Fm - Session 14 - Retreat

Putting God’s Vision Into Practice An Introduction to the Practice of Integral Mission Session 14 One–Day Retreat

worship and prayer and meditation

xx minutes

• Prepare a longer Worship Time and lead participants into Worship of the God who has saved us to live in Shalom (project songs on PowerPoint). • Guide participants into a meditation time where they need to picture where Jesus/God is in their situation and in their church. • Pray out loud for the day and for God to reveal himself through it and have each participant pray for his or her neighbor at the same time that God may reveal himself and his purposes in a deeper way, give vision and renewed passion for his work on earth to be done.

review of previous session

xx minutes

Ask students to summarize the most important points of the last session. Have them also list the eight purposes of the church.

plenary role play: church leaders’ monthly meeting

xx minutes

Make four to six photocopies of the role play “Church Leaders’ Monthly Meeting”—one for each character. Before the session choose 4-6 volunteers and have them read the role play in preparation. At this point have the four to six participants begin to role play a church leaders’ monthly business meeting up front for everyone to see.1 After the role play is done, have all participants reflect on the role play and discuss the following questions: • What did you see in the role-play? What was the problem? • Is your church like this in any way? Do you perceive you could have a similar experience in your church after having taken these classes? • How easy is it to get distracted from doing the things of God’s Kingdom of Shalom? What are some of the reasons? • How can you make sure that the training you just received doesn’t remain theory, but leads to practice? In fact, what are some of the things that you benefited most from in this training?

lecture: introduction: putting god’s vision into practice and the case of nueva suyapa

xx minutes

Over the past 3 months – as we’ve studied God’s Story from Genesis through Revelation – we’ve looked at what God’s vision for this world is and the role for us as the church in ushering that in. But how can we

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make this become practical? How can we practically go about promoting Shalom in our communities? How have you been called to carry out this mandate of establishing Shalom in your community through your church? e Case of Nueva Suyapa: To make these questions come more alive, let me share with you the case study of a real community in Tegucigalpa, Honduras: “Nueva Suyapa is similar to any neighbourhood in the slums of any major city in the developing World. It is located just a few kilometres from the National University of Honduras and from the Basilica of the Virgin of Suyapa in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. However, it is generally isolated, neglected and forgotten by the local government. Nueva Suyapa was founded in the 1970s over the old garbage dump of the city by flood victims left homeless by Hurricane Fifi. Currently there are over 5000 families living in Nueva Suyapa. e majority of the houses have leaking roofs and dirty floors. ere is no sanitation system for wastewater, and families spend up to a third of their income on buying water because the city system only connects them to water once a month. ere are not enough schools for all the children, much less places for recreation. Many young people find a sense of belonging by joining gangs, some of which are the most dangerous in the city. Muggings, murders and other violent acts are the primary causes of death. Almost seventy percent of the households are headed by single mothers, who have a hard time finding jobs that would pay them enough to get out of extreme poverty. Many children from these homes spend their days on the streets, without access to education, health or security.”2 If you were a church in Nueva Suyapa that wanted to put God’s vision of Shalom into action… what would you do? How would you practically seek to respond to the dimensions of the need in the community? Reflecting on the things you learned by studying God’s Story with his world and his purposes for the church, what concrete actions would you suggest, your church should undertake? Allow participants time to respond. anks for your great insights, ideas and suggestions. Indeed, exploring some preliminary answers to these questions is the goal of this final session of our course – “e Church’s Integral Mission”. Before jumping into exploring strategies and answers right away though, let’s take a few moments to reflect on our own communities.

group exercise: bringing it home

15 minutes

Divide students into small groups of four to six people. Whenever possible, put students from the same community/church into the same group. Together, have them write a description of the community where they live or where their church

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ministers. e description should list positive and negative observations. (ey should not discuss solutions to problems yet). Ask groups to write their descriptions onto a large paper, then discuss the questions below, and finally report to the larger group: • After describing your community, how do you feel about it? • Is it an easy or difficult place to bring about God’s intentions and advance his vision of Shalom? • What do you see as the greatest opportunities to realize God’s intentions in your community? • What do you see as the greatest obstacle to God’s intentions being realized in your community? Is it possible to overcome that obstacle? Conclusion: Sometimes, the situations and circumstances in our churches and communities seem impossible to overcome. In the rest of our time today, we will take a look at people and ministries who found the key to overcoming what seemed to be impossible.3 Specifically, we’ll look at a few concrete strategies today to transform our communities and address the challenges, needs and potential of neighborhoods, such as Nueva Suyapa or our own. e first two strategies are based on two Biblical examples: e first is Paul’s example of holistic church planting, and the second is Nehemiah’s example of community transformation in the Old Testament. As we look at both of these strategies we will seek to reflect on how these strategies can inform our own ministries today. e third strategy is a concept called seed projects. To better understand this third strategy, we will look at some current ministries and churches that are taking God’s vision of Shalom seriously and acting on what they have understood of this mandate seek the Shalom of their communities. Again, we will seek to reflect on how the strategy of seed projects could be of benefit to our own ministries. In the final part of our time today, we’re going to take a good chunk of time to reflect on our own ministries/churches and how God might have called us to advance his Kingdom of Shalom in our community/city. So as we enter into this session and begin talking about the practical aspects of living out Shalom as a church, be thinking about where you want to see this go and how you want to see this lived out in your church, and community and the commitment and next steps you are willing to make/ take.

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lecture: paul’s holistic church planting strategy

xx minutes

Briefly summarize the main points of the article “How Holistic Church Planting Transforms Society” which participants should have read as homework for today (Project on PowerPoint). After that engage participants in a conversation that touches on the reflection questions to the article: • What questions or challenges do you have in response to the ideas presented in this article? • What is your take regarding the article’s stance, that church planting is a much more effective strategy to advance God’s Kingdom and transform society than are evangelistic campaigns or purely social service-oriented initiatives? What about holistic church planting makes it a more complete community transformation strategy? • How would you respond to the following argument? --- “While Paul’s strategy of holistic church planting may, to some extent, have been successful in his time, that success was soon transformed into failure as the emergent church of the 4th century and onward no longer identified itself as an alternative community over against the empire, but soon positioned itself as the church of the empire, blessing the empire’s every advance and exploits. So why bother and seek to change our cities via holistic church planting, if in the end, the Church becomes as corrupted as the structures it once sought to change?” Have participants now form into groups of 4-5 people to discuss how they would formulate a strategy to advance holistic church planting in their community/city.

short coffee break

lecture: nehemiah’s community transformation strategy

xx minutes

Nehemiah provides another biblical example of how to respond to the needs of communities who are marginalized and lost. We will study the strategy that Nehemiah used to bring new life and new hope to an embattled people who had lost hope. I would suggest that Nehemiah is one of the most important people of the Bible and his strategy a wonderful example of community transformation. Let me begin by giving a little bit of background to the story of Nehemiah.

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Who was Nehemiah? e text tells us that he was the cupbearer to the King of Persia (Nehemiah 1:11). ose few simple words belie his actual position. Nehemiah was one of the highest government officials in the largest empire of its time; an empire that stretched from the western border of India through the Turkish peninsula to the Mediterranean Sea, from the Caspian and Black seas to the border of Egypt. As cupbearer, Nehemiah was the most trusted servant of the Persian emperor Artaxerxes, who literally entrusted his life to Nehemiah each day as the latter tested and served the great king his wine every meal. is trust spilled over into governance, as Nehemiah met daily with the king regarding affairs of state and played the role of prime minister of the Persian empire. He was well rewarded for this service, having both great wealth and great influence in the empire.4 We enter the story when Nehemiah hears news of the dilapidated state of Jerusalem and the condition in which his countrymen who had returned to Jerusalem from exile live. Let’s look at how Nehemiah responds to the news of this defeated community. (Have participants turn to the worksheet “Essential Principles for Community Transformation – e Nehemiah Solution”).

plenary study: chapter 1:1-11 Let’s begin by reading through Nehemiah 1:1-4. Have someone read aloud. xx minutes

Okay so looking at verse 1:2-3 what does Nehemiah do first? He asks questions and listens. He asked his brother Hanani and other Jews who had come to Persia’s capital, Susa, from Jerusalem many questions about the state of affairs in Palestine. As he hears the bad news about the broken walls and the profound despair and the corporate depression enveloping Israel, he does something significant. He simply keeps asking questions, probing and listening to the stories people have to tell. He doesn’t seem to do anything else then ask questions and listen. He doesn’t talk to them and share good news, but he listens. He doesn’t offer preconceived solutions, but he listens.5 If you do as Nehemiah did in your community, you would be surprised at how many people have so much to share, and are just waiting to be asked. If, instead of quickly jumping to offer preconceived solutions to the situations people are facing, you listen first, you’ll be surprised how much people open up. In verse 1:4 what does Nehemiah proceed to do? He weeps and mourns. In doing so, he allowed his heart to be broken by the things that were breaking the heart of his people. He allowed their issues and their pain to become his own and he began to see their problems/struggles/ concerns through their eyes up to the point of allowing them to become his own. It is not enough for us to listen and learn from the people in our community. We must allow the peoples’ pain to become our pain. And that means allowing the

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anger and frustration of the people to connect with our anger and grief about the injustice people are facing and the pain we ourselves have had to endure.6 How often are we truly broken by what breaks the heart or our neighbors? In verses 1:4-11, what does Nehemiah then do? He prays and fasts. By praying and fasting for six full months, he allowed the situation to birth something in him that would not allow him to rest. Prayer was a strategic part of the process by which Nehemiah prepared both himself and the Jewish people for the great work of liberation God would do through them. In prayer, Nehemiah first interceded, then confessed, then identified and finally offered his supplications.7 Martin Buber, a Jewish philosopher/theologian, once made the statement: “When God begins to reveal himself in a new way to a man, that man should carry that new revelation around and inside of him for nine months before he brings it forth, as if it were a birth, for the world to see.” When God begins to reveal himself to you in the pain of the people in a new way, don’t just run out there and do something - stand there. Allow time for it to fester and grow inside of you. Intercede, confess, identify and offer your supplications. Give God time to make his intentions clear to you! We 21st century creatures are so eager to do things that we forget how to be, but effective doing only comes out of “beingness”. And Nehemiah is a great model of allowing God to do that kind of work in us.

small group study: chapter 2:1-16 Group 1: Read Nehemiah 2:1-6: What do you see Nehemiah doing? xx minutes

He analyzes the situation and considers his resources. As cupbearer Nehemiah had close access to the king and was able to assess the situation from a political standpoint. So he reflected on the resources he and Israel could bring to deal with the problems. He did not yet have the trust or commitment of the people. He did not yet have access to the material resources he needed if the people were to rebuild the walls. He did not yet have the permission of the king. But he did have one thing: he was cupbearer to the king. So Nehemiah makes a request of the king of what he is to do. He not only tells the king about the state of Jerusalem, but gets him to listen and agree to let him go to Jerusalem. He also asks him for the use of Persian government resources to assist in building the walls. He finally makes sure to talk to the queen to assure that the king would stick to his word. Sometimes we are afraid to use the connections we have, but if it is for the Shalom of our community… what better way to use them? What connections and resources do you have and have you taken them into account? Group 2: Read Nehemiah 2:7-10: List the steps that Nehemiah takes.

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He makes strategic visits, engages in intentional networking and does a power analysis. Nehemiah begins his journey to Jerusalem but diverts from this journey and takes the time to visit with the governors of the provinces beyond the river and with Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, in order to get their cooperation and to see whether timber would be available for the construction; he also visits with Sanballat, the governor of Palestine, and with Tobiah, the most wealthy person in the province and an Ammonite official. Even though the latter two will become enemies of Israel, Nehemiah takes time to visit with them in order to conduct a power analysis to see who would be behind this work and what resources would be available. He is determining the relative power of each of the key government and business leaders with whom he will have to deal if the walls of Jerusalem are to be rebuilt. He needs to know each person’s sphere of power, his relative strength vis-à-vis the others and his influence on others in power.8 Who do you know in your community that you could try visiting? Group 3: Read Nehemiah 2:11-16: Where is Nehemiah and what does he do? He does research and assesses the situation for himself. ese verses are the record of the personal research Nehemiah conducts once he arrives in Jerusalem. He has to build further relationships with the people of Jerusalem and assess the situation himself. So he goes around the walls of Jerusalem to see if things are as bad as everybody says they are. As a result of doing so, he concludes that everything he has been told by the Jews in his meeting with them in Susa is indeed true. e time to act has come.9 Doing personal research and assessing a situation for ourselves can help us better understand the scope of the problem. is research can further inform us in what ways we should begin to act. If we always run our ministries on improvisation, without ever making a clear assessment of the needs we’re facing, we stand in danger of continuously reacting to urgent concerns that come up instead of proactively addressing them.

plenary study: summary of nehemiah’s strategy

xx minutes

What strikes you as you look at verses 2:17-18? What did Nehemiah do? He publicly identifies with the people. Nehemiah calls a great public meeting. To that meeting he invites the ordinary Jewish men, the priests, the nobles, the officials and the rest (including women, children, slaves, servants etc). He climbs onto a platform so that all can see and hear him and makes one of the most compelling speeches in Israel’s history. Note how he opens his speech: “ You see the trouble we are in.”10 He begins by identifying himself with the people. He includes himself in the difficulties. He doesn’t need to be there and could continue being a trusted consultant of the king. Instead he – the outsider – publicly identifies with the people and their deepest concerns.

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What does he do after publicly identifying with the people? What is Nehemiah doing in saying “Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire.”? He publicly articulates and defines the problem. Nehemiah now publicly states the problem in the presence of all the people: “Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned.” e assumption of making that statement is that he people will agree with his assessment. How does he know that they will agree with him? He has talked and listened to them through individual one-on-one conversations. And now that they are gathered in this large meeting he is simply articulating the very problem that they already told him. What’s more, by stating the problem, he is making that problem the immediate concern with which they need to deal. Nehemiah knew that the primary problem facing Israel was not their broken-down walls but their loss of spiritual and cultural identity. Yet, he begins were the people are – organizing them around their perceived issue. Why is it important to articulate the problem publicly? e reason is that most people blame themselves for their problems.11 Often the problem is much bigger than the individual problem, though. But people tend to be ashamed of their own problem – so when it is publicly acknowledged, people start to see that it is not just their individual/personal problem, but that something is wrong with the whole situation! So what Nehemiah is doing is getting them to publicly acknowledge the problem and talk about it. How many spaces can you think of in your community where people can talk about the hard situations they are facing? What does Nehemiah do after publicly articulating the problem? He turns the problem into an issue. “Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.” Usually a problem is so big and nebulous that it seems impossible to do anything about it (i.e. people are starving in the world…they’re selling drugs in every poor neighborhood). Most problems are nebulous. When you’re trying to hold them in your hand, they go through it – that’s why you need to take a problem and turn it into an issue. An issue is a specific reality that you can take and do something about or organize around. e problem of Israel is “We feel vulnerable because our wall is broken down. We feel hopeless.” e issue is: “What are you going to do about it?” You can always tell the issue by asking: “Will you or won’t you do something about it?” So what’s the issue? “Will you or won’t you rebuild the wall?” ere are only two ways to answer that challenge. Either the people will do it, or they won’t. What happens next? e people determine the solution and create their own strategy/plan of action. Until this point Nehemiah is playing the pivotal role as organizer of the people. Now the role radically changes as the people assume the full ownership and leadership of addressing their problem. “en they said, ‘Let us start building!’ So they committed themselves to the common good.” e people decide

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they are going to organize themselves to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah isn’t going to do it for them. e Persian government isn’t going to do it. e people will take charge of their own situation and solve their own problem. Chapter three tells us how they decided to go about the rebuilding of the wall – it’s a plan of action created by Israel – decided upon together. Each extended family would build in concert with the families to its right and left, so that the entire wall would be raised evenly over its entirety. is would provide significant stability to the growing wall.12 It is significant to note that there is no indication that Nehemiah came up with that plan – it was the people’s plan. We won’t go into the more detail with the rest of the strategy. It suffices to mention the steps: • e people carry out their actions. Chapters 4-6 tells us how they carried out the action (chapters 4-6) • e people confront the opposing powers and defeat them. As they built momentum, the powers that be became threatened by their actions and sought to immobilize them with fear and direct threats. Yet, the people confronted these powers by a show of unity and immobilized them instead (chapter 4) • Nehemiah confronts the power elite of Israel in public and gets their agreement. As they analyzed their own community the people with the help of Nehemiah, then, confronted the Jewish power elite in public and got them to consent to the people’s demands (chapter 5) • e people complete their action. And finally they complete their plan of action (6:15). How long did it take the Israelites, once they set their mind to it, to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem? 52 days! How long had the walls been down according to scripture – 2 Kings 25:10? e walls were down for 141 years. It was completed in 445 B.C. So for 141 years the Hebrews lived with their walls torn down, feeling powerless, vulnerable, marginalized, and open to attack at any army. For 141 years these people felt isolated, separated, oppressed, exploited that they were totally out of control of their individual as well as their corpora lives. And yet, when they put their hand to it, it took them only 52 days to rebuild those walls. What that means, is that any time during those 141 years while they complained/moaned/kept on lamenting – they could have chosen to rebuild the walls and it would have taken them just 52 days. For 141 years they put up with all kinds of pain/powerlessness and sense of feeling marginalized and they never needed to do that. Any time during those 141 years they could have chosen to rebuild their walls and bring about a change. Why then did they put up with all that for 141 years before they came to a place of saying: “let us build!”? Many were feeling defeated, apathetic, and felt they couldn’t do anything worthwhile!

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So what made the difference that led them to now say, “let us rebuild!”? What caused them to turn from powerlessness into a people of power? What happened? ey felt heard by Nehemiah. ey had an advocate in Nehemiah who was willing to put aside his own agenda and career and status in life and just listen to people and then, in light of that call them together and say to them: “ You see what trouble we are in! Come, let’s do something about it!” And then the people reply: “Let’s rebuild!” is is the role of the church – to listen, to empathise, to feel the pain and then out of that listening, to affirm the people that they are indeed a people of worth, to challenge them so that they say, “let us build”. And then to work with them so that they create their own plans of action – they confront the systems that need to be confronted. ey negotiate where there is need of negotiation. ey agitate where they need to agitate and they act where they need to act. Conclusion: When we look at Nehemiah’s strategy we see that he came up with a profoundly different strategy than the strategy most churches tend to use today. From what I have seen… churches often take two main approaches in response to the needs and challenges around them: 1. e first way many churches respond is by taking on a mindset of being IN the community, but not part of it. ey see themselves as being in the community, but they don’t have any particular attachment to the community. ey have no stake or psychological ownership in their community. ey most likely see themselves as a fortress. ey only venture out into the community to evangelize and invite people to church events. With this mentality, obviously, the community responds in kind by not taking ownership of anything that the church does in the community. 2. e second way many churches respond is by seeing themselves as a church TO their community. ese are churches that want to become involved and so they tend to do ministry to people. ey determine what the problems are, and then develop the solutions and projects they think will address their community’s needs. ough this approach is far more consistent with God’s vision than the first, the drawback is that most churches that respond in this way think of themselves as knowing what is best for their community, without seeking much community input. ey provide social services and do good works for the people. Unfortunately, this creates an unhealthy dependency, since it teaches people to be recipients and beneficiaries of the churches’ charity while robbing them of feeling empowered to do it themselves.

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Can you relate to any of these two approaches taken by the church? What is the general approach that has been taken by your church until now? Allow participants time to answer. Nehemiah, in contrast to these first two approaches, embarked on a third one. We could call the third approach as being a church WITH the community. He listened to the people, learned from them what the issue was and then worked with them to deal with their own problem. In other words he worked with the people/community. Churches that take Nehemiah’s strategy seriously enter into the community by building trusting relationships with neighbors and by partnering with the community in addressing the community’s needs. Of the three, this approach is the most consistent with God’s vision to establish Shalom on earth. It takes the mandate seriously to reconcile and build communities characterized by Shalom.

group work: applying nehemiah’s principles to our own communities xx minutes

Divide participants into small groups of four to six people. Whenever possible, put participants from the same community/church into the same group. Have them answer the reflection questions at the end of the worksheet “Essential Principles for Community Transformation” and discuss the applicability of Nehemiah’s strategy for their communities. At the end have one member of each group share their findings and how they would want to put one principle into practice within the coming month.

plenary summary

xx minutes

Now some of you may say… Well… I really like the Nehemiah strategy… but remember… he was the prime minister of the Persian Empire… so of course people would listen to him. He had access to important people in business and politics that our little church could only dream of having. In short, it seems quite unlikely that we could ever accomplish something like Nehemiah did. We don’t have the same kind of connections he did. In fact, “We are 'little people'—what can we do?” “How can we do anything to help others when we are poor and have so many needs ourselves?” “Who will listen to us?” “e mission, the denomination, or the government have money—they are the ones who can improve our situation.” If you feel that way I want to challenge you on this assessment. ough I agree, that most local churches in marginalized areas are poor and have few connections to people in decision-making positions, I challenge the

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conclusion that because of that you need to confine their community outreach to sermons, door-to-door witnessing, street-corner evangelism, and Bible studies. Your focus should not be primarily on your weakness, but on God’s calling and purpose for your church! In the next section of our time together – after a lunch break – I’d like to share with you about the concept of seed projects, as a way to get closer to the Nehemiah strategy for community transformation.

lunch break

an introduction to seed projects: the importance of starting

10 minutes

Let’s watch a short video clip that shares the story of how a small church took God’s command to seek Shalom in their community seriously and no longer concentrated on their weakness and poverty. Show Video Clip “e Church as a Window – Nairobi, Kenya. What struck you most as you watched this video clip? Allow participants time to respond. As we saw in this video clip, seed projects are a way to help local churches break out of self-defeating thinking and plan and implement integral mission projects. Defined by biblical principles about seeds, they serve as the beginning, not the end result, of an ever-growing ministry. Key characteristics of seed projects include: • • • • • • • • • •

Covered in prayer. Motivated by God's intentions for Shalom oughtfully planned Simple—small, uncomplicated, and completed in a short time Done with local resources Directed toward those outside the church ose who benefit also participate, as possible Spiritual impact where appropriate Evaluated by Kingdom standards Result: God is praised

Seed projects help local churches see and experience that they have more than spiritual Good News to offer their communities. Local church people can be catalysts and servants, bringing about positive physical, social, and spiritual change, even if they themselves are poor.13

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group work: studying seed projects Divide participants into small groups of four to six people. Whenever possible, put participants from the same community/church into the same group. 25 minutes

Have participants turn to “Seed Projects – Real Examples” and highlight just a few examples of seed projects from the article. Ask each group to read 4 examples of Seed Projects and discuss their reactions to these efforts. Which project did they like most. Why? Are there ideas they would like to put into practice in their own community? At the end have one member of each group share their findings and what ideas inspired them most.

group exercise: if jesus were mayor In this last part of our session today we will seek to put more flesh to the bones of what we studied today. I would like you to imagine: “What would Jesus do if he were Mayor in Chimalhuacán?”14 “What would happen if Jesus’ character, values, laws and teachings were the governing basis for our communities?15 Let’s pretend that Jesus really is Mayor. He has assembled his “task force”. We – the local church – are on it, and he wants us to carry out his agenda. “How?” we wonder. He reminds us about the Nehemiah strategy and the concept of seed projects, namely that seeds work in small, sacrificial ways. We nod in agreement. en he assigns different groups of us to develop action plans to address specific issues in our community.16 Divide participants into groups of 3-5 people and distribute Worksheet “What Would Jesus Do If He Were Mayor?” Go over the ground rules, explain the Group Activity and then have participants complete the group activity. At the end have one member of each group share their findings and one action plan.

summary

xx minutes

A few years ago a true story appeared in newspapers about a widow in California. Soon after her husband died, she allowed her family to slide into financial ruin. Her lawyers told her about a fortune of several hundreds of thousands of dollars that her husband had secretly put away in a local bank. Yet, she refused to believe that this was true. Over time the unemployed widow couldn’t pay her bills, got evicted from her home and wandered about the country with her children – homeless, ill-fed and ill-clothed. ey were destitute, all because she simply refused to believe in her inheritance. And there it sat, hundreds of thousands of dollars. ey money was truly hers, but it could do her not good until she claimed it.17

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How much are we like this widow? Not truly believing that we have a great inheritance of hope from a God of justice? Do you really believe that God desires to intervene and change things for the better? Do you really believe that God wants to establish Shalom on earth as it is in heaven and that he wants to use you and your church to be part of his task force to accomplish this? If not, your faith does you and the world no good! You need to claim the truth of God’s vision and promises. When we can truly believe the testimony of the Scriptures that our heavenly Father is a God of justice who wants the world to be put to rights, we are equipped to be light in a dark world. e hope is truly ours; we just have to claim it. We have a great witness for a weary world, if we are simply willing to believe.18 However, if we just go back to church business as usual, we give testimony to the fact that we don’t really believe what we have heard throughout the past sessions: namely that God seeks to establish his Kingdom of Shalom on earth as it is in heaven and that he is calling us to stand in the gap. In summary, then, the question for you is: Do you have the will to do this? To let the hurts and pains of your community affect you so deeply that you cannot but act. Do you have the will to develop a plan as to how you and your church will work for the Shalom of your community?

closing prayer and time of worship Ask a participant to close in prayer. xx minutes

total time: xx minutes

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personal notes

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endnotes 1

e Harvest Foundation, Leadership Development Training Program Level 1, ird Printing, 10-1 2 Tearfund, On Solid Ground (Cimientos) – Facilitator’s Guide, 8 3 e Harvest Foundation, Leadership Development Training Program Level 1, ird Printing, 14-1 to 14-2 4 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 93 5 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 95 6 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 95 I know it can be so easy to slip into problem-solving mode, instead of really sitting with someone in the midst of their difficulty. I remember one day when I was visiting with different neighbors, I met a woman who was sharing her tragic story. Her husband had died, her brother died, and her mother died - all within a couple of years. She was left with 3 children and moving constantly, and consequently her daughter was so far behind in her schooling that she was embarrassed to attend classes, because she was 3 years older than everyone else. Now out of all that she shared, my response was, “Well, do you think if there was a program where your daughter could catch up and then return to school, that you’d be interested in that.” She politely and animatedly said “Definitely, that would be wonderful.” As I was walking away, I was hit by this sick feeling that I had just missed all that this woman had shared, and zoned in on the one thing that I could “help in”, when she probably just needed someone to sit with her and share her pain. 7 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 96-97 8 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 99 9 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 99-100 10 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 100 11 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 101-102 I.e. a single mother may be having trouble with her son who is falling further and further behind in his schoolwork. She begins to think that her son is not very bright and that she is a rotten parent. She has private meetings with her son’s teachers, who suggest all sorts of things she could do to improve her son’s learning capacity. With everything the teacher says, the conviction is reinforced that she is a rotten parent and that her son is not very bright. But then she visits with another parent in the community who says she is also having trouble with her children in the same school. e parent invites her to a meeting with other parents, and in that larger meeting she hears many parents share how poorly their children are doing. Suddenly the problem changes. Not all these children can be that stupid! Not all these parents could be so bad! Perhaps the problem lies not so much with these parents and children but with the school. (Ibid) 12 Robert Linthicum, Transforming Power, 103 13 e Harvest Foundation, Leadership Development Training Program Level II, ird Printing, 19-1 to 19-13 14 Based largely on Bob Moffit, If Jesus Were Mayor, 10-12 15 Bob Moffit, If Jesus Were Mayor, 12 16 Bob Moffitt, If Jesus Were Mayor, 275 17 Gary A. Haugen, Good News About Injustice, 76-77 18 Gary A. Haugen, Good News About Injustice, 77

The Integral Mission of the Church



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Living the Story Series