful ways to speak up and out?
One thing I think is the importance of convening and modeling healthy civic engagement on hot topics in your community. For me, I've been trying to convene a community discussion around youth at risk. Our community has (unfortunately) a plethora of kids at risk, and it's just a small community. The official response has been a law and order response... no community services for help to address the risk, but arrest and incarceration. I'd like to engage this topic with community leaders in a HEALTHY way. I think that Christians as a community should be able to lead in healthy conversations around hot topics. I think this is a gift we can give to the community at large. Do you think that's true?
Posted in: Why Christians Should Be Involved in Advocacy
Here's another example of people getting together and acting on justice. This is the group Christians Ending Poverty that has a strong representation from Crossroads CRC in San Marcos. A wonderful example and inspiration to what we can do as ORGANIZED Christians to address injustice. Check out this link:
http://www.christiansendingpoverty.org/
Posted in: Why Christians Should Be Involved in Advocacy
Dear Moderator Steve,
You said, “Increasing high school graduation rates is an obvious good. Who is against it?”
It’s not who can be against it that is the issue. The question that trips us up in the discussion is the HOW?
Well meaning Christians, united to address an issue, can vary widely and wildly in the HOW. So to you what may be an easy assumption… who can be against improving high school graduation rates? For others can be seen as a issue that has political under and over tones…will that mean increased funding out of tax dollars? Will that let the government into private, Christian schools? Will the government require a nation-wide “one curriculum” to be foisted on all schools? What will be the role of the federal government vs. the local school board; will this be a threat to local control of education? Yeah, lots of differing ideas and concerns out there when we start looking at the HOW.
However, I’d love to see more LOCAL CHURCHes jump in. But it’s not hearing the voice of “the church” I’m looking for. I feel a need and longing for the “comfort” of the church, for the church to create safe spaces for Christians to engage their faith and their daily life…struggling with each other and their understanding of Christ’s call on their life and their action in the world. EVEN when we differ on the how.
By the way, yesterday I met with my local representative to Congress (little towns have an advantage..we were at the same lunch counter together, and he’s running for re-election). So I took that moment to tell him my dreams for improved school experience to address youth at risk, and that drop-out rate issue. Yeah, not earth shattering, but you know what? I talked to the guy, at least that’s something. Sometimes just saying something out loud and having someone listen and/or ask questions can help you clarify your own thinking.
So if I can do that at a lunch counter in my small town, I wonder what it would be like to be able to do it in the safety of my own church with brothers and sisters as we examine the issues and struggle out possible solutions?
Posted in: Why Christians Should Be Involved in Advocacy
Hi Kelib,
Thanks for responding to the post!
What I meant about the HOW sometimes being a political issue is that it can happen that two (or more) people who agree on the need for action related to a problem may totally disagree on the KIND of action. For example person A may think that the way forward on youth at risk is to provide lots of city and county funding for programs aimed at the youth and their families to reconnect them to being healthy citizens—restorative justice, Person B may think the way forward is to fund a robust crime stopping program and ramp up the police force to remove troubled teens from the community, Person C may think that there’s no good government/funding solution and that the Church or local sports groups , or the local 4-H should work harder at growing healthy kids, and parents should just do a better job parenting. I think that when we are entertaining solutions that involve our communities’ systems and structures that that becomes a political question as well as a personal response. Political in this sense then is referring to being related to (local in this case) government. It can also be understood as party politics at times because sometimes our political framework corresponds with the way we see that solutions should move forward, but I wasn’t talking about party politics here.
No one is forcing me to respond to social issues; that is for sure! I just happen to believe that as a disciple of Jesus that I am called to be in the world and working toward solutions to problems and suffering I see.
But back to my idea in the original post. That was the dream that the church could provide the “table” for persons A,B, and C and many others to come together and to look for solutions, that it would be great to be able to sit in safety with my brothers and sisters in my church community and talk about this kind of thing even if we differ in our opinions about how. We would grow in our understanding of each other and maybe come up with some innovative response to the issue we’re talking about because we’re together.
I suppose we could also use your point and say “no one is forcing the church to respond to social issues”. That is also an exciting topic.
For me though, I’m less interested in the lofty theological discussion, as important as they are, and more interested in the actual action pieces. For those of us Christians who choose, and are not forced, to respond to social issues, what are we doing that’s exciting? And how is that affecting our church or vice versa?
Posted in: Why Christians Should Be Involved in Advocacy
This is an invitation to kelvin—Please stay! If this site is just for people who want to stay on the surface of the challenge to be disciples of, and community in Christ then it may as well be a news site.
I admire kelvin for (his or her) willingness to be vulnerable with a community of faceless posters. My own experience has been that it takes a brave soul to lead others by example to express their struggles, frustrations, pain.
How others react to our vulnerability opens the door or closes it. If the door is opened, other folks usually start sharing their struggles, because none of us is without pain. What better place to bring our confusion and hurts than to the feet of Jesus and our community of fellow believers who, when they are willing, embrace us and lift us up. I have been blessed (and surprised!) more often than not in seeing those doors open WIDE within various Christian small groups and churches I have been a part of, and beautiful community has been built.
I thank kelvin too because (he or she) points us to the importance of KNOWING one another. One of the most important things for humans is to know and BE KNOWN. All praise and thanksgiving to the God who knows us completely! Enriching further is when our community knows us and embraces us with our vulnerabilities and our strengths, our rough edges and smooth, ministers to us and invites us to minister to each other and beyond.
It is also in this kind of healthy community that we may differ at times and yet fully love one another. Yeah, kelvin, I hope you stay to help build this community.
Posted in: Why Christians Should Be Involved in Advocacy
oops! I mean kelib, I have calvinized you, sorry!