Some days suburban transience really does give me the irrits.

We have been gone 6 months and on Saturday we arrived back in our street and caught up with friends and neighbours and the church community we will be leading. It was beautiful to see those people again and yet what strikes me this morning is just how much has changed in just 6 months.

While we were gone a family who were amongst our closest friends and who lived nearby left – for Spain – not to return. We didn’t know they were going when we left, but we discovered it on the trip. That made us sad, the girls especially who were very close. Good friends would not be there when we got home. While we didn’t feel their loss so much on holidays, I imagine we will now that we are home.

Two other close friends from Upstream have also decided to move on – interstate – not to return – friends we love dearly and will miss greatly from our lives and our Christian community. They won’t be replaced overnight and we feel that too. We have been friends for 25 years and those relationships are like gold.

And then there’s our street… Since we’ve been gone 4 houses have sold and yesterday we discovered that the last of our original neighbours is selling and leaving. In a street of 12 houses we have now seen over 30 families come and go in the 6 years we have been here. We have some great neighbours and we all get on well, but I sometimes wonder how long they will be around… and I suspect they may wonder the same about us.

As we wandered into church yesterday and sat quietly towards the back, we recognised many familiar faces, but were also curious to see plenty of new faces. I imagine there will be many more new faces in the year ahead as people move house and go church shopping (blech).

I don’t have any great insights on this, except to say that at times it erodes my own sense of permanence and commitment to the area, as the hope of longer term significant relationships seems quite remote – but maybe I was foolish to ever imagine that as a possibility?

And then at other times it strengthens my resolve to hang in and be some semblance of permanence and dependability in a shifting world.

Some days it just gives me the shifts…

Recently I have been considering again what it means to be a ‘missionary community’, and I have been pondering what ‘values’ we would hold dear, and to be honest I get very weary of those ‘discovering our values’ exercises because inevitably we discover that we value the Bible, prayer, relationships etc. Its all no brainer type of stuff and we didn’t need to spend a day (or a year) pondering it.

Because of this I have come to appreciate the concept of distinctives quite a bit more. I think we can all agree that we value the Bible & prayer & loving one another and evangelism and blah blah blah… (if we don’t then we’re in the wrong game) but perhaps we need to ponder what is it that is actually unique about the community that God has called us to be?

As I ponder this I like to frame it in non-biblical words and from the perspective of a member of our local community looking on who isn’t a Christian but who gets what we are about. I thought I’d take a post to reflect on some of the distinctives that I would want to characterise any community of people that I am involved with. So have a read and see what you resonate with and what jars with you.

These are in no particular order…

- generosity - I’d love for the people in our neighbourhood to be aware that this is a community who splash their money and time and relationships around with great liberality. In such a self focused society I believe that personal and corporate generosity can function as a prophetic statement about what the kingdom of God is like. And who would ever knock a church for being obscenely generous?!

- earthiness - It’d be great if those who come near feel a sense of these being ordinary people who sometimes get life right and sometimes stuff it up, but who do it with Jesus in the midst. When church people start to give off airs of superiority most Aussies will simply walk away. Again I’d ask, who would ever knock a church for being a ’society of sinners’ where other likeminded strugglers are more than welcome. Everyone knows we aren’t as squeaky clean as sometimes gets made out so let’s be honest with that and maybe we might drop the hypocrite flag a bit lower.

- fun - seriously! I realise this may depend on your defintion of ‘fun’, but surely a community where people laugh a lot and enjoy being together has to be one that others would want to be part of? The dour and drab countenance that seems to characterise some church gatherings on a Sunday morning must surely communicate something of the God we worship… I want to be with people who know how to enjoy themselves and can party well (and I say that an introverted non-party animal!)

intelligent - ok by this I am meaning a community where there is the ability to reflect deeply on the issues that face us as missionaries in the west and not simply fall in line with the next fad, nor adhere to a mindless fundamentalism because this is all we have known. Inevitably this means being a curious and questioning community, safe in our relationship with Christ, confident enough to admit that we don’t know it all but courageous enough to consider other viewpoints.

adventurous - people who get the whiff a challenge and rise to it rather than people who simply see the ‘danger’ and wish to play it safe. Having been both in communities that have played it safe and communities that have ‘given it a go’ I never want to go back to the dullness and predictability of that kind of environment.

willing to get involved – its easy to do ministry from a distance, but to be willing to get involved in people’s lives and to have them in your home, to put yourself out and not farm someone out to a designated ‘committee’ is a big committment. But surely if anyone is going to sense real genuine love from us then it will be largely because we didn’t stand at a distance and yell instructions, but because we got down and dirty and involved in the good the bad and the ugly of life and walked the path come what may.

Of course I realise these probably typify my own preferences and are something of a reflection of my own personality, but then that’s how it is with leadership isn’t it? Who you are always comes thru. I don’t think there is any avoiding that, but being in a team does help avoid a church simply becoming an unhealthy extension of one person’s personality.

So if you imagine a community that you would dearly love to be part of, which of the above words resonate with you, which would you delete and which of your own would you add?

I’d love to hear!

After I had preached on Sunday morning a man swaggered up to me. He looked mid forties, stocky and like his nose had been broken more times than he could remember. I was talking to a member of the church and he joined our conversation.

“So, does anybody do any witnessin aroun here?” he asked.

It felt like a loaded question. I don’t think either of us knew quite what to say…

“I guess it depends on what you mean by that” I said. I sensed that he meant standing on street corners and preaching, or stopping people in the mall.

“Well I mean going out in the street and talking to people about Jesus. There’s a whole world out there of needy people who aren’t gonna come in here and without Jesus they’re goin to hell.”

He was clearly edgy and wasn’t feeling like we were receiving his question real well. The fact that I had lampooned the wacko street preacher during my message may not have helped either.

He talked for a little bit and told us his story. He had been sent to prison several years ago for violent crime. He had lived a violent life and was a street fighter. But during a stint in solitary confinement he had met God in a ‘damascus road’ type of way.

He then started sharing his faith in prison and just before he got out he was leading a Bible study of over 200 men in the prison. His approach to evangelism was much like his approach to other things in life – no holds barred and no prisoners – pardon the pun.

After a short conversation where my friend spoke of the church’s craft group, and kids ministries I could see him glaze over and zone out. This wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

He had come looking for a church that would support him in his own evangelistic work, post prison and that would also be a church that would welcome his new converts. He hadn’t found one anywhere.

He drifted off from the conversation clearly frustrated. I was frustrated too.

Partly because I had encountered someone with raw passion and it had exposed me as having gone soft in some ways. I was frustrated because I knew what he was on about – there simply aren’t too many churches where people like him are welcome and where he would be understood and encouraged and where his friends would be accepted. He is a strong character with lots of opinions and he would be a handful. His friends would change the tone of the average middle class church.

As he drifted off I sensed God saying ‘go and have lunch with him’. I think it was partly so I could learn more about evangelism from someone who was naturally gifted and partly so I could encourage him not to give up on the church. In his zeal he was convinced that anyone who wasn’t doing evangelism like him was not serious about God and he had little room for those with any fear.

I have shared this frustration over the years and at times have been guilty of projecting my own passions and gifting onto others. Maybe I could help him see the value in sticking with others and helping them develop.

I caught him as he was walking down the street to his beaten up white ford meteor. I invited him out and he took me up on it.

We had a great time together and I found myself driving home inspired by this left field Jimmy Swaggart fan who wept over people who didn’t know Jesus and who went from half way house to half way house until someone would listen. He had clearly had such a life changing encounter with God that nothing was going to stop him or slow him.

I was rebuked for my lampooning of the street preacher and reminded that the kingdom of God is very very diverse. As he treads the streets of Fremantle he will connect with people who would never give me the time of day.

I pray he finds a community of people who will welcome him and his friends and who will support him in his passion for helping the broken and messed up follow Jesus.

I pray the evangelist won’t get tamed.up in smoke free

• three to tango free

brewster s millions divx download

There are few books I have raved about as much as Simon Holt’s God Next Door.

It is a brilliant book that articulates a beautiful picture of spirituality in everyday life and that inspired me to see the value in so much of what is taken for granted. It is on the shortlist for Australian book of the year and deservedly so!

Our friends at GIA have Simon in Perth this Friday to speak to pastors and young adults.

The pastor’s gig is on Friday at the Perth Flying Squadron Yacht Club, The Esplanade, Dalkeith from 1.30 to 3.30pm with afternoon tea provided. It costs $10.00 and you need to RSVP if you want to go. Call Pam Gallagher on 94703081. Hope to see you there. Hopefully it will be open to more than just card carrying ‘pastors’!

The young adults gig is Friday night and you need to contact Mim Hosking if you want to be there – mhosking@globalinteraction.org.au Also speaking at that evening will be Pam Kingwell who is part of our Forge WA team here in Oz and who is a brilliant young woman.

I’m a bit old to pass for a young adult these days… otherwise I might have seen you there

Ok so the ramble continues…

From Innaloo I got married and moved to Glendalough for a couple of years early in our marriage. We lived in a 2 bed flat and then a 3 bed townhouse. Not quite inner city, but definitely high density living! As I look back it is surprising how close we can live and never connect. Not that I had time or interest anyway…

I was too busy being a pastor and running a church to even notice that there were people living nearby. Those first 4 years of marriage saw us move 3 times, with the final one being a house we built in Karrinyup – the place we intended to live for a loong time… We stayed 11 months before we sensed it was time to head up to Lesmurdie.

As a beachlover this was a very foreign place for me, but also a place I came to love. Big blocks, lots of trees and a sense of detachment from the rest of the city was all very nice. But the big blocks meant neighbourliness was lessened as we didn’t often see each other. Many people saw the hills as their ‘retreat’, so coming home after work they weren’t actually seeking to get involved in the community.

That said, the discrete village like nature of the community meant that there was a sense of community but (I am guessing) based more on shared location than relationship. Hills people are interesting. This was a middle-upper suburb, with plenty of very competent, confident people. They were generally very ‘nice’ people, and normal neighbourhood crime and vandalism was much less in this community.

Again I was way too busy with church to really connect with my neighbours (story here), but this time did propel me to a level of dissatisfaction. I became increasingly conscious that our church was a lovely bunch of people, but that most of us who were ’seriously committed’ to it were not well connected locally. Ironically it was probably those who we (leaders) regarded as slack and at times uncommitted who were usually better connected.

I imagine there is always a balance with these things, but I was quite frustrated by my own tendency to get consumed with the tasks of church – the jobs I did well that usually brought me kudos. No one ever thought well of me for spending time working in the community or having a neighbour for a meal… but a good sermon!… Well now you’re talking.

I imagine a different person could have stayed in that place and worked thru the issues of disconnection and made some shifts. But I wanted to take a more emphatic approach. I wasn’t convinced that I could shift the centre of gravity of my life while still living in that community and working in that church. The church actually gave me permission to get more involved in the community, but sitting alongside the permission was also the unwritten expectation that nothing I was currently doing would suffer.

I do believe God called us to leave Lesmurdie, but at a much more human level I wanted to leave and experiment with church in a different form and in a different place.

Right up until this time I still don’t think I had paid much attention at all to the neighbourhood I was living in. Maybe there were occasional demographic analyses but there wasn’t a sense of buying in deeply.

So then came the move to Brighton and this is where I started to notice the place in which I was living. My first observation when we visited here 5 1/2 years ago was of a barren soul-less place – of the starkly unimaginative look of suburbia – that despite all the efforts of the developer and the house designers to create a vibe.

The ‘vibe’ was distinctly clean, neat and stark in every way. As much as the ads told us ‘its Brighton – what a community should be!’ I think we knew that it was only the kind of community that we chose to make it.

In those early days when everyone was moving into the street there were many spontaneous connections and more than a few street parties. We were responsible for a fair swathe of them as we sought to reverse the trend we had lived with for so long our whole lives. We were operating from the understanding that we ‘live ourselves into a new way of thinking’ rather than ‘thinking our way into a new way of living’.

We did manage to develop a significant feeling of community in our street, but we also observed that after the initial year people ’settled’ into routines and while we were friendly with each other no one was taking the time to organise the parties, or if they did happen they clashed with other social activities that each of us had on.

For the first few years we were in Brighton the suburb had that new car feel smell about it. Everything was bright and shiny and lawns and gardens hadn’t had the chance to get overgrown. However a growing number of property investors meant that rental properties increased and care of gardens decreased. The kids also grew up and started to want things to do. In the absence of something useful to do they would graffiti or fight. In the last year violence and crime have increased dramatically in this supposedly idyllic little suburb.

For those who stand at a distance I am sure the stunning lakes and parklands are still enticing and seem to speak of a place of beauty and tranquility., but for those of us who live here its just a suburb – a suburb at the end of the line with limited social services and infrastructure – and a growing number of young people who have little to do.

It has also become increasingly transient with around 10% of the houses in the suburb currently up for sale. In our street of 12 houese there have lived 24 different families. I used to know everyone in the street, but a family have lived directly across from us now for 6 months and we have not spoken other than to say a brief hello.

As the street has settled and as neighbours have come and gone there has been a decrease in the desire of all of us to get to know the new people, especially those in short term rental situations. (They are only going to bugger off again!)

As I write there are 4 of left from the originals who bought into the street, but one of those 4 had a real estate agent around yesterday to get a valuation as they have bought closer to the city.

While there is little to get inspired about here, I do feel a strong sense of connection and ownership of this community. I’m sure part of it flows out of my sense of calling, but I’m sure part of it is that I have finally stopped being so busy leading a church and taken the time to really get connected with those we live amongst.

So here I am now in this strange suburb… a disproportionately high number of ‘fly in fly out’ workers, over 50% of the community born outside Oz (mostly UK and SA) and many people working themselves to the bone to make the payments on the enormous mortgage they now have.

Making connections in suburbia is certainly not easy – and its harder for blokes.

The pace of life and the ‘privatopia’ mentality means people may want to connect, but they either lack the time or the desire to get beyond their front door. And then just as you do get to know people they move…

You can understand why many just can’t be bothered.

Anyway, thats a little of my experience of neighbourhood. I could write much more on the current experience, as it the only one I have actually taken the time to reflect on, but if you are interested to know more then you can trawl my archives!

In the next few posts I will return to the book and chew thru some of what Simon has to say…

As I mentioned a few posts back I have been re-reading God Next Door by Simon Holt and I have to say that for those of us in neighbourhood mission this is one of the best books I have come across. Simply brilliant and brilliantly simple!

I intend to offer a series of reflections from the book partly because I need to in order to process it, but also because I know many of you won’t read it – even though you should!

Here’s a first thought that began percolating in my head…

Simon mentioned how we now live in privatopia where everyone occupies their own little piece of suburbia and hides behind the rollerdoor on the garage. Neighbours are much like rare animals – sighting are infrequent and when they do occur people aren’t sure what to do.

Simon writes of the days when the front porch was common – when houses had large front porches so people could hang out the front and connect with each other. When the pace of life was slower and people seemed to value the neighbourhood. I’m too young to know if this romanticised, but I like the concept…

Of course, this has now been replaced with the ‘alfresco’ area in the rear for private entertaining. We live in the back yard rather than the front. Privacy has overtaken any kind of engagement.

I started to wonder…

How would it be if houses began to be designed with huge front verandahs? What if building companies and developers started to re-invent the front porch? Or even more amusing… what if a group of us ‘invaded a suburb’ – the same street even – and built houses with big front verandahs and lived ‘out the front’ quite intentionally.

You should know I write this as introvert – but also as one concerned for the diminished quality of community that seems to be rife in suburbia. I’m not sure how I would cope with ‘living out the front’, but I reckon it has some merit.

Last year we built this house

We have since sold it on, but I wonder what it would be like if we built this house?… I have just moved a few bits of the design around so it is far from being workable – more just a concept.

What would it be like we intentionally started inverting the way we live so that most of life was out the front?

Family meals on the front verandah?

A pool in the front yard?

Sandpit out the front?…

Veggie patch?…

I wonder what it would do to communities if this became the norm?

Dante’s definition of hell is ‘proximity without intimacy’. I would say that is a pretty good image of suburbia, but I reckon many people would prefer not to live in ‘hell’.

Just a thought!

Jarrod McKenna’s Wednesday’s with Gandhi:

 “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always.” -Mohandas Gandhi

I’m off to Indonesia this Friday (forgive me my carbon debts) to the Historic Peace Church Gathering on behalf of AAANZ and Quakers (It will be a bunch of very respectable, intelegent and impressive people from around the world… and this dreadlocked kid from Perth!).  So this will be my last ‘Wednesday with Gandhi’ for the year.  It’s funny I set out to write about a bunch of stuff that I didn’t get round to but I trust the Spirit will take what I have done and use it to invite and inspire people to know in deeper ways for themselves this Jesus that Gandhi said was the greatest practitioner of nonviolence in history, central to his revolution in India, and the one through whom, I believe, God’s dream for creation has broken into history.

I thought I’d end by letting you in on a little of the life of our community. Us Peace Tree mob can say with our hero Dorothy Day “We have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.” As a community we seek to ‘serve in silence’ and not make a big deal of what we do but since the gang fights and the subsequent killing in the street behind ours was so public and made the news overseas, we thought we’d let our light shine in the hope that it doesn’t glorify us but the God who is transforming our world not through force but through a love seen fully in Jesus.

As Eastern Orthodox bishop Kallistos Ware writes (I love this quote);

“The Cross, understood as victory, sets before us the paradox of love’s omnipotence.  Dostoevsky comes near to the true meaning of Christ’s victory in some statements which he puts into the mouth of Starets Zosmia:

“At some thoughts a man stands perplexed, above all at the sight of human sin, and he wonders whether to combat it by force or by humble love. Always decide: “I will combat it by humble love.” If you resolve on that once and for all, you can conquer the whole world.  Loving humility is a terrible force: it is the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it.” “

We witnessed something of this humble love and healing on Saturday with our ‘Peace and Pizza’ event in response to the gang killing in our streets. As Nick Cave might put it “God was in the house” (well… garden). The family of the 18 year old kid who was killed bravely join us as well as many indigenous people and white fellas like me. We had yummy wood fired pizzas, great music, and Maori, Noogar and Wajalla (as well as  people from Malaysia, Iran, Indonesia, Kenya and elsewhere) came together for a time of silence to honour the life of John[ston] the young man who was killed and tree planting and prayer for an end to violence in our neighbourhood and our world. Thanks for all who have supported us Peace Tree crew over this time. Please keep the families involved, and our neighbourhood in your prayers. 

These photos were taken by our good friend and brother Tom Day who is an amazing photographer now in Perth. (his website is worth bookmarking: http://www.thomasdayphotography.com/ )

 the guy with the dog in this photo is classic :)

Prayer with the family that have lost their loved one on our streets.

 …love.

This was one of the most moving parts of the day when Noogar elders, parents and children helped to plant a tree to honour the life of a Maori boy killed by a Noogar gang.  It was truly beautiful and touched the family and the community gathered deeply.

 …love.

Youth Worker, Community gardener, co-chaplain at Hampton High and Peace Tree brother Josh Hobby, helps plant the tree with one of the family members.

 …love.

…love.

Thanks to all who have journeyed with me and Gandhi this year. I can still be found at http://paceebene.org/blog/jarrod-mckenna. Thanks more so to all who don’t put out PR releases but quietly go about living the decision “I will combat it by humble love.”   
You inspire me to know Christ more, to walk in the resurrection more. You witness to the reality that in Jesus love has won… and not even violence’s ultimate threat of death can stop resurrection power.

Grace and peace of the new world breaking in be with you,

Jarrod

Here’s a dot point summary of a talk I did over the weekend for anyone who is interested. It is a simple reflection on the desires, knowledge and actions that a missionary community requires.

I’d be interested in your reflections and what you would add to the lists.

Missionary Desires rush hour 3 dvdrip

1. For people to know Jesus and experience his salvation in its fullness – kinda obvious?…

2. For the kingdom of God to take root in an area – to seek the welfare of the city as Jeremiah 29 puts it.

3. For people’s dignity to be upheld in the middle of the process – we are not conquerors and colonisers.

Missionary Knowledge

You need to help people learn these things

1. ‘Sentness’ is everything – we are sent by God, so we go where he leads and we stay till he says ‘move’. No exceptions.

2. Orientation is everything – outward and downward (missional incarnational) rather than inward and extractional.

3. Initiative is everything – no one is going to walk across the road to your house and ask you to tell them about Jesus. Its pretty obvious…

4. Context is everything – the way mission happens in Hobart will be very different to the way it happens in Brighton or even across town. We must pay attention to the communities we live in.

5. Our own authentic connection to Jesus is everything – otherwise it will be dry labour and lack integrity. Too much missionary endeavour is done because we ‘have to’.

6. Everything is everything – we will function in accordance with the degree to which these things are present in us.

What Missionaries do

Knowledge is useless if we don’t act on it

1. Discover & learn about a context – we must exegete our culture as well as our Bibles. Hang out – listen – tune in – ask questions

2. Create space in life – busyness is the death of mission. Miss this and we miss the point.

3. Indigenize ecclesiology rather than importing & franchising – think for yourself and let church flow from mission. We are not in the franchise business.

4. Theologise carefully – Hold core stuff tightly and non core loosely and are able to tell the difference between the two. Don’t be shy to take risks. You can always come back from the edge if you fall off.

5. A missionary community demonstrates an alternative way to live. Its the ‘Upstream’ concept we speak of.

6. Work patiently and trust God – God makes things grow

More ‘non-rocket-science’ stuff, but still enough to keep us going for a lifetime…

• download batman free

Here

Its well worth a read. Its not rocket science, but most of us aren’t tripped up by how complex things are. Usually its because they are simple in concept but difficult to practice.

Jarrod McKenna’s Wednesday’s with Gandhi:

“My experience tells me that the Kingdom of God is within us, and that we can realise it not by saying, “Lord, Lord,” but by doing God’s will and God’s work… Do you know that there are thousands of villages where people are starving and are on the brink of ruin? If we would listen to the voice of God, I assure you we would hear God say we are taking God’s name in vain if we do not think of the poor and help them.  If you cannot render the help that they need, it is no use talking of service of God and service of the poor. Try to identify yourself with the poor by actually helping them.”

-Mohandas Gandhi, (March 31, 1927) from “Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings” by John Dear, p. 81

I don’t think there would be many who would argue that as Christians we can affirm with Gandhi that “we are taking God’s name in vain if we do not think of the poor and help them.”

And while Radiohead’s fans are excited the bands been thinking creatively about questions of economics and how they distribute there next album, what does that look like in our lives as God’s people? (economics and justice that is, not so much our next album distribution) Does it look different from the bands PR exercise (not that I’m not stoked Radiohead are letting me decide what to pay for their next album!)

What does it look like to move from ‘church charity’ run by some sweet old ladies, to being ecclesia of missional solidarity?  (not to disrespect radical nannas everywhere doing awesome stuff!)

For you or your community what does ‘doing God’s will’ when it comes to ‘the least of these’ look like? What are you inspired by, that it might look like? What do you long for it to look like?

Our crew have really struggled with this stuff. I don’t mean struggle in the noble sense. I mean struggle in the sense of it being bloody hard! Nearly as hard as living with each other   And like much of our life as community, it’s left us with not much to show other than some colourful (and painful) stories and a burning desire for God, for healing, for justice, for the kingdom and an awareness of our own brokenness and sin. Should we all move overseas to the slums we have only visited with our expensive cameras? Should we all just join UNOH?  What does it mean to practice hospitality when you’re continually stolen from, physically threatened and taken advantage of?  When all you’re left with is their used needles, hardcore porn, broken promises, and debt. When you show up in court to support them but they dont. When you’re dumped with other people’s toddlers for days on end while they get high and you have to decided do you ring DCD and your only comfort is the lament of the Psalmist and your sisters and brothers prayers. Only to find out that our parts of the body of Christ are bagging you out without praying for you or seeking to correct or encourage you. Please don’t hear me writting these things out of bitterness. I write as a brother struggling with what ”actually helping them” (as Gandhi put it) looks like (anybody else?).  Sometimes I come out of visiting in prison and just feel like crying for a day. Maybe these are the stories we need to tell too aswell as the times we come out feeling totally inspired.

Recently I was contacted by a pastor (of what most would consider a successful mainstream church), who had opened up his home to someone who had lived on the streets for years. This Pastor wanted to talk through the heart ache of seeing someone throw away the opportunities offered to him because he was stuck in cycles he couldn’t break out of. Maybe these stories are as important to share as the “success stories”? Maybe these are the stories that can ween us of the quick fixes and easy answers that we can so often hear to our worlds deepest problems. Maybe if we told these ones too we’d celebrate God’s transforming grace all the more! And real joy would truely be our strength.

Some of our crew were recently hanging out with a similar community to us in the States called ‘The Simple Way’. The Simple Way have a huge public influence through the success of Shane Claiborne’s wonderful book “The Irresistible Revolution” (which I highly recommend!!)  But we were joking if we were to write a book it would be “A how [not] to” (shout outs to Pete Rollins who I also highly recommend!!!!).  Maybe our book would be called ‘The Resistible Revolution’ or ‘The Very Resistible Revolution’.

So for those of us who believe James 2:15-16 is part of the inspired Scriptures what does this look like in a world where 3 billion of God’s children live on less than 2 dollars a day?

Who are a good example of an alternative?  Is Gandhi a good example?  Is St. Francis of Assisi? Is our Lord? (Seriously!) If we say they are (or if we say ‘Jesus is Lord’) what does that look like for us as the church practically?  Who are the communities or people who inspiring you to see Christ glorified in the churches response to  poverty and ‘affluenza’? What churches in your city have encouraged you in the journey by their witness?

Anybody else need to voice failed efforts Prayerfully reading the quote from Gandhi, what does God stir in you?