All posts tagged social justice

Dr. John Perkins :: CatWest

by Tim Schraeder on 03/03/2011 in Catalyst West 11 with 1 Comment

John M. Perkins is a sharecropper’s son who grew up in New Hebron, Mississippi amidst dire poverty. Fleeing to California at age 17 after his older brother’s murder at the hands of a town marshal, he vowed never to return. However after converting to Christianity in 1960 he returned to Mendenhall, Mississippi to share the gospel of Christ. While in Mississippi, his outspoken nature and support and leadership in civil rights demonstrations resulted in repeated harassment, beatings and imprisonment. He again was arrested in 2005 year while protesting in Washington D.C. against U. S. Government defunding of programs aiding the poor.

In Mendenhall, Perkins and his wife, Vera Mae, founded Voice of Calvary Ministries. This Christian community development ministry started a church, health center, leadership development program, thrift store, low-income housing development, and training center. From this ministry, other development projects started in the neighboring towns of Canton, New Hebron and Edwards. Philip K. Reed, the previous pastor of Voice of Calvary Fellowship, has assumed the leadership of this dynamic ministry.

In 1982, the Perkins family returned to California and lived in the city of Pasadena where Perkins and his wife founded Harambee Christian Family Center in Northwest Pasadena, a neighborhood that had one of the highest daytime crime rates in California. Harambee is yet standing, running numerous programs including after school tutoring, Good News Bible Clubs, an award-winning technology center, summer day camp, youth internship programs, and a college scholarship program.

In 1983, while yet in California, Perkins and his wife, along with a few friends and other major supporters, established the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation & Development, Inc for the sole purpose of supporting their mission of advancing the principles of Christian community development and racial reconciliation throughout the world.

  • Being here today is a fulfillment of a longing.
  • We have taken the precious Gospel and have put it into our race and culture that has rejected the true power of the Gospel.
  • We have a form a religion that accepts oppression, racism and bigotry.
  • We have a form of godliness that rejects the power of God.
  • The American Church must reflect the Kingdom of God.
  • What we are seeing in the emerging generations is a new people.
  • We are seeing post-racists believers.
  • We are the people who can make our national creed a reality… that all men are created equal.
  • We are that first generation that stands at the brink and could make it happen.
  • We can’t go back we can only go forward.
  • We stand at the moment of opportunity.
  • I feel I’ve been on my way here for 50 years [at an event like Catalyst].
  • I’ve seen the depths of racism and bigotry and have even seen genocide.
  • We want to preach a Gospel that breaks through the boundaries of race, economic status, hatred, etc.
  • The work of redemption today is incarnated.
  • God was in Christ and Christ has commissioned us to go… and He is in us.
  • “I’m not a hero… I’m the result of other people loving me and me responding to that love.”
  • I don’t believe that this generation will have to go through the same things that I had to go through.
  • The issue and the opportunity for this generation is that we can’t change people until we know people.
  • Prejudice = to judge someone before you get to know them.
  • In getting to know one another we can break down the barriers.
  • There is a great need for us to do this now.
  • Love must be demonstrated in love and in deeds.
  • Deeds give us the opportunity to use the words.
  • The words liberal and conservative have messed up our minds.
  • We have a message and the technology to be involved.
  • God doesn’t invade our will too much.
  • We have to have the will to want to change.
  • If we have the will we will find a way.
  • We are at an opportune time.
  • God’s initiative for all creation is ignited in relationship to the word of God and our obedience to it.
  • We need to go the most needy people.
  • The poor hear the word of God the most gladly.
  • We need to look for those who are in the deepest need, and go to them, not as imperialistic with all of the answers and the solutions, but into proximity with them in the context of relationships.
  • Believe they are created in the image of God and help them to discover that in the context of relationship with them.
  • The greatest amount of poverty is found when you have the most churches in same community.
  • Plant a church and start a community develop corporation with them… educate and tutor.
  • Raise indigenous people within the community to help people get above poverty.
  • Be a mentor
  • Fatherlessness is the cause of so much crime and imprisonment.
  • The Church can do something about it.
  • We have to reach, nurture and love children.
  • Build the community.
  • What is broken is both the community and the family.
  • The community is where we must focus first… love your neighbor as yourself.
  • We have the tools and we know the problem and have a solution… but we need each other.
  • We need the rich and boor, black and white… and embrace the issue together.
  • In attacking the problems together we can find reconciliation.
  • We are doing very little to affirm the dignity of people with problems.
  • Get to know the people. Love them. Plan with them.
  • The poor are always victims if we fail to give them dignity.
  • Most of the time they know the solutions to their problems.
  • Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is to do one’s conviction in the face of fear.
  • We alone can not solve the problem, we need God’s help and the will to act.

The Chicago Conversation Gathering

by Tim Schraeder on 03/23/2010 in 12 Cities 12 Conversations with No comments

Last week Park hosted one of 12 Global Conversations being held in 12 Cities in preparation for the Lausanne Gathering in South Africa in October.

Admittedly, I had no idea what Lausanne was until they announced they were hosting the Chicago Conversation at Park, and when I found out what it was I was pretty blown away.

This little video will explain more…

At Park, we welcomed panelists…

Below are a bunch of different sound bytes and one-liners from the Conversation that centered around issues of social justice and the Church’s response.

Skye Jethani’s Opening Comments

  • The world has changed significantly.
  • Within the last 50 years, the global Church has changed.
  • The Church in America has radically changed.
  • More people have immigrated to the US via LAX than Ellis Island.
  • The average Christian walking the face of the earth today is an African woman.
  • We need to think differently about the impact of the Gospel.
  • It’s a new world and a new church… we need a new conversation.

There’s been a lot of talk in the Church about issues of justice and compassion. Recently, Christian Smith studied the faith of young adults and concluded that their engagement in justice is a mirage. Few emerging adults are involved in movements of justice, not many care to know much, and few are intellectually engaged. As a whole, we are less likely to volunteer or engage in issues of social justice. Is this assessment true within the church?

Andy Crouch

  • There’s a tremendous unfocused passion for justice the Church.
  • We are interested in a general way.
  • The models we have of an engaged life are becoming detached from real human begins.
  • Creators of video games, films and social media have created a world that’s so engaging that it’s more willing to go.
  • We’re willing to be virtually engaged with justice but aren’t willing to do something.

Bethany Hoang

  • There’s a significant desire for action.
  • It’s an opportunity for us to help guide where engagement goes.
  • There’s a lot of frustration and passion to do something.
  • There’s a shallowness to the passion… and an impatience.
  • We need to help develop a persevering passion in people.

Soong Chan-Rah

  • We  like cheap acts of justice.
  • There’s a lot of confusion around terms.
  • Compassion isn’t always justice.
  • We’ve created systems that allow us to do small acts.
  • Justice is a systemic issue.

Jackson Crum

  • Justice has to be an apologetic.
  • We’ve got to speak about justice and what it means.
  • We’ve to have justice defined in your language.
  • Justice is something people want to do but aren’t fully willing to engage.

We’re failing to give people outlets to engage. We can talk about justice but don’t give people an outlet for them to engage. What can the Church do to match the desire with an outlet?

Andy Crouch

  • Churches don’t need to do more than they are already doing.
  • What if you did what you are already doing differently?
  • Instead of doing more, can we do the things we’re doing in a new or better way?
  • What if going to the soup kitchen wasn’t a monthly task but it was reconfigured to be spent engaging with people.
  • 2 Million Americans leave America on a short-term trip each year.
  • What’s the affect of our going into an environment where we have more wealth and power into  a community where we go and do what they were already doing? Christians in America are good at painting walls in foreign countries, and in most instances, we do a poor job so they end up re-painting them ourselves.
  • What if our posture in going on short-term trips changed to going to learn from the people?

Bethany Hoang

  • Justice and compassion are core to the Christian life and discipleship, not a side product.
  • We’ve got to help people understand it’s implication in everyday life.
  • Understanding justice begins in understanding the character of God.

Jackson Crum

  • The Gospel doesn’t just mean “you’re saved…”, it’s a new value system.
  • It’s not just activity it’s why… it’s motive.
  • We always talk about salvation but fail to talk about its implications in everyday life.

Soong-Chan Rah

  • It’s a struggle for churches to think through practically.
  • There’s a need to find concrete ways to make this work.
  • Are we willing to pay the price to make it work right?
  • Are we willing to give the time it takes?
  • There has to be a shift in power that occurs in the actual practice of justice.
  • Most evangelicals don’t want to go there.
  • We still want to maintain our comfort, power and privilege.
  • When we talk about giving it up, we become communists and socialists.
  • Some of justice is based on a skewed power.

Bethany Hoang

  • So much of life is about making our lives more secure.
  • Yet, the Scriptures talk about spending ourselves for the sake of others… taking up our cross, which are the opposite of comfort and control.
  • We need to spend ourselves, Isaiah 58.
  • How do we teach people what that means?
  • It’s uncomfortable.

Soong-Chan Rah

  • How many non-white mentors have you had in your life?
  • American Christians are a minority, so why do we still maintain significant levels of power?
  • Are we willing to be in submission to those who are different than us.

Andy Crouch

  • What if the influential people in your life were non-western?

On race, Lausanne has been intentional that the participants reflect the reality of the global church. How are we doing with that in the local church in the USA.? Cory Edwards at Ohio State University says evangelicals have been the most purposeful in racial integration. Are we moving toward it? What do you see?

Soong-Chan Rah

  • Statistics say we haven’t changed dramatically.
  • In 2005, less than 8% of American churches were considered to be multiethnic.
  • If any institution had the same stats[colleges, universities, etc] there would be a riot.
  • For some reason, We’ve allowed it in the church.
  • There’s a lot of rhetoric and talk, but it’s not being lived out in the Church.

What is the most important factor that needs to be addressed so we can make progress?

Jackson Crum

  • We’re trying to figure that out at Park.
  • You have to be willing to change your leadership.
  • Park is doing that with their staffing and in their eldership.
  • People need to see people like them in power and in authority.
  • How diverse are your closest friends?
  • We all have to buy-in to the vision on a personal and corporate level.

Andy Crouch

  • My understanding is that most racially integrated institution in American life is the military; the least racially integrated institutions are country clubs. Why?
  • In the military power is transparent. You wear the emblems of power on your uniform. People know where your stand what the symbols mean.
  • Who knows how to get into a country club?
  • The structures of power are completely opaque.
  • Country clubs are like jellyfish; the military is like a lobster.
  • Things won’t change until there is visible leadership, power and authority.
  • Unless people know how to get it you won’t know how to get it and give it away.

Soong-Chan Rah

  • The power issue is an important issue.
  • When you do community organized among those disenfranchised there’s no problem ttalking about power.
  • But when you go to the powerful it’s hard to talk about.
  • Those without power are more willing to talk about than those who don’t.

On justice and race… most conversations about these issue tend to be emotionally driven… saying,  ”It’s not fair… it’s not right. How do you address these issues?

Bethany Hoang

  • It starts with the character of God.
  • Reflecting on who God is changes who you are.
  • He makes you look more like Himself.
  • There’s no shoulds about justice… it must become a natural part of your life.

Soong-Chan Rah

  • Guilt tends to be individualistic.
  • In order to get rid of our feelings of guilt, we feel like we have to do small, individual acts of justice.
  • As the Church, we have corporate responsibility, deeper than one act to make that bad act right.
  • None of us have owned a slave, personally… but we have benefited from a system that has.
  • There is power in corporate confession.

Jackson Crum

  • Some of it shakes out of our understanding of the Gospel.
  • The Gospel redeems us to restore and reconcile us into a right relationship.
  • When that happens, our thinking changes and realigns and we begin to take on new values.
  • We recognize something isn’t right … and we rescue, redeem, restore and reconcile.

Andy Crouch

  • Don’t just critique at what we’re bad at.
  • Criticism doesn’t change people.
  • People change based on hope, not on criticism.
  • People change when you give them a better alternative.
  • When you tell people what to stop doing they don’t know what to start doing.
  • You’ve got to give them an alternative to the way they are living.

BH:

  • There’s a simple act of reminding each other to ask God to give us the desire to do justice.
  • It’s a gift God can give us to join with Him in His work.
  • We need to ask God and remind each other.
  • It’s a lifelong sanctification process, of growing in Christ.

In UnChristian, people shared how they viewed the church and in most instances, it was quite negative. What can we celebrate about what the Church has been doing?

Bethany Hoang

  • Shared about Trafficking Victims Protection Act that was started out of the Church.

Andy Crouch

  • ½ of the people behind Pixar are Christians.
  • They are people who are culture-changing and altering the way we write..
  • Not everything that we do has to have an Evangelical stamp on it.

Soong-Chan Rah

  • That fact the National Association of Evangelicals made a statement on immigration was huge.
  • It made a statement that we are a part of the majority, not just outsiders.
  • It was a great way of acknowledging our bothers and sisters in Christ.

Jackson Crum

  • Tony Campolo and many others dragged the church in the right direction and emerging leaders have taken the work they were doing and embraced it as a calling.
  • People have realized they can make a difference.

Martin Noel talks about how the global church is growing like crazy and how strikingly similar in style those global churches are like the American church. What’s the cause? Are these churches rising up in the same conditions as the American church? What do we need to warn emerging churches in emerging countries about what we’ve done? What should they avoid?

Bethany Hoang

  • Slavery has ended in our country but it was ended poorly.
  • We still experience, deeply and painfully, in the African American community, the repercussions of slavery and how it was handled.
  • It has significant bearing on how American leaders are thinking about justice issues in other countries.
  • As we work with other governments, we would do well to make sure there’s a social mandate from within the communities to help bring an end to the structure, and that the church would lead the way in ending these injustices.
  • It shouldn’t just be imposed.
  • We would do well to do far more time listening and learning from the church in the majority world and treating them as the leaders and followers of Christ that they are.
  • We need to learn from them and work with them.

Soong-Chan Rah

  • The temptation we have is to “go fix the problem” which goes back to how the problem started in the first place.
  • The power we can exert is the power of setting the example of doing confession.
  • We need to repent for Westernized Christianity that we’ve imported to them.

What warnings would you give to the developing church?

Soong-Chan Rah

  • The prosperity theology is horribly dysfunctional.
  • Allow the culture to translate some of these forms into the culture.

Jackson Crum

  • Don’t make rockstars out of your success cases.

Andy Crouch

  • I’d warn them, you are going to have celebrities, but find a way to have accountable celebrities.

Why should we care about Lausanne? How are local churches going to be involved in this and will they?

Soong-Chan Rah

  • Historically, it’s had significant impact.
  • It was one of the first places where the important conversations took place.

Bethany Hoang

  • This will be one of the first times in history that this many Christian leaders from around the world will be together.
  • This is the first time an event like this has happened in the age of the internet.
  • It will be an experience that will be extended beyond the 4,000 that are gathered.

Skye Jethani

  • I’m naturally suspicious of superlatives.
  • This is the first time in the history of the church that this many Christian leaders form this many countries will be gathered together to talk about the mission of the church.
  • It won’t be 2 weeks in a one location, but because of communication technologies it has power to go far beyond.
  • It could be a moment to catalyze the global church to work together in partnership. This could spring board into something huge.
  • The impact could be enormous.


What does cultural integration do for the movement of justice?

Jackson Crum

  • When you learn someone’s story it raises your level of engagement.

How do you balance social gospel/justice and the gospel without watering down either?

Andy Crouch

  • Why it that when the prophets speaks of what God hates they always peak of two thing: idolatry and injustice?
  • Are these two intricately connected?
  • The real issue in poverty isn’t lack of money, it’s that someone has played ”God” in the life of the poor.
  • When the image of God in the life of the person who has become poor is crushed; their view of God is a parody.
  • The reason God hates injustice is the same reason he hates idolatry.
  • God hates idolatry and injustice because both distort His true image.
  • His image is being erased and defaced.
  • His goal is that His image is reflected in creation.
  • The image of God needs to be properly seen in the world.
  • God has been misrepresented.

Soong-Chan Rah

  • We separate discipleship and evangelism just like we separate justice and Gospel.
  • We disconnected the Gospel and justice.
  • God is reconciling everything that’s broken in creation though the cross.

Doesn’t’ changing culture give you more power?

Andy Crouch

  • Culture changes… no one has enough power to change the culture.
  • Creating culture does sometimes lead to certain amount of power.
  • Do we seek dominance?
  • Are power and dominance are different things?
  • Anyone who gains dominance is most likely going to misuse it.
  • The last thing Christians want is to dominate culture, and the good news is that we won’t.
  • The reason we’re given power by God is to put it at risk for the Kingdom.

Soong-Chan Rah

  • There is no such thing as Christian culture.

Os Guinness Closing Remarks

  • When people ask me which generation, of all the generations in human history, I’d want to be a part of, I answer: YOUR generation.
  • We are the crunch generation.
  • Many of the titanic cultural issues are coming together to raise the most profound questions the human race have ever faced… including its extinction and a post-human future.
  • We, who are followers of Jesus today, are a part of the first truly global Church.
  • We are the most numerous faith on the earth.
  • The Scriptures are the most translated and translatable works.
  • We are the fastest-growing faith, not through demography and growth, but through conversion.
  • Our ideas are the most influential in the world.
  • We as evangelicals are, by definition, people of the Good News.
  • Our defining principle is the Good news of the announcement of the Kingdom.
  • We are as only strong as we are true to the Gospel.
  • Conversation is a postmodern word.
  • Evangelicalism in the west is in deep confusion.
  • We need a renewed vision of evangelicalism.
  • The global south is largely pre-modern.Our captivity to the modern world that we helped to create is what’s keeping us from fully being the church God has called us to be.
  • Are we so faithfully following the way of Jesus?
  • Historic Christianity never divorced the Gospel and justice… some have just rediscovered it.
  • We need to get beyond our postmodern challenges and get back to the Gospel.

As you can tell, this was an awesome conversation. Check out 12cities12conversations.com to learn more about the Conversation Gatherings — and if you live in or near Chicago, be sure to check out the Micah 6:8 Conference coming to Park in June, where we’ll discuss more practical ways of living out this conversation.

Photos courtesy of Barlich Photography.

We’re All in This Together :: the I Heart Film

by Tim Schraeder on 11/05/2009 in Movies with 10 Comments

“I can’t stand your religious meetings.  I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,  your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.  When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want?  I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it.  That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”

- Amos 5:21-24, The Message

I have no words [ that's rare ].

I’m just getting back from the movie theater after having my world absolutely rocked by what I just saw.

Two years ago when Hillsong United announced they were making a documentary I had no idea what to expect, and what I witnessed tonight without a doubt was one of the most beautiful, creative, compelling, thought-provoking pieces of art/cinema/story I’ve seen the Church create.

It played tonight only in theaters in the USA and Canada and will release soon in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. I was able to catch in the heart of downtown Chicago with some of my friends from Park and City Church.

We’re All in This Together is part-documentary, part-apologetic for social justice, a picture of a generation and the Church waking up to see that things aren’t right… and a challenge to do something about it.

It shows the journeys of Hillsong United across the globe, but more importantly the inward journey God took them through to begin to see the cultures and people of this world through His eyes. It includes footage taken from their travels around the globe and includes interviews with the United team and guests including Brother Andrew, Martin Smith [of Delirious], Gary Skinner, Zach Hunter, Jamie Tworkowski, and many others.

This movie is a call to the Church to wake up and see that maybe we’ve been missing the point.

Maybe that in us building what we’ve built, we’ve neglected the key thing God has called us to do. That maybe that in trying to communicate the Gospel we’ve complicated a very simple message: LOVE. That maybe in trying to advance the cause of Christ we’ve alienated people from seeing and hearing about Him and His love. It was a call for us to see the world how He sees it and to be the Church He’s called us to be… with open hands and hearts to demonstrate His love and compassion to our neighbors and to the world.

This message isn’t a lofty idea or a fading thought, it’s our calling. It’s what God commanded us to do. I think we’ve just been overwhelmed with the task or felt paralyzed by our own sense of insignificance to do something… but I think this film is going to serve as wake-up call to the Church to see the role God is calling us to play.

Social justice is such a fad right now. Celebrities are talking about, politicians are standing up for it, and everywhere you look people are behind some kind of cause. But this isn’t something new, it’s been God’s heart for humanity all along. God has called us to stand for justice… to speak for those who have no voice… to bring freedom to those who are captive… to care for the orphans and the widows… to care for the sick, the poor and the elderly… to right that which is wrong. That’s the ultimate expression of what it means to love our neighbor as ourself.

This movie was not about Hillsong United… it was about all of us.

About midway through the movie I busted out my phone and started Tweeting what I could get from the movie… this was the first time I’ve ever taken notes during a movie! But, I knew there were so many people who couldn’t be there that need to hear this… so, I’ll shut up with my reflections… here you go…

  • Maybe the human race [ for possessions, fame, power ] isn’t meant to be a race at all.
  • The deepest human need is to know who you are.
  • Loneliness is one of the most extreme forms of poverty.
  • This moment is the moment we have to do something.
  • Too often we dwell in the past or focus too much on the future that we miss this moment.
  • The future will be written by the way we respond to moment that’s in front of us.
  • We all share the same moment.
  • If what happens inside the four walls of the church doesn’t make a difference in the streets that people travel to get there, then maybe we are missing the point.
  • We’ve trained ourselves to look past the needs.
  • Injustice and indifference walk together hand-in-hand.
  • Ignorance isn’t just sleeping through the fire, it’s really just fanning the flame.
  • Our generation has lost the meaning of the word love.
  • Love has been reduced to define what makes us feel good.
  • Love has become all about us.
  • At the core of who we are, every single human being craves the same thing… love.
  • Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s love to humanity.
  • The message is simple… love.
  • The Church and Christians have messed up the message.
  • We’ve complicated and misconstrued it.
  • Jesus didn’t die to give us religion, He died to give us love.
  • Our weakness is a place for God to show His strength.
  • God’s picture for the Church for us to be the light to the world around us.
  • Isaiah 58:9-10 - ”If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,  then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”
  • The church does not exist to meet our personal needs, the church exists to meet the needs of the world around us.
  • For too long the Church has made a big deal about the small things, and a small deal about the big things.
  • Preaching does not come from the pulpit, it comes from the people of God living their lives out for Him – Brother Andrew
  • We don’t just attend church, we are the church.
  • The church exists for those outside of it.
  • The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
  • Talk is cheap, put feet to your vision.
  • If we want to make history, we have to remember history is ultimately His Story.
  • If we want to make history, we need find our place in His Story.
  • The love of God cannot be measured but it can be demonstrated.
  • Jesus is found in unexpected places.
  • We need to preach the Gospel with our actions.
  • We’ve made a dangerous division between what’s sacred and what’s secular; nothing is secular, everything belongs to God.
  • If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem.
  • God’s work must be our own work.
  • What we are not, He is.
  • We are all in this together.
  • These three things remain… faith, hope and love.
  • The greatest of these is love.

So where do you go from here?

Well, Hillsong United has created a new website, www.i-heart.org. The site focuses on 20 of the top causes they see in the world and seeks to connect people with ideas to solutions and create a network of people around the globe who can work together to combat injustice. I’m still exploring the site but I think it’s a pretty sweet idea.

This started and ended in the Church…

The thing that stood out to me most about this movie was that this all came out of one local church and a handful of people who are passionate for God and honoring Him with their gifts, talents and creativity. There wasn’t a huge studio or massive amounts of money backing this, it was literally a group of young people who wanted to make a difference and did something. Throughout the entire movie they kept going back to the local church and the importance it plays in making all of this happen. Immense props go to Hillsong Church, Brian and Bobbie Houston, Joel Houston and the entire team at Hillsong… what you guys are doing is changing the world. You are all seriously an incredible example of a Church that is creating culture and empowering the next generation to live out all that God has created them to be. I’m so in awe of what God is doing through them and their obedience to God’s call.

Closing Thoughts…

If you missed it… I’m sorry. Hopefully there will be an encore presentation — or maybe it will find it’s way to DVD soon. Regardless, find a way to see it.

This movie wrecked me [and all of my friends] in a good way. On the way out of the theater one of my friends said, “Wow, who wants to be normal? Not me!”

I think that sums it up.

The need is huge, but we serve a great, big God… and we’re not alone.

We’re all in this together.

Bono, the Church… Three Years Later

by Tim Schraeder on 08/07/2009 in Leadership Summit 2009, Notes with 1 Comment

Bono is the lead singer of Irish rock band U2, which has sold more than 140 million albums and won numerous awards, including 22 Grammys. A well-known activist in the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa, he co-founded DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) in 2002, The One Campaign in 2004, and Product (RED) in 2006, and was named TIME’s Person of the Year for 2005. Interviewed for the Summit in 2006, he challenged church leaders to mobilize against the ravages of global AIDS and poverty. Be a part of the continuing story, as Bono talks in an exclusive video about the church’s inspiring response and about his continuing life journey as a “single issue protagonist.”

  • JFK lead and the world followed.
  • Putting the man on the moon proved what American innovation and technology was capable of.
  • The problems we can fix, we should.
  • What is possible when the church unites to solve a global crisis?
  • Only love can leave such a mark.

How is the church doing?

  • Since the last time Bill and Bono met, “the church has done incredible things.”
  • “I thought the church was ‘the sleeping giant’ but I didn’t know it could run that fast!”
  • It’s an offense to Christ or any concept of truth and justice that we aren’t reaching out to help people in need.
  • The church is in the lead, not in the rear.
  • 41 million bed nets were distributed… malaria deaths are down.
  • In some places Rwanda is sending back drugs!
  • Had the church not woken up on the issue of AIDS we would not have 2 million Africans on anti-viral drugs.

Loving our (global) Neighbor

  • The concept of “our neighbor” has changed.
  • It’s not advice, it’s a command.
  • In the global community, Africa is just down the street.
  • Can we enjoy the benefit of globalization without taking some of the responsibility?
  • They are our neighbor.
  • Eaglebook Community Church in Minnesota has woken up to the call to do something globally.
  • A mark of maturity is when people give out of what they have.
  • We’re going to be asked what we did for “the least of these.”

Where the Streets Have No Name

  • Bono wrote the lyrics for the song “Where the Streets Have No Name” in Ethiopia about people in Africa.
  • He says when he sings it, it changes him and he “feels God walk through the room.”
  • Sometimes you don’t know what you’re singing.
  • As smart as somebody can be, intuition is greater than intellect.
  • Our best work is done when we have no idea what we are doing.
  • Whittier Area Community Church got it too, gave $518,000!
  • Jesus has created the church to exist for the world.
  • Why did it take a rock star to tell us that?

On The Economic Situation

  • It’s funny that we can’t find money to save hundreds of thousands of lives in Africa but we can find $700 million to save our economy.
  • That says that in a crisis, we can find the money when we need it…
  • Doing so shows we believe somebody begging for their lives is not in crisis.

On Church

  • On church attendance: I go where the life is.
  • “What I find hard to take is lifeless ceremony… and I see that a lot in churches.”
  • He wants to go where he finds honesty and humanity.
  • A place where everyone is welcome.
  • When you make a sermon, people don’t want things to be too complicated, they want you to be honest. They want a spirit of humility.
  • We need to stand for poverty.
  • It’s not charity… it’s justice and equality.

Grace

  • The church tends to separate itself from people and pick the divisive issues.
  • That’s not grace.
  • We would be much better served if we stood for things instead of against things.
  • Grace is defying the thing that is uncommon.
  • Whenever I see grace, I am moved.
  • When you see the grace of how people behave in dire circumstances you will be moved.

On Giving Up

  • He considered giving up.
  • We should never think things are dependent on us.
  • It’s hard, there will always be resistance.
  • There’s resistance on the journey to equality.
  • Where have you drawn the line?
  • Where does your sphere of empathy end?
  • Everyone is created EQUAL in the eyes of God.
  • Indifference is an enemy to the greatest of possibilities.

Bill Hybels’ Challenge to Leaders

Jesus spoke with blinding clarity about the issue of our relationship with under-resourced people (Matthew 25).

  • He said, “I was hungry… naked… sick… in prison…”
  • Some of the people responded by saying, “we never saw you in those situations.”
  • He replied, “when you did it to the least of these, you did it to me…”
  • Others said, “if we would have seen YOU…”
  • He replied, “you wouldn’t have done it for me.”
  • There’s a lot of things we’ve got to get better at in leadership.
  • If we neglect using our leadership positions to serve the poor in some way, we will stand accountable before Christ some day.
  • “I get no joy out of saying this because I feel the weight of it every day…”

What Bono has done is asked everybody of every faith who leads anything to do something.

  • I have a deep-seated trust in the sovereign wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
  • If people get this on their radar screen, God will show them how to do it and finding out what their part is.

No one is exempt from taking responsibility in this great challenge.

  • What is the right thing to do?
  • If you’re not engaged, get engaged.
  • You will want to stand before the One with nail pierced hands and say, “I made the grace you made available to me available to the poor…”
  • Some of us will be called to life-saving acts of compassion.
  • Others will create jobs and opportunity for long-term solutions.
  • God will guide you.
  • This is something that in our lifetime could be ended.