Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Myers, B.L. (1999 ) Walking with the Poor - Principles and Practices of Transformational Development. Orbis
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Modernity's separation of the physical and spiritual realms is part of the explanation for how we have come to understand Christian witness, and specifically evangelism, as being unrelated to community development. Loving God is spiritual work, and loving neighbours takes place in the material world. So evangelism (restoring people's relationship with God) is spiritual work, while social action (restoring just economic, social, and political relationships among people) is not. In the final analysis this false dichotomy leads Christians to believe that God's redemptive work takes place only in the spiritual realm, while the world is left, seemingly, to the devil. Pp6Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:47 pm #
Provoking questions that the gospel is the answer unites gospel-as-life and gospel-as-deed with gospel-as-word. Our witness depends on our living lives so that the Holy Spirit may evoke questions to which our faith is the answer…. calls for Christians to live eloquent lives, the key to provoking questions to which the gospel is the answer.Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:47 pm #
'An institution becomes demonic when it abandons its divine vocation-that of a ministry of justice or a ministry of social welfare-for the pursuit of its own idolatrous goals" (Wink 1992, 72) pp30Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:48 pm #
We must remember that the church, while it is to be sign of the kingdom, is not the kingdom itself. The kingdom judges and redeems the church. The church is successful in being a sign to the extent that the Spirit makes it so. The church is a true sign only to the degree that it lives up to the spirit and life of the kingdom. "The church is not the end of mission, the kingdom is the end" (jones 1972, 3 5). 39Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:49 pm #
The biblical image of shalom. Nicholas Wolterstorff points out that shalom is usually translated by the word "peace," but that it means more than the absence of strife. First, shalom is a relational concept, "dwelling at peace with God, with self, with fellows, with nature." Then, Wolterstorff suggests, we must add the ideas of justice, harmony, and enjoyment to capture the full biblical meaning of the word. Shalom means just relationship (living justly and experiencing justice), harmonious relationships and enjoyable relationships. Shalom means belonging to an authentic and nurturing community in which one can be one's true self and give one's self away without becoming poor. justice, harmony, and enjoyment of God, self, others, and nature; this is the shalom that Jesus brings, the peace that passes all understanding (Wolterstorff 1983, 69-72).Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:49 pm #
The idea of shalom is related to one of the interesting ways Jesus described his mission: 'I have come that they may have life, and have it in the full" Jn 10: 10). Life in its fullness is the purpose; this is what we are for and what Christ has come to make possible. To live fully in the present in relationships that are just, harmonious, and enjoyable, that allow everyone to contribute. And to live fully for all time. A life of joy in being that goes beyond having. While shalom and abundant life are ideals that we will not see this side of the second coming, the vision of a shalom that leads to life in its fullness is a powerful image that must inform and shape our understanding of any better human future. 51Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:50 pm #
transformation biblical term that best fit a Christian view of development (1983, 3795). Bragg called for an understanding of development that went beyond social welfare by including justice concerns, something controversial for evangelicals at that time.Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:51 pm #
2/3Bragg listed what he called the characteristics of transformation, each a transformational frontier:• Life sustenance, or the meeting of human basic needs.• Equity, meaning equitable distribution of material goods and opportunities.• Justice within all social relationships, including democratic participation.• Dignity and self-worth in the sense of feeling fully human and knowing we are made in the image of God.• Freedom from external control or oppression; a sense of being liberated in Christ.• Participation in a meaningful way in our own transformation.• Reciprocity between the poor and the non-poor; each have something to learn from the other.Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:51 pm #
3/3• Culturalfit that respects the best in local cultures and that treats them as creative.• Ecological soundness.Bragg added some important new ideas to the evangelical conversation about development. just social systems and opportunities for all had not been squarely on the evangelical development agenda. 95Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:51 pm #
the disciples were called first to be with jesus, and only then to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. Being comes before doing. We cannot share what we do not have. We cannot live eloquent lives that provoke questions to which the gospel is the answer unless our lives are made alive by the Spirit of the living God. 162Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:52 pm #
For Christians, therefore, our thinking and practice of transforming development must have an evangelistic intent, although this needs to be understood with some care. This is not a call for proselytism; neither is it a call to coercive, manipulative, or culturally insensitive evangelism. It is not even a call for all development practitioners to become evangelists. After all, no one knows the moment when someone is ready for faith, nor is God limited to the staff of a particular Christian development agency in bringing God's good news. Rather, it is a call to be sure we do our development with an attitude that prays and yearns for people to know Jesus Christ. 205Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:52 pm #
Credo ut iltelligam (I believe in order to know) Augustine of HippoGordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:52 pm #
questions are asked by the people when they witness something they do not expect or understand. The initiative lies with them. This avoids Tillich's complaint that "it is wrong to throw answers, like stones, at the heads of those who haven't even asked a question." 210Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:53 pm #
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Modernity's separation of the physical and spiritual realms is part of the explanation for how we have come to understand Christian witness, and specifically evangelism, as being unrelated to community development. Loving God is spiritual work, and loving neighbours takes place in the material world. So evangelism (restoring people's relationship with God) is spiritual work, while social action (restoring just economic, social, and political relationships among people) is not. In the final analysis this false dichotomy leads Christians to believe that God's redemptive work takes place only in the spiritual realm, while the world is left, seemingly, to the devil. Pp6Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:47 pm #
Provoking questions that the gospel is the answer unites gospel-as-life and gospel-as-deed with gospel-as-word. Our witness depends on our living lives so that the Holy Spirit may evoke questions to which our faith is the answer…. calls for Christians to live eloquent lives, the key to provoking questions to which the gospel is the answer.Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:47 pm #
'An institution becomes demonic when it abandons its divine vocation-that of a ministry of justice or a ministry of social welfare-for the pursuit of its own idolatrous goals" (Wink 1992, 72) pp30Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:48 pm #
We must remember that the church, while it is to be sign of the kingdom, is not the kingdom itself. The kingdom judges and redeems the church. The church is successful in being a sign to the extent that the Spirit makes it so. The church is a true sign only to the degree that it lives up to the spirit and life of the kingdom. "The church is not the end of mission, the kingdom is the end" (jones 1972, 3 5). 39Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:49 pm #
The biblical image of shalom. Nicholas Wolterstorff points out that shalom is usually translated by the word "peace," but that it means more than the absence of strife. First, shalom is a relational concept, "dwelling at peace with God, with self, with fellows, with nature." Then, Wolterstorff suggests, we must add the ideas of justice, harmony, and enjoyment to capture the full biblical meaning of the word. Shalom means just relationship (living justly and experiencing justice), harmonious relationships and enjoyable relationships. Shalom means belonging to an authentic and nurturing community in which one can be one's true self and give one's self away without becoming poor. justice, harmony, and enjoyment of God, self, others, and nature; this is the shalom that Jesus brings, the peace that passes all understanding (Wolterstorff 1983, 69-72).Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:49 pm #
The idea of shalom is related to one of the interesting ways Jesus described his mission: 'I have come that they may have life, and have it in the full" Jn 10: 10). Life in its fullness is the purpose; this is what we are for and what Christ has come to make possible. To live fully in the present in relationships that are just, harmonious, and enjoyable, that allow everyone to contribute. And to live fully for all time. A life of joy in being that goes beyond having. While shalom and abundant life are ideals that we will not see this side of the second coming, the vision of a shalom that leads to life in its fullness is a powerful image that must inform and shape our understanding of any better human future. 51Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:50 pm #
transformation biblical term that best fit a Christian view of development (1983, 3795). Bragg called for an understanding of development that went beyond social welfare by including justice concerns, something controversial for evangelicals at that time.Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:51 pm #
2/3Bragg listed what he called the characteristics of transformation, each a transformational frontier:• Life sustenance, or the meeting of human basic needs.• Equity, meaning equitable distribution of material goods and opportunities.• Justice within all social relationships, including democratic participation.• Dignity and self-worth in the sense of feeling fully human and knowing we are made in the image of God.• Freedom from external control or oppression; a sense of being liberated in Christ.• Participation in a meaningful way in our own transformation.• Reciprocity between the poor and the non-poor; each have something to learn from the other.Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:51 pm #
3/3• Culturalfit that respects the best in local cultures and that treats them as creative.• Ecological soundness.Bragg added some important new ideas to the evangelical conversation about development. just social systems and opportunities for all had not been squarely on the evangelical development agenda. 95Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:51 pm #
the disciples were called first to be with jesus, and only then to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. Being comes before doing. We cannot share what we do not have. We cannot live eloquent lives that provoke questions to which the gospel is the answer unless our lives are made alive by the Spirit of the living God. 162Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:52 pm #
For Christians, therefore, our thinking and practice of transforming development must have an evangelistic intent, although this needs to be understood with some care. This is not a call for proselytism; neither is it a call to coercive, manipulative, or culturally insensitive evangelism. It is not even a call for all development practitioners to become evangelists. After all, no one knows the moment when someone is ready for faith, nor is God limited to the staff of a particular Christian development agency in bringing God's good news. Rather, it is a call to be sure we do our development with an attitude that prays and yearns for people to know Jesus Christ. 205Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:52 pm #
Credo ut iltelligam (I believe in order to know) Augustine of HippoGordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:52 pm #
questions are asked by the people when they witness something they do not expect or understand. The initiative lies with them. This avoids Tillich's complaint that "it is wrong to throw answers, like stones, at the heads of those who haven't even asked a question." 210Gordon Email Homepage 09.15.04 - 3:53 pm #
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