THE INVASION OF GOD by Chuck Colson

Tomorrow morning we head up to MN for Christmas and New Year's with family and friends...in many ways, I wonder if my kids and maybe even I will feel a huge drop in energy and excitement when Tuesday night rolls around after a month of waiting and looking forward to DEC 25...and yet I know and seek to help them discover that this day means everything, for both our future and what we will do even tomorrow as we follow the Incarnate Leader of our lives and seek to live out His presence in real ways as we bring the invasion of heaven to earth...enjoy this fantastic look at Christmas thru the words of Chuck Colson below...Merry Christmas to all of you!

Christmas controversies have become as seasonal as candy canes and eggnog. Last year's flap over Wal-Mart forbidding its employees to wish customers "Merry Christmas" reveals how absurd the battles have become.

Christian legal societies stay busy each holiday season, holding the line. But in focusing on the public battles, we may miss a less visible danger in our own ranks.

What image does the mention of Christmas typically conjure up? For most of us, it's a babe lying in a manger while Mary and Joseph, angels and assorted beasts, look on. It's a heartwarming picture—Jesus in swaddling clothes. But Christmas is about much more than a child's birth—even the Savior's birth. It is about the Incarnation: God himself, Creator of heaven and earth, the ultimate reality, becoming flesh.

This is a staggering thought. The Jews believed the Messiah would arrive as a king on a stallion with a flashing sword. But God, who delights in confounding worldly wisdom, dealt with Satan's cruel reign with a quiet invasion of planet Earth. Instead of sending a mighty army, he chose an unknown, teenage virgin.

Thirty years after his humble birth, Jesus increased the Jews' befuddlement when he told his followers, "The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news" (Mark 1:15).

Then he read from the book of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor … to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden. …" Then Jesus closed the book and announced: "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21).

In effect, the carpenter's son had just announced that he was the king—an outrageous claim to the Jews, and so radical that people wanted to kill him that very day.

Sometimes I think Jesus' announcement of the liberation of the Jewish people and the coming of God's kingdom is as misunderstood today as it was by the Jews of his time. Christ was bringing in the reign of God on earth; first, through his own ministry, and then by establishing a peaceful occupying force—his church—which would carry on God's redeeming work until Christ's return in power and glory and the kingdom's final triumph.

As I've written in my forthcoming book, The Faith Given Once, for All, Jesus' announcement was the decisive moment in the whole of human history. Preoccupied with self and distracted by affluence, many Christians try to confine the gospel to a superior form of therapy; they fail to see it as a cosmic plan of redemption in which they, as fallen creatures, are directly involved.

But while the average Christian may not "get" this announcement, those locked behind bars certainly do.

Whenever I've preached to inmates over the last 32 years, I've read Jesus' inaugural sermon. When I quote his promise of freedom for the prisoners, the inmates often raise their arms and cheer. Jesus' message means freedom and victory for those who once had no hope. They aren't distracted by the encumbrance of wealth.

People in the developing world "get it," too. Whenever I share these words with poor, oppressed people in foreign lands, I see eyes brightening.

They understand that Jesus came to proclaim a new kingdom, which is one reason why Christianity is exploding in the Global South. People stripped of every material blessing and exploited by earthly powers long for Christ's bold new kingdom. He turns the world upside down.

It's no wonder that those opposed to Jesus' rule ordered him crucified. He was a threat to the established order and the champion of everyone who acknowledged their imprisonment to sin.

As I like to tell prisoners, Jesus was "busted," betrayed by a "snitch," and sent to death row, utterly rejected. He was strip-searched and then died on the cross between two thieves, so that we could be freed from the grip of Satan and death.

This Christmas, go ahead and decorate your tree and arrange the figures of your crèche. But do so in the light of this beautiful and earth-shaking truth: The birth of the baby in the manger was the thrilling signal that God had invaded planet Earth.

Christianity won't rise or fall on whether Wal-Mart employees can say "Merry Christmas." But its future does depend, in part, on how God's people advance God's kingdom, as we help establish his peaceful rule in the present historical moment, until Christ reigns in all his glory.

That we do this is my prayer for Christmas.

2007 Family Christmas Letter

HELLO FROM THE HUBERS AS 2007 DRAWS TO A CLOSE…

This summer we went on a family vacation to the magical place called Disney World. We had a wonderful time and honestly were filled with joy as we were together and enjoyed the fun found in the Disney experience. Those moments in late July are great memories for our family, and we celebrate as we draw toward Christmas the tremendous joy we continue to discover in family relationships, great friends, Kingdom ministry opportunities, and the reality that the Savior of all forever changed everything as He entered the world at Christmas so many years ago.

No one is more expressive about the joy of life than Trey. He is in his second year of preschool and has the best teachers he could ever hope for! He entered the formal sports team world this year, and the t-ball games and soccer matches were the highlights of every week. He loves playing with any kind of ball and is always looking to add a play date to his schedule. He brings so much life and excitement to our house and has a best friend in his big sister.

Olivia is now in third grade and loves reading all kinds of books, building the ultimate Webkinz room, and playing soccer. She is also busy filling our house with sounds from the piano. She has a great group of girl friends and continues to love helping to meet the needs of others, especially the children of Africa. A Zambia dance party for her eighth birthday was a highlight of her year! Her kindness brings incredible joy to our family every day.

Ingrid is the one who keeps a smile on all the Huber faces. Her continued management of our home and the love she gives each of us makes us happy to be home with one another. She continues with some part time nursing work and loves to help out at Olivia’s school. She spends a lot of time driving around the area with kids in our van and is often part of Chip’s ministry ventures at Wheaton Academy. No one is appreciated or loved more in the Huber family!

Chip still loves the joy of being part of the high school world where everyday he sees students growing in their faith and taking risks to change the world! This year brought the loss of a couple close friends and colleagues at Wheaton Academy, and a major change in that he stepped down as the boys’ varsity soccer coach. He continues to speak about and lead student movements in response to the global AIDS pandemic in Africa, and his summer trip with WA faculty, graduates, and current students back to Zambia was filled with moments of intense hope, overwhelming grief and a remarkable connection with the people of Kakolo Village.

As we celebrate Christmas this year, we cling tightly to the joy that
our Lord has brought to earth and to our individual lives...Jesus’
arrival was and continues to be the “news of great joy” promised
in Luke 2:10...we pray that 2008 will be full of the peace and joy of
Jesus for you and your family...

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HUBERS!

Chip, Ingrid, Olivia, Trey

Is Social Justice Serving Christ?

This article from Relevant Magazine by Remoy Philip wrestles with the question I am asked almost daily as we respond to the desperate physical needs of people in our world and seek to alleviate the injustices that exist in so many places...and yet we are Christ followers who are different and whose service is not done with the same motivation and vision...may we passionately seek for people's needs to be met and for them to expereince the redemptive, transformational love and presence of Jesus as they meet Him in the service His church gives in Jesus' name...

I am in sheer amazement at what I have seen in the last few years and what has been consistently growing throughout our present day. It seems now more than ever, we as humans see and feel—what we could call a sense of awareness—what all of us as humans have an unalienable right for. Food, shelter, healthcare and education have been expended all throughout the world to stabilize the areas lacking the aforementioned needs of this world. This can be seen throughout Gap ads, Time magazine cover stories, and we even see sports stars lending their sizable hands in the act of “doing more” for humanity’s sake. What seems to be more encouraging, is seeing the Evangelicals, the Emergent ones, and all the rest who call themselves Christians, leading in this fight for humanity. I am boastful and proud of the modern day Church, yet I am still left wondering or at least feeling that something is askew. Something in modern day Christendom may be facing the way of the Lord but there is still the question, are we living in the way of the Lord?

Our current day is no different than centuries past when it comes to the battles that define our religious-based spirituality. Nowadays I find myself somewhat wavering or unsure when faced with certain questions about my Christianity—moreover our Christianity. What is Truth? Science vs. God; who will win? Homosexuality vs. what seems like an antiquated view of sexuality. Is the Word adaptable, and more so, malleable to fit our current times? All these questions are warred over by theologians, scholars, televangelists and lowly wise day-to-dayers.

I do not think it would be a bold statement to say that a majority of our generation who were born into a supposed modern Christian home was witness to the polarization of the term “Christian.” We were witness to the word “Christian” becoming somewhat of a prefix to other words such as movies, music, television, books and so forth. After recovering from this iconic movement in spiritual trends, a lot of our generation may feel torn and moreover manipulated by what was done with our spirituality. Throughout this modern technological telecommunication age a sardonic voice can be heard from our age group that stirs to discredit this polarization. With all this said, I worry that we, as a generation and social demographic, are on the verge of repeating our mistakes. Not in the sense that we find a modern day birth of a TBN generation with the selling and promoting of WWJD slap-on bracelets, but more so with the focus on social justice.

I am not going take back my words when I said I was proud of what our leg of Christianity has done with social justice, but I am worried that we may be again creating a skewed social dogma for Christianity. I tread softly through this claim hoping not to create a backlash against the “do-gooders” because I truthfully wish I had more do-good in me. But I ask, tactfully, where do we draw the line for the markings of social justice in our servitude of Christ?

Our motivation has to be grace and redemption (Love plays a major role, but that is not for me to define or extrapolate at this time). If we don’t follow suit in this idea of humble grace, we enter into the cyclical motion of fixing the flaws of our father’s generation. We just replace one morality code with another morality code. What keeps the playing field level for all of us is sin. Sin has the ability to prick the conscience in a way which one is no better than the prince of evil himself. We are all aware of this conspiracy of sin. The time when you don’t know what motivation could have ever driven you to hurt someone you cared for, but you did; the idea that popped into your head you know should never leave your mouth; the action that just seemed to happen with no thought process behind it—we are all prone to these evils. Yet all of us, through a trust and belief in Christ have the will, motivation and humility to live with one another making up for one’s sins and excusing our faults. That, I feel, should be the only social barometer for where the walking, breathing and thinking who surrender themselves to Christ should carry their moral standard of doing.

Romans three appropriates Paul’s letter to the scandalous argument of Law vs. Works. But what shouldn’t be missed is the heart of what Paul is saying. He seems to be the most avid fan of grace. He boasts of the new life we as humans from all walks of this world can share in being the living representation of Christ. To the ambiguous existential left and to the altruistic religious right, nothing can be proven unless we as a social group come together by extending grace for one another’s faults and shortcomings. The world will not see how Christ has saved the world by how many people we feed or save from AIDS; Clooney and Pitt have done a solid job at that and Eggers and Bono have written a strong motivational appeal for that. However, when we, as the ones who choose to be the living representation of the invisible God, choose to forgive one another and extend grace for one another, then the world will ask: “What is it, deep inside of you, that makes you so different?” Then they will see His glory.

Holy Discontent by Bill Hybels

I read these words on the plane to Africa this summer and I'm bothered and thrilled that they ring so close and so true in my life...let's get in the game and choose to be an unstoppable force for good...that's motivating stuff for a guy whose loved sports all his life...

Whether you've been walking around on this planet for eight years or eight decades, I urge you to reflect on the one thing in the world that wrecks you when you see it, when you hear it, and when you get close to it. Because your one thing is the exact thing that will create enough tension and angst, carve out enough capacity for activism, and stir up enough of an internal firestorm that you'll have no choice but to suit up and get in the game.

If you're alive as you're reading this—and I presume that you are—then God has a few good works for you to wrap your life around. Opt out, friends, and miss the most important opportunity of your earthly existence to be an unstoppable force for good in this world.

Letter from RAE

This is a letter written by one of my former students who is now at the University of Iowa after our trip to Zambia this past summer...it is a remarkably eloquent piece that is profoundly personal and compelling, and communicates the need, the love, the hope found on the other side of the world when we strech out our hands and become brothers and sisters in the way I believe God designed it to work...be blessed as you read...

I can’t even begin to scratch the surface of my experiences in Zambia. Nothing I say will ever compare to the reality of what is happening half way across our world. But what I hope and pray is that what I do say will make you think, and stir something within you that will make you want to respond.

So here I am, sitting at Starbucks with a cup of coffee to my right, sitting beside my black cell phone. On my left, my iPod, and in front of me, my bracelet, Velvet Elvis (a book), and my purse.
Just think about that for a moment.
I have about 450 dollars worth of things on this small, wooden table, and my brothers and sisters in Africa are living on one dollar a day. These six things could feed families and clothe them for I don’t even know how long.
I don’t need any of this… but I have it.
They don’t deserve to live in poverty… but they do.
I’m not happy or full in any sort of way right now; not with this cup of coffee, not with my purse or my bracelet… honestly, I feel empty.
They have dirt and dust surrounding them day and night, not electronics and hot drinks that cost 5 dollars…
Yet they’re full.
They’re filled with joy and peace because they have our God on their side. They have faith in Him and only Him, and hope for a better tomorrow.
These people are far from empty.
Though their stomachs are empty, their eyes are filled with hope and joy and their hearts are filled with love and faith.
Never will I forget that hope and joy in their eyes… never.

But even so, there is still so much need in Africa. Their lives have been devastated by poverty and AIDS and their only hope is in God… and in us to respond.

I don’t want their stomachs to be empty; I don’t want them to ache with hunger. I don’t their clothes to be torn and tattered. I don’t want them drinking unclean water that is filled with disease.

I want every inch of these children and their parents to be healthy. I want their hair to be thick. I want their feet to be clean. I want their smiles to be brighter than the sun, brighter than they already are. I want them to know what eating too much feels like. I want them to feel soft, clean cotton on their delicate skin. I want them to go home to a house with clean water and a way to bathe themselves, with a meal awaiting their arrival…

I don’t want to change their lifestyle by any means…
But I do want to change their lives.

And I’ve started. No. WE’VE started to change their lives. Our response to this pandemic is making a difference. The school house we’ve built in Kakolo now teaches almost 650 children, and the maternity ward in the Zamtan clinic is now ready to use free of cost. Wells have been made giving clean water to more people than we can count and a brand new church is going to be built on the very ground we stood on during the service we attended our first week in the village.

Because of the hope that we have given the people in Kakolo Village, surrounding villages have been given that same hope as well. The hope of a better life. And their hope gives us confidence that we ARE able to change the world, that we ARE able to fight this battle against poverty and AIDS.

Because of your support, I was able to experience all of this first hand. I was able to see their big brown eyes and their smiles. I was able to hold their hands and let them know they are loved more than words can express. I was able to gather stories that will be forever ingrained in my mind. I was able to realize that in all reality, we might possibly need them more than they need us. We need them so that we can be humbled, so we can appreciate the life that we are so blessed with, so we can learn that quality of life doesn’t come from material possessions – it comes from within and from what you care most about. They care about family and community, about caring for each other unconditionally. They show absolutely no selfishness. They’re joyous for the beautiful gift of life itself and know that their sole purpose on this earth is to rejoice and serve our Almighty God.

And I was also able to come back with a greater understanding of what life is truly like in Africa. My passion has grown immensely for these struggling people. I want to do everything in my power to pick them up out of this impoverished state and give them the full life they deserve.
(John 10:10…I’ve come that they might have life, and have it to the FULL.)

Chip, our leader and creator of the Zambia Project, said that we should come back to the states with an “unresolvable tension” tugging on our hearts about what is going on halfway across the world. I feel it already. And let me tell you, it’s a great feeling.

My mind will never be settled on what I witnessed in Zambia. Our visit is the highlight of their year. Think about that. A visit from 28 white Americans is the HIGHLIGHT of their YEAR. The tension is stronger than ever when that thought comes to mind.

One thing I do want to leave you with is this picture… The children swarmed our bus when we arrived in the village, jumping and singing and smiling just waiting to be with us. And as we began our drive home everyday, they would chase after the bus for as long as they could, running at full speed just waving and sending us off. It was heartwarming and breathtaking, but it broke my heart at the same time. These children are real, AIDS is real, poverty is real, the suffering is real. But the hope and joy is real too.

My heart is now in Africa.
And I thank you for helping me get it there.

Poverty of Conscience by Scott Budzar

Here is a poem I read on a great website called Wrecked for the Ordinary...I absolutely resonate with Martin Luther King's assessment of mine, of our, poverty that looks quite different in my world...

A saint once said without any wonder,
“The bread you don’t use
is the bread of those who hunger.”
So shall I sit around (remote control in hand)
and temporize my ability or inability to respond to all those hungry eyes?

Or can I be so brave
as to weep over my own neglect
Of all the meals I threw away
and the spare change that I kept.

We have categories:
Vegetarian or Vegan,
Carnivores and Free-Gans
With bumper stickers to criticize
each others decisions.
Stop with your stance and can you listen?
While this day 6,500 will die from malnutrition.

Tomorrow morning a fatherless son,
a mother and her HIV infected daughter
Will walk 10 miles for a few gallons
of fecal laden water.
A trip that will provide hardly enough
to temporarily quench a thirst.
Without a choice they knowingly drink a death
but all the while they give thanks to God for life first.

Pipelines of this liquid life
run all throughout my home.
Is it something I can give or share
or just claim it as my own.
I mean... Does my lawn really need water to be a little greener for all my neighbors to see?
Or dare I be convinced that 150 people die every hour that I decide to think more about me?

There is not one black family or face
on the street where I reside.
But in the most impoverished section of my city the white face is harder to find.
I cannot settle for the “that’s just how it is” response
Because we Christians should know that’s not what God wants.

How much can minimum wage feed a single mom with two?
The wealthiest nation in the world says 50 bucks a month will do.
Can you give to the needy
instead of excelling at the art of excuse?
Or is it just easier to get upset when someone on welfare eats better than you?

They say managing poverty is big business.
So is the Church gonna get “Mega” or oppose this?
All this reaching inward is a kick in the teeth to folks already knocked down;
While pastors take lessons from marketing strategies instead of the Sermon on the Mount.

Today’s topics:
Racism, fair trade, war and peace.
Such cool words to print on a t-shirt
and then sell to you and me.
Please tell me that when the Church is asked to respond to those in need
That we won’t form some holy huddle and chant, "WWJD."

Does all my ranting qualify me
as just a liberal “social Gospel” fanatic?
Or if I’m a republican then, oh yeah -
I must be a war-loving addict.
And since when did Christianity all of a sudden become just about the issues of homosexuality and abortion.
When hookers, thieves, and notorious sinners knew Yahweh as their Portion.

I wonder of these things
with a frustration and confusion
that will not go away.
It is because I cannot escape
or blanket my heart
from the things Jesus had to say.

Have we, oh Church, blessed God with monuments or have we paved another mile for hell to come.
In the words of MLK -
a "poverty of conscience"
is what we suffer from.

A World AIDS Day Reflection

I just finished a weekend full of World AIDS Day activities...and after them I penned a quick note I've copied below to some of my former and current students...may we continue to be broken as seek to bring healing to God's people...

I was at Willow Creek's service Sunday morning watching footage from Malawi that was so similar to what we've experienced in Zambia, and to my chagrin, tears started to stream down my face...Trey was giving me this weird look and I tried to stop them, but to be honest, with very little success...

And as I sighed I also realized at that moment that my inability to not cry when I see or hear stories about the need and what God is doing in Africa comes from the fact that simply my heart has been broken, been changed, been forever made softer and more compassionate and more compelled to do something extraordinary because of the journey I have been on with so many others these past six years...

Last night as I finished some stuff around the house, I prayed for all of my students who have been on Project Lead or been to Zambia with me...I prayed specifically that God would continue to stir in their hearts something that is so compelling, so overwhelming, so life-giving, that you would not be able to escape it...I'm convinced more than ever that there must be something that shatters our heart and our very lives in order to have a vision that is God-sized and able to bring Kingdom change and impact in remarkable ways...

So I guess what I'm saying, is seek that out...whatever and wherever that might be...and continue to feed that frustration, fan that flame, and take risks for that cause...because ulitmately, I'd rather be weeping over God's most precious possession in life, His people, rather than sleeping or daydreaming on Sunday morning and every other day of the week, wouldn't you??

HOW SOCCER CONNECTS THE WORLD

In January of 2006, while flying to Zambia with my soccer team of current and former players, I read a fascinating book called How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer.

It was a brilliant read as it showed how soccer has provided a framework for how much of the world thinks and expresses itself through its passion and participation in this game that all the world loves...(OK, except in this place almost all of us call home)

I grew up playing soccer from an early age all the way thru my senior year in college...in many ways, lots of the people who were central in shaping my life and offered me the most significant relationships are the ones who I have stood with on a grass field (dirt or turf in some cases) and tried to kick a ball into a seemingly too small goal...

After college, I moved quickly away from playing and into the coaching ranks...I helped coach a few club teams and assisted a couple high school teams before settling into a long term coaching role at Wheaton Academy in the western suburbs of Chicago...I spent a dozen years coaching high school soccer and we competed against some of the best players and teams in the state of Illinois and the USA...I invested literally thousands and thousands of hours into practices, scouting, scheming, game management, and off-season workouts as we together as a program enjoyed the opportunity of falling in love with the magic of the game that so many others around the globe loved right along with us...I coached many outstanding players and we were a respected and successful team that found ourselves often scoring more goals than our opponents, even those who were sometimes bigger than us...and I am currently transitioning into coaching my own kids as they begin to play soccer for the first time...

And yet, for me, soccer was never really just about the goals and the final score...it was and always will be about the bonds that are created between those who play and embrace the game...I've always loved getting to know people, and networking is actually one of my strongest professional strengths as a high school teacher/administrator...and as I stepped away from my coaching position last February and moved onto a life without the excitement and frustration of matches every fall, I have had many moments to reflect on the remarkable way that soccer has connected me to students, reporters, coaches, mentors, fans, parents, and new friends from other cultures and places around the globe and in my own community...

You see, for me, soccer doesn't always perfectly explain my world...I've had too many unexplainable injuries and unjust results and amazing surprises and wacky experiences to use soccer as a vehicle to always make sense of my life...but the one thing that soccer has always done and continues to do is to connect me to the world in ways and at levels that continue to bless and blow me away...

Here's a few of the clearest examples of these connections that this beautiful game has provided for my life...

*Last summer, I was struggling big time over not being able to coach anymore when some of my former players called and said we are getting a bunch of guys to come back for an alumni game at next year's team's summer camp...and they said, you are playing with us against them...many guys that I loved and who were some of my most outstanding players came back and put on an offensive clinic that night as I stood on the sidelines for one more game...at the beginning of the second half, they called me out onto the field and a few college studs set me up to score a goal after being on the field for just a few minutes...I ran directly off the field (not wanting to continue to risk getting injured while trying to play at a high level) and back to my coach's seat with a huge smile on my face as I looked out at the group of guys laughing and whooping it up after seeing their old coach put one in the back of the net...that laughter and joy communicated something much deeper, as we celebrated the bond between coach and player that is truly a unique one...

*Two of my closest friends in the world are soccer players, guys who grew up playing the game in Brazil and the western suburbs of Chicago...neither of them are my contemporaries, but rather former students who were in my youth ministry and classroom...I've had the incredible privilege of watching them play, coaching them on the field, and seeing them excel at the collegiate level all while serving as a mentor in their lives of sorts...and then they got into coaching and we can commiserate over the struggle of having our teams do what we think they are capable of doing...but to be honest, our friendships extend way beyond the soccer pitch and go deep into the worlds of leadership, faith, global needs, family, and living with impact and purpose in this generation...and when you look at something that drew us together and continues to be a bond that is not broken, the game of soccer created a venue for truly becoming brothers and life friends that means everything to me and to them...

*For the last half decade, much of my life has been focused on responding to the global AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa...I have led a student response in my high school that has served to provide education, medicines and treatments, AIDS testing, food security, housing, clean water, school supplies, Bibles, church ministry centers, and economic opportunity to a community in Zambia where AIDS has devastated families and the lives of children...and we have also given out hundreds and hundreds of soccer balls, jerseys, boots, shin guards, socks, and hand pumps to a host of soccer players in Africa...these gifts were given by dozens of Chicago-area teams and clubs before being delivered by my students and players...bringing together folks from one of the richest places and one of the poorest spots on the planet can be a rather daunting task...but soccer connected us immediately...the Zambian crowd rushed onto the field after their team scored against us, but also cheered our school name after we won a tense penalty kick shootout before a crowd of thousands in a rural Zambian village...the Kakolo Village community loves the game of football and so do many players from Wheaton Academy...and even now we look forward to going back "home" to play on a field built with tremendous African skill and care that was dedicated to this former coach who fell in love with the Zambian people and counts meeting their needs and playting soccer with them one of his greatest joys and privileges this side of heaven...

*Even last weekend, I found myself in the very town I have lived in for the last 12 years meeting people not like me once again...they spoke a different language, made different amounts of money, shopped at different stores, and lived in a different world despite being in the same mid-sized community as me...and as I played indoor soccer in a wrestling room at a local middle school with a bunch of kids and a few other adults on a cold Friday night, all of a sudden I was more a part of West Chicago than I had ever been before in many ways and knew more people in our city than previously...the beautiful game had once again connected people who needed to and should have met before, but never had...

You see, for me, I am passionate about caring for and connecting to people above all else in this life...I want them to know and experience the love of a God who created them and designed His people to be in community with Him and one another...and as I look back on almost 40 years of my life, I am amazed at how soccer has connected me to people of all types and in all places in our world...whether it is with my two kids I love so much, some of my closest friends, the students I see in the hallways every day, fellow West Chicago residents, or the beautiful people of Africa...I can't imagine seeking to chase my calling in life without the game played by more people than any other on this planet somehow allowing me to go places I'd never go without it pushing me there...

I can't wait to see the connections it will provide in the next 40 years...because from where I sit I see clearly how soccer connects the world...

A Quote from Glocalization: How Followers of Jesus Engage a Flat World by Bob Roberts Jr.

I told someone that all pastors should have a poster of Bono in their office and in their foyer! Read the lyrics to his songs. Listen to his story. Look what he's doing in Africa. The church has never been a place for him. Until the church is a place where people like Bono can engage, we're missing out.

It's a sad state when we celebrate theology that is lined up to the letter, but a life that does little. Give me a person who knows little theology but wants to learn as he or she goes. A person who wants to live it, a person who wants to make a difference in society—and that person will change the world

Incubator of Spiritual Leaders

I ran across this quote the other day...and it still reflects God's calling on my life and the privilege I get in my work each day at Wheaton Academy...how I long to continue to grow more effective in truly fostering an enviroment that is the right place for leaders to be chosen, equipped, and then launched into every nation and arena and community of God's people...

A Quote from...The Leadership Baton: An Intentional Strategy for Developing Leaders in Your Church

The church has a God-given capacity to engage in whole-life leadership development. It can develop godly character in its leaders, help them forge a strong theological worldview, and build strong relational and leadership skills. The local church is by design the most effective incubator of spiritual leaders on the planet.

The answer to the shortage of church leaders around the world has been there since Pentecost. The answer is this: restoring the church to the center of leadership training—which has been God's strategy all along. When the church is actively fulfilling its mission of raising up leaders for the harvest, nothing can stop it.

LEAST Submission

This past weekend at Wheaton Academy we held our second annual LEAST event which features our students responding to issues of justice, equality, AIDS, and poverty thru all kinds of various arts mediums and forms...below is the text of my submission this year as I closed this event...it includes a story that has gripped me as I think about how I view, think about, and respond to the needs of the LEAST in every possible arena of life...

As we close LEAST tonight, it is our prayer that you have been moved, been led to a deeper and greater understanding of the incredible work of the God of the Universe in making us, every single one of us, in His image…we are all indeed His workmanship, His best, His beloved, the very ones who He thought so much of that He would offer His Son as a sacrifice, to literally die in our place…

This incredibly powerful truth, this reality that God thinks this much of His created, has come alive for me personally in the most unlikely of places with the most unlikely people from my previous view of life and the world…so tonight I want to tell you a story, a life story of a young lady from Livingstone, Zambia named Josephine…and this story took me way outside my box and brought me more fully into the place where God’s love resides, where there is unity thru God’s Spirit and we no longer have to hide who we are or what we’ve done or where we’ve been because of whose we are in Jesus Christ…

1. I wonder if have you ever met a prostitute before…Not like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman…maybe more like those who were the bottom of society in Jesus’ day and who were the object of His interest and affection…I met Josephine this past June and heard her story…
2. Josephine’s early life looked like this…
*double orphan at 13 as both parents died from AIDS
*gets married at 14
*gets sick and her husband leaves her and her 3 kids all alone
*what does she do? No jobs, no education…
3. Her life on the streets, trying to make ends meet and somehow provide food and shelter for herself and her children…doing literally the only thing she knew that could bring her resources…selling her body as the one thing that would produce some material worth to make some provision for her kids she desperately loves…and then her husband returns and takes her kids away after years as a prostitute trying to keep them alive…
4. One night, she meets a man named Pastor William and makes her way to a church…she hears that there is a God who loves her, and she struggles with how God can love her when she’s done what she’s done and is doing what she’s doing…
5. But as she enters into the life of the church and into a relationship with a man named Jesus, another man begins to become interested in her---falls in love with her---but she can’t trust him, can’t believe in him---all the other men have treated her in a different way…and her disbelief causes her to run from him…for 2 years…
6. But still, the church doesn’t shun her and she puts her faith and trust in this Jesus who spoke to and had women just like her as some of his closest friends, and showed Himself to a former prostitute first after being resurrected…
7. As she tries to truly believe this radical truth that she was made in God’s image, that Jesus would go to the cross just for her sake, she embraces slowly His dream of a different and new life for her…
8. Something called the Sanduka Project helps her to build a new life, a life where she uses her skills, gifts, and creativity---and she begins to sew, making beautiful, unique African clothes and selling them in the market in Livingstone where she used to sell something else…
9. And she begins to peel away the layers of pain and distrust and gives herself and her heart to a man---which she never thought she’d ever be able to do…
10. And on a beautiful African day she gets married, in a church, with a white dress, and as she walks down the aisle someone who loves her, values her, and believes in her, the one who knows that God has made her to be with him is waiting for her…and everything is so different…
11. This past June I walked into Josephine’s small home/sewing studio…her husband was off teaching at the local school…and with the smell of enshema coming from the kitchen we met her as she showed us her beautiful work…and I had this simple thought…Josephine married someone just like me…and my heart leapt at the thought…
12. And then I heard the cry, the cry of a 4 week old little girl, whose life meant everything in this house and her mom’s new life…the life of a little girl born without HIV, with 2 parents, with hope, and a radically different future…

And as I held that baby I thought of Jesus telling his disciples to let them bring the little ones to Him---this little life is an incredible expression of the story of God’s Kingdom…and that Kingdom belongs to her, to all those like her who are the least…why do we do the Zambia Project?? Why do we put on something called Least?? Because Josephine and 25 other girls in Livingstone along with thousands of children in a village rampaged by AIDS and poverty are begging God to help them get out of a life that they never wanted and to find a love that they have never felt…and this God they are praying to has told us that to be just, to be like Him, we have to do something…they are waiting, God is waiting, for us to embrace Micah 6:8 and watch Him change lives and futures and eternities with great joy because it is His desire for all of those He created to know Him and love Him and experience the fullness of Life His Son left Heaven to bring to earth…may we be image bearers of God as we act justly as we look at the distribution of resources in our world, love to bring mercy to the broken and oppressed, and walk humbly with God as we realize that we share God’s image as the objects of His great love with everyone else He has created…AMEN

Living with LESS by Chad Hall, Leadership Journal

This past week I was grading papers from my Spiritual Leadership class and many of them were answering on why leaders don't have time to pray...and it almost inevitably went back to this notion that we have more than we need in our lives and the stuff clutters one's days and even faith to the point that communication with our Leader gets lost amidst the managerie of things...and I ran across this article which I affirm as I look at an overcrowded schedule, a seemingly too small pool of resources, and a never ending scratched out to do list in life these days...read and reflect with me...

Everywhere I go these days, big is in. My combo meal is super-sized, my SUV is third row, and the TV of my dreams is 62-inch plasma. We Americans are big eaters, big spenders, and big wasters. Even our churches are into big, owning big malls and even bigger coliseums in order to accommodate big crowds and enable big growth. Like the population at large, we Christians seem to have a growing acceptance of the bigger is better credo.

But all this growth might be creating some big problems.

Our society and systems seem unable of handling the never-ceasing expansion of want and need. Our souls are groaning and the planet is buckling beneath the collateral damage of growth. Landfills are full, the air is thick, and we cannot drink from many of our streams.

In light of our growing problems, maybe the church should give small a chance. I propose that ministry leaders are just the ones to help Christ followers exchange big for small. After all, leaders are supposed to help usher others toward something better (not just something bigger), so maybe we should start ushering folks toward living lives that are less hectic, less cluttered, less selfish and less toxic. And maybe instead of a big ad campaign advertising "LESS!" we should start living with less ourselves. Instead of the pulpit, maybe some personal choices would help slow down the growth, bring some sanity to our lives and make the world more livable.

Give less a chance.
Our family recently decided to sell our riding mower because its impact on the environment was not offset by its necessity. Shortly after, my wife quipped, "I think we're becoming tree-huggers."

How had it come to this? After all, I have a strong dislike of Birkenstocks, I think Michael Moore is a narcissist, and I appreciate creature comforts every bit as much as the next guy. So why is my family choosing to push-mow the lawn, ditch the extra television, and experiment with line-drying our clothes? I'm not sure how it all began or where it's going, but we've adopted a series of small questions that are redirecting our souls and may be benefiting the world around us.

Three small questions
Not to cast blame, but my journey toward less started with Randy Frazee. Prior to a conference in 2003, Randy and I had a dinner conversation during which he shared with me the somewhat radical lifestyle changes his family had made in order to make room for real relationships.

A few months later Randy wrote the book Making Room for Life. When my wife and I read that book, we started talking and eventually began asking the question of simplification, "Even though something is commonplace, do we really need it in our lives?"

With that question in mind, all sorts of things were up for grabs: buying a house in the "right" school district, needing two incomes, cell phones, minivans, and even (hold your breath!) signing our kids up for soccer. It was like a little compact fluorescent light bulb turned on to illuminate some of the chains of conformity we had allowed to make our decisions for us. We began to see how deeply we'd bought into culture's code of success being equated with more and more. The results of all this "more" were clutter and confusion and so we decided to simplify our lives. Removing some of the typical suburban clutter was a bit scary, but over the course of a few years, it really has begun to make room for life.

We soon discovered the joy of having fewer bills to pay, fewer trips to make, fewer calendars to juggle, and fewer agendas to manage. Lurking amidst the resource of free time, we discovered the pleasure of not just having neighbors, but of knowing our neighbors. Our lives soon began to revolve more and more around the half dozen or so families we considered to be our neighbors.

We soon recognized that our role as good neighbors meant significantly other than trying to get someone to attend this or that church. As we experienced the inherent value of people and place, we began to ask, "How can we live so that when Christ returns he won't have to work so hard to redeem our neighborhood?" This became our family's question of significance. We want to add kingdom value to the relational, spiritual and even physical environment we inhabit. Our interactions with neighbors have gone from enjoying their company to co-laboring with them for the good of our little corner of creation. Campfires in the backyard, pizza on Sunday nights, and building a tree house all took on kingdom significance because we were contributing to making things in our acres of earth a little more as they are in heaven.

From significance we took the small step to stewardship. A couple of months ago we picked up a book by medical doctor Matthew Sleeth entitles Serve God, Save the Planet. We've read with wide wonder about the ways his family scaled back their "quality of life" in order to have less impact on the planet. They got rid of their dishwasher and clothes dryer. They traded down to a house the size of their former garage. They produce a small bag of garbage every other week. Wow.

Reading such stories helps us see how a radical lifestyle aligns with living God's way. Now our family is asking the question of stewardship, "Will this choice make the world more like heaven or more like hell?" Our neighborhood of concern has expanded dramatically. Landfills, toxins, and making choices based on our own wants: these are the ingredients of hell. The new heaven and new earth will include none of these things, so why should we add them to this world now? When we choose concern over convenience and less over more, we are being kind to neighbors we have never met and honoring creatures God thought worthy of life.

Go thou and do likewise
I don't think our family is unique. We fight consumerism and selfishness and choices of convenience perhaps more than does the typical family of five. But small realizations are leading to simple questions that force important decisions in our everyday life (including which mower to use). All of this matters not because the environment is suddenly a hot topic, or because we worship Mother Earth, or think our spit will fill the ocean, but because the dots suddenly connect: when I live a gospel life I desire less stuff for myself, which frees up time and space for heavenly community, and this community includes places and people far away and even in the future.

So what does living and leading with less look like for you? What about your congregation? What if those you lead followed your example in removing the clutter, focusing on community and caring for creation? My hunch is that God would be pleased, you would find life more livable and the planet would breath a deep sigh of gratitude.

Why We All Must Go On a Pilgrimage by Jeff Goins, RELEVANT MAGAZINE

In many ways, I have seen the incredible value of making a spiritual pilgrimage as this article highlights...to places like the moutains of Colorado and the dirt of Zambia...God has met me and changed me as I have stepped away from life, familiar places, and been spoken to by the Holy Spirit and God's people who live unlike me...may you meet God in pilgrimage as you continue your spiritual journey...

In Through Painted Deserts, Donald Miller opens with the concept of “leaving.” He explains the spiritual importance for him of making a simple move from Texas to Oregon. It opened up a whole new world for him—new places, new perspectives, new people. It made him appreciate going back home so much more. It taught him to not just rely on the familiar—to adapt, grow and change.

At some point in our lives, we all need to leave home.

Recently, I heard a speaker by the name of Andrew Shearman talk on the topic. One morning he was meeting with the father of a missionary who was in Africa, feeding the hungry, healing the sick and so forth. The father was frustrated with the son who had left home on this radical adventure instead of paying off his loans and getting a “real job.”

A few minutes later, the father’s other son came in, equally upset, ranting, “I am so pissed off!”

Andrew asked why.

“Because he’s out there … doing it!” the brother said. “He’s really doing it! And I’m stuck in this office!”

Why was he so upset? “Because he never left home,” Andrew told us.

This recalled a 15-day trip I took to Mexico in January of this year. I was visiting a group of young people who, disenchanted with American church, left for a year-long journey around the world.

Imagine this—50 North Americans willingly selling their possessions and leaving the comfort of their homes in search of abundant life. That’s this group—the World Race—and they’re still out there.

Seth Barnes, founder of the program, describes it as “a commitment to a transformational discovery process. The World Race taps an ancient human compulsion to take a spiritual pilgrimage.” Now, there’s a forgotten practice. At least in western culture, we’ve lost the art of taking some time to go on a journey to figure out what life is really supposed to be about.

We’ve sold our souls to careers tracks and our family name to the burden of college debt. One day, we’re laughing with some friends at an all-night café, cramming for a final exam so we can graduate, and the next, we’re thrust into the real world where everyone is expecting something different us. If we’re not careful, it’s easy to lose our desires amidst all those expectations.

“Most young people have more questions than answers,” Barnes explained. “And what better place to find them than on a pilgrimage.”

The irony of this pilgrimage is that as they go and discover more about themselves, it becomes less about themselves and more about seeking justice and redemption in the world. They’ve rescued women from the sex industry in Thailand, saved orphans from abandonment in Swaziland and planted churches in the Andes Mountains.

Through the hospitality of strangers, they’re learning interdependence, that we all need each other and not one of us has it “all figured out just yet” (to quote Alanis Morisette).

I started making my own mini-pilgrimages about a year ago to downtown Nashville to eat lunch with the homeless. As they tell me their tales, I learn so much about myself—about brokenness and hope. I learn what I really need and how much I can actually do without. I learn that life–real life–has little to do with possessions and mostly to do with people.

I can’t fully express how important it is to leave home. This is not a concept to be debated—it is something tangible to be experienced. Only then is the importance of pilgrimage fully grasped. Once you’ve seen the sun set differently or eaten dinner at an unusual time or faced someone whose lifestyle contradicted your own, then your worldview begins to expand.

This is necessary, if we’re to be the kind of people we’re destined to be. We’re naturally inclined to think that life is mostly about us—our comfort, our stuff, our welfare. We can’t expect our flesh just to “get it”; we’re not that intelligent or that good. We need something to wake us up, jostle us out of bed and set us on a path towards home.

That’s the great irony of this—a pilgrimage, the act of leaving home, actually leads one home, though it is never where one started.

A pilgrim must be a child who can approach everything with an attitude of wonder, awe and faith. Pray for wonder, awe, desire. Ask God to take away your sophistication and cynicism. Ask God to take away the restless, anxious heart of the tourist, which always needs to find the new, the more, the curious …

We go on pilgrimage so we can go back home and know that we never need to go on pilgrimage again. Pilgrimage has achieved its purpose when we can see God in our everyday and ordinary lives. — Richard Rohr

Save Souls or Feed the Poor?

Check out this online blog dialogue on beliefnet over a question that I wrestle with God about and with students every day...the reality and meaning of what Jesus taught and meant the Gospel to be...I like the concluding line...THE KINGDOM IS ALWAYS BUT COMING...enjoy...


ENTRY #1: The 'Jesus vs. Sandwich' Debate

By Paul Raushenbush

"Anyone can give a hungry person a sandwich. We have to give them Jesus." This statement by a conservative evangelical got me thinking of this online conversation with Rev. Hybels as the "Jesus vs. Sandwich" debate. I shouldn’t speak for Rev. Hybels, but my guess is that this simple dichotomy won’t work for either of us. That said, framing the debate as "Jesus vs. Sandwich" does raise the question of the primary message of Christianity. Was Jesus’ mission on earth to save individual souls for a future eternal life in heaven or to redeem and transform human lives here and now? To put this in practical terms, if it’s 9 am on Saturday and you have three free hours before lunch to be a good Christian, how should you best spend your time: Talking to people about salvation through Jesus in response to John 3:16, or helping to change society in response to Luke 4:18?

My great-grandfather, Walter Rauschenbusch, is something of a lightning rod for this debate. He was the most famous proponent of a school of Christian thought often called the "social gospel," whose mission was to use the power of the church to reform society to meet the needs of the poor. Because I was raised and have served in mainline churches that essentially welcomed Rauschenbusch’s social gospel ideas one hundred years ago, I have largely received admiring comments from pastors or theologians who recognize the Rauschenbusch name (although it was later shortened to lose the 'c's, apparently in an effort to make the name more American). They often tell me how important my great-grandfather’s work was for them in their own faith journey. We hear echoes of this in a new edition of his 1907 book, now titled Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century. In an essay accompanying the reissued book, Jim Wallis (founder of Sojourners) writes: “As a young evangelical, I was hungry for a Christian social ethic that focused on the poor, on social and racial equality, and on peace. Walter Rauschenbusch was a breath of fresh air.”

What I did not hear growing up were the equally passionate denunciations of Rauschenbusch. I later learned, however, that many Christians feel my great-grandfather’s teachings corrupted the Gospel by focusing on improving society rather than saving souls. Christian author Brian McLaren recently wrote to me, "Like a lot of people from evangelical backgrounds, in my childhood and youth I was taught that the ‘social gospel’ was nothing but evil. I heard it a thousand times in sermons."

Clearly there is a lot at stake here. Those of us who call ourselves Christian want to make sure that we are living out God’s claim on our lives. When we pronounce Jesus as Lord, we are accepting his dominion in everything we do. How well we act out our faith has consequences for our societies as well as for the eternal wellbeing of our souls.

Rauschenbusch in his time, and I today, feel that actions taken to carry out Jesus’ commandments in this life are equally important as faith statements accepting Jesus. That is, we should try to realize the promise of the kingdom of God in this world as much as we proclaim Jesus as our personal savior for the forgiveness of our individual sins. It is through concrete action in this life that we most clearly experience the salvation that Jesus offers both right now and eternally.

While each of us experience God’s call personally, the way we most fully act out that call is socially. Jesus has invited us to live in the kingdom of God right now, and to transform our society to better reflect God’s will on earth. We pray this with Jesus when we pray “Our Father in Heaven – Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” As Rauschenbusch writes: “There is no request here that we be saved from earthliness and go to heaven, rather we pray here that heaven may be duplicated on earth through the moral and spiritual transformation of humanity, both in its personal and corporate life.” Our central prayer in Christian life implores that God’s kingdom be established in this world. That means that the Gospel is both personal and social, spiritual and material.

The sandwich is Jesus, and Jesus is the sandwich.

ENTRY #2: Offer Both Salvation and Sustenance

By Bill Hybels

Pastor Raushenbush was right in predicting that he and I would feel essentially the same way on the Sandwich/Jesus issue. Stretching the metaphor a bit, I would add that the acid test for whether a person has indeed eaten the "Jesus" sandwich is whether or not he or she is then motivated to spend every day until the dying day offering both sandwiches—salvation and sustenance—to as many hungry people as possible.

One of the great joys of my life has been to pastor a church that is unusually intentional about reaching people far from God. For 32 years now, I have had a front-row seat to observe how lost people get found and how found people get grown up. In my experience, the sandwich question is irrefutably answered as the Holy Spirit does his sanctifying work in the heart and mind of a freshly-redeemed person. What I mean by that is in virtually every case, when I see a life get transformed by the atoning work of Christ, it is not long before that new believer sees the plight of the poor.

Usually within months of a person's salvation experience, there is both a sincere desire to pass on the message of Christ to any and all, and an equally intense desire to do whatever is necessary in the name of Christ to eradicate injustice, relieve oppression, and alleviate suffering of any kind. Selfless service of this sort isn’t normal according to human nature; purely and simply, the desires are born out of the work of the Holy Spirit.

My point is that if new Christ-followers were not misguided by those who force an either-or mindset to the sandwich question, I am quite sure that the Holy Spirit himself would lead them eventually to adopt a both-and approach.

In my teaching and leadership over the past several years, I have relied on two words to help keep our congregation at Willow Creek balanced on these issues: redeem and restore. I love how those two words fall phonetically, but more important, I love how they fall theologically. There’s nothing better than to see new believers around our church begin to weave those words into their everyday vocabulary; better still is when they begin to live them out in their everyday lives.

ENTRY #3: Do Evangelicals Practice What They Preach?

By Paul Raushenbush

It is encouraging to read Pastor Hybels’ post. We appear to agree that the Gospel encompasses both a concern for the soul and for transforming the material existence of the poor. I became eager to attend his church when I read his words that: “in virtually every case, when I see a life get transformed by the atoning work of Christ, it is not long before that new believer sees the plight of the poor…and (has) an intense desire to do whatever is necessary in the name of Christ to eradicate injustice, relieve oppression, and alleviate suffering of any kind.”

I have to say that I am surprised by our convergence and by this claim. I hope that Pastor Hybels is willing to say more about what form this effort takes in his own church and in evangelical churches across the country, because his description of his church is so different from my perception of evangelicalism in America today. Evangelicals seem to be more concerned with proselytizing and campaigning on social issues such as homosexuality than organizing themselves to meet social needs of the poor. Or is that just my ignorance or prejudice? I continue to associate many of the large evangelical churches more with prosperity preaching (which I consider a modern heresy) than with sustained efforts to relieve oppression and alleviate suffering. Maybe in some minds, prosperity preaching is a version of relieving oppression.

However, there are bright spots that, along with Pastor Hybels’ testimony, continue to make me re-evaluate my understanding of the “evangelical agenda.” For instance, the Christian group World Vision has gone into tough places around the world and become almost re-evangelized by their experience of the Gospel as refracted through the lens of the dispossessed. It has made them tenacious and convincing advocates for those whom they are serving. This is similar to what happened to my great-grandfather 100 years ago and why he wrote Christianity and the Social Crisis. I think it may be instructive to those like Rick Warren who dismiss Walter Rauschenbusch as merely a socialist.

The product of seven generations of pastors, Rauschenbusch started his career with a fairly orthodox Christian mission of saving souls. His first church consisted of a small community of immigrants in New York City in the area that was then aptly called Hell’s Kitchen. Through his congregation, he was introduced to overcrowded tenements with high rent, horrendous working conditions, intolerably low wages, lack of heat in the winter, and lack of recreational facilities in the summer, all accompanied by constant hunger and substandard health facilities. Rauschenbusch realized that in order to serve the spiritual needs of his congregation he had to address the whole of their lives.

As a Christian, Walter naturally turned to the Bible to see what it had to say about harsh reality which confronted him. With his new vision, granted by the poor of his congregation, he saw the “kingdom of God” as the centerpiece of Jesus’ teaching and the hope of his earthly ministry. Pastor Rauschenbusch was struck by how the kingdom of God contrasted with the lives of his congregation: “Instead of a society resting on coercion, exploitation, and inequality,” he wrote, “Jesus desired to found a society resting on love, service, and equality.” Rauschenbusch was convinced that the kingdom of God was not an apocalyptic vision that could be passively postponed, but a prophetic call for society’s transformation in the here and now.

Perhaps Pastor Hybels can say something about how his church is involved with this prophetic call for the transformation of not only lives, but of a society which allows such vast disparity of wealth between the richest and the poorest in our own country. How does the kingdom of God function as an organizing principle in his church and in his own understanding of our task as Christians?

ENTRY #4: Bridge Builders, Not Bible Beaters

By Bill Hybels

I sincerely wish that I could have met Pastor Walter Rauschenbusch when he was alive. He sounds like someone who walked the talk, catalyzing whatever action was necessary to meet the holistic needs of those he served. That’s the kind of legacy a guy like me dreams of.

I read Paul’s response and was not at all surprised that he wonders if Willow Creek is an exception within evangelicalism. Many of the larger evangelical churches seen on television are eerily similar to the stereotype he laments. It’s a reality that bothers me, too.

Often, when I’m in a social setting and people learn that I am an evangelical pastor of a large church, the jokes begin: "So, who are you mad at?" Or, "Who are you guys bashing these days?"

It’s tough to laugh back.

I have worked hard to lead our church into the understanding that Christ did not come to condemn the world, but to redeem and restore it.

I have worked hard to teach and inspire every member of our church to be the first person in any social setting to reach across chasms of all kinds—socioeconomic status, race, gender, age, religion, and so forth.

And while I know not everyone in our church actually does this on every occasion, many of them do take the challenge to heart. As a result, instead of becoming divisive Bible-beaters, they have grown into compassionate, bridge-building Christ-followers.

They make me proud.

In more recent years, the other teaching pastors at Willow and I have done talk after talk on issues such as extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS. The response of our congregation has been nothing short of astonishing. Not only have millions of dollars been released into easing these great struggles, but thousands of volunteers have become personally involved as well, offering up their time, their talents, their sweat.

That, too, makes me proud.

To be perfectly candid, though, there is a lot more that Willow and other evangelical churches need to do to address injustice in this world. In my view, we need to be making a more substantial impact in convincing those in elected office to seek peace instead of wage war. Leaders of evangelical churches should be more vocal about environmental matters such as seeking alternative fuel sources and sorting out global warming. One of my favorite old hymns reminds us that, "This is my Father's world." I happen to believe it’s true.

The list of other critical causes is a long one.

The challenge, I think, is to keep forcing the balance between the values of "redeem" and "restore"—a harder task than many people realize, myself included. I am regularly criticized by those who think Willow is too evangelistic, but then the next letter I open is from someone who claims our church is nothing more than a social justice agency. Perhaps this just comes with the territory?

ENTRY 5: 'The Kingdom Is Always But Coming'

This has been a remarkably encouraging conversation. I thank Rev. Hybels for his generosity of spirit and enlightening responses.

My final question for Rev. Hybels has to do with how sin and redemption function within our social lives. Sin is generally understood on an individual level--it can be described as our own will and life being in discord with God’s will for our lives. Thus Christians spend much of our time raising our awareness of sin, repenting of it, experiencing the forgiveness that is transmitted through Jesus Christ, accepting God’s will for our lives, and hopefully trying to transform the way we live to reflect God’s will.

The social gospel has that vision on the macro level. It means that when we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven, we don’t just mean in our individual lives but also within our society and in the world at large. That means actively identifying sin in the way the world is functioning, dedicating ourselves to corporately repenting of that sin, and working to transform the world into accordance with God’s will.

This gets tricky because everyone has an idea of what God’s will is for the world. For some Christians, this means trying to convince everyone to believe in what they believe, or engaging in activism to legislate private morality.

These concerns seem more debatable and less crucial to the Christian life than transforming the reality of extreme misery experienced day in and day out by people on account of poverty, sickness and war. My great-grandfather Walter Rauschenbusch tried to do God's will and help usher in the radical new society--the the kingdom of God--that Jesus preached about in the Beatitudes.

Rauschenbusch's desire to redeem this earth caused many to label him a naïve optimist who did not understand the nature of sin and who trusted too much in the ability of humankind to overcome it. In his book Christianity and the Social Crisis, he had a response for those who seemed immobilized by the reality of sin: “It is true that any regeneration of society can come only through the act of God and the presence of Christ; but God is now acting, and Christ is now here. To assert that means not less faith, but more. It is true that any effort at social regeneration is dogged by perpetual relapse and doomed forever to fall short of its aim. But the same is true of our personal efforts to live a Christian life; it is true also of every local church, and of the history of the Church at large. Whatever argument would demand the postponement of social regeneration to a future era will equally demand the postponement of personal holiness to a future life.”

Trying to improve society as a reflection of our Christian faith is analogous to trying to improve ourselves in response to knowledge of God’s will for our lives. We know that we will sin, we know that we will fall short, but that is not an excuse not to try. Being a Christian is a process of trying to bring God’s will more fully into our lives, knowing that it is a lifelong task. Maya Angelou had a great take on this when she said: "I’m always amazed when somebody says, I’m a Christian. I think, already? You’ve got it already?”

Rauschenbusch himself said the “kingdom is always but coming.” May we continue to accept and work for the personal and social Gospel.

Conspicuous Consumption by Brett McCracken

An interesting post below...I can't think of a time when it has been more difficult as a Christ-follower to live out the Sermon of the Mount in our suburban world...

So I was watching this show on MTV last week, called Newport Harbor. Essentially it is Laguna Beach all over again, just 20 miles up the California coast in another ritzy Orange Country beach town. The cast of the show is made up of a handful of ditzy-but-beautiful blonde girls and a few token surfer dudes who each of the girls will date at one point during the season (which follows their senior year of “high school”). Everything on the show is pristine, nicely coifed, tanned, and very, very rich.

Most episodes of the show, like in Laguna, feature the kids shopping at designer stores, eating at Zagat-rated restaurants, or (in the case of the episode I saw) going on weekend trips to Palm Springs. Of course, no seventeen year old really has the money to live this way, but MTV wants us to think that yes, these kids (most kids in Orange Country, actually) do in fact spend their free time surfing, tanning, gossiping, and eating braised lamb while the rest of us do homework and eat Ramen noodles.

At one point in the Palm Springs episode of Newport, “Allie” asks her father (“Art”) whether his American Express card will work for her during the weekend. “But it’s the gold one and not the platinum!” she complains as she opens the door to her friend’s SUV. Art playfully reassures her that his gold AMEX will be more than enough for one weekend, and he smiles and waves as his daughter drives off with his money.

Such scenes, which deceptively portray a fantasy world where it is normal for parents and teenagers to behave like this, seem to be the bread and butter for MTV these days. On any given day there are at least two episodes of an atrocious—but sickeningly addictive—MTV show called My Super Sweet Sixteen. This show features the most outrageous flaunting of wealth I’ve ever seen. Fifteen year old “princesses” routinely spend upwards of $500,000 of their parents’ money to throw themselves a birthday party certain to be the illest the sophomore class has ever seen, or will ever see.

But it’s not just MTV. Everywhere you look on TV and in pop-culture these days, you see this strangely alluring thing that is a sort of a rich people minstrel show: wealth being exploited for the entertainment of the underclass. Shows like Bravo’s new reality offering, Welcome to the Parker (which is all about the Parker hotel in Palm Springs—the most ridiculously posh playground for celebrities in SoCal), emphasize how gloriously snobby rich people are, while shows like The Fabulous Life (VH1) and Cribs (MTV) keep tabs on which rich celebrity has managed to spend their money the most frivolously. Each of these shows contains the playful cha-ching graphic, which keeps tabs of the “bill” during the course of any episode, making light of the fact that some people manage to spend more money in a year than the entire country of Ethiopia has made in a decade.

And lest we forget the phenomenon of Paris Hilton, a “famous for being rich” celebrity who embodies all of the above. People are always asking, “why are we obsessed with Paris Hilton?” But this has a pretty obvious answer: it’s because we’re obsessed with being rich. It’s the same reason we watch Newport Harbor or buy something that Oprah likes. If we can associate ourselves with wealth (even if we’re really poor) by watching or imitating it, we feel more legitimate, desirable, and important.

The Paris Hilton culture is just the latest incarnation of what Thomas Veblen first coined “conspicuous consumption” in his 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class. Essentially it is the idea that with the onset of expendable income, the new upper and middle classes took to flaunting their “wealth” as a way to demonstrate their social power or significance, whether real or perceived. In other words, people began to buy lots of fancy furniture and art (but chiefly so they could have dinner parties and show it off), and they began to buy expensive clothes and jewelry, mainly to present themselves as more important than they actually were.

Consumerism and the consequent drive to be conspicuous about it is certainly something we all deal with. Living in Los Angeles, a mile away from downtown Beverly Hills, I see it everywhere I look. One time when I was sitting at a bus stop near Rodeo Drive, I played a game in which I counted how many Range Rovers drove by me in the course of a minute (the Range Rover is the current “must-have accessory” in L.A.). I think I counted 6, or maybe 10. Either way, that’s a high volume of grossly over-waxed blingmobiles in the span of a minute. That’s like one every ten seconds.

I’m not sure how many people who drive Range Rovers actually can afford them; but that’s beside the point. Half of the wealth that is flashed in your eyes on any given day isn’t real wealth. It’s all about appearances. Sunglasses are the best way to feign wealth, especially in L.A. (where sunglasses are worn more than socks). Most really good, designer sunglasses are at least $300—which is not that much for the average stockbroker or real estate tycoon. But you can easily find knock-off sunglasses for like ten bucks that look exactly like the massive Prada pair you saw on J.Lo last week. It’s easy to look wealthy and important if you try hard enough.

Nowadays, the measure of someone’s “importance” is often seen in the technological accessory attached to their ear. Whether it’s an iPod, iPhone, or the latest fashion in Bluetooth earpieces (which scream “I’m white collar and too busy and important to use a hand phone!”), people are vying for status via The Sharper Image. It’s all an illusion, though, because no one is so important that “hands free” devices are necessary. Still, it’s the driving illusion of our time.

Christians find themselves in an interesting spot, living in a culture that measures a person’s value or relevance by what model of cell phone they carry. We are followers of a man who once told his disciples that anyone who wanted to follow him must “deny himself” and “take up his cross daily.” Jesus constantly dropped lines such as “what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:23, 25). He also insisted that we not worry about things like food and clothes (Matthew 6: 25-34), and offered counterintuitive little quips about how blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, and the persecuted. Can you imagine an MTV show about nerdy little Christian kids in Irvine who take all of this to heart?

The Christian life is so crazily counter to a life of conspicuous consumption. Ours should be a life of conspicuous rejection of all the bling money can buy. We should be conspicuously consumed with Christ, so much so that we become much more fascinating to watch than Paris Hilton. Instead of a culture that questions their obsession with Paris and Britney, what if the curious questions were about Christians—why are they so utterly, obviously uninterested in what everyone else is living for (self-aggrandizement)? Now that would be a story worthy of reality TV.

Falling in Love with Those in Need

When I think about why I'm still fired up every day to be a voice for the people of Zambia and do everything I can to educate, inspire, and move people to care about a continent on the other side of the world, I've decided that there is a pretty simple explanation...on some level, I've fallen in love with Zambia and its people...I find myself counting the days till my next visit and imagining playing soccer and baseball and singing and dancing with kids from Kakolo school...and this article from the Relevant website written by Hannah Lythe articulates what happens when God grabs your heart thru people and places you never even knew existed...

I never meant to fall in love when I went to South Africa last September. I left thinking I could make a difference in this world. I would be that difference. I find it amusing that despite our arrogance, the Lord will still use us and rip us apart to our core.

I recently returned home to my suburbia haven of New Jersey, spending almost a year in South Africa and Swaziland. I signed up to escape everything I knew, to play with orphans, do something real. I wanted to feel noble in my pursuits, to clothe myself in righteous works. Instead I came home naked, more aware of the injustices in this world than ever. I had escaped nothing. For my year in South Africa, I worked at a Children’s Home for HIV infected children. A government funded home for 34 children, some forgotten and others rejected.

I fell in love with every child at Mohau Children’s Home. Working at a children’s home for nine months, falling in love seems an easy task. But I am not speaking of affection, liking and sympathy. I refer to a broken love: limitless and unconditional. It was not me; it was never me. It was the love of the Father. I was worthless in that place. I was tired; I gave up; I ignored children; I turned a cheek to noses full of snot. I never gave enough of myself.

I worked alongside two dear friends of mine, Sam and Kyle. We spent our first three months confused, tired and hollow. We spent many days considering giving everything up, giving in to an easier option. HIV infected, institutionalized infants are poster-children for the marginalized. Abandoned by families with little hope for adoption. Finally we let go of controlling the situation. We gave in to the love of the Father and committed to being mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters to the 34 children.

We walked them to the clinic everyday. We sat alongside mothers and fathers for six hours at a time awaiting those precious minutes with the doctor. We held them during their blood work, impatiently longing for the removal of the syringe. We laid beside them as they napped, changed the impossible diapers. Above every humbling task were the beautiful moments of laughter and grace, which injected more humility than any soiled diaper.

The day before we were to leave, our boss, Tiekie, took us out for lunch. She gave us a brief history of each child that we had grown to love. Stories that we had longed for but never knew. With each word that came from her mouth our hearts broke piece by piece: abandonment, loneliness, abuse, disease and sickness. Then we came to Ernie. Ernie was the child that had held me the tightest. He was a 10-year-old who was HIV positive, autistic, epileptic and diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Suffering seems to be a gauge by which one cannot measure but Ernie was certainly one of the sickest children at Mohau.

Ernie knew this world better than I did. He knew love. He was a heartbreaker. I am sure Ernie had wooed many people before me with his charm, his rhythm and his love for people. I underestimated Ernie. I thought I was humoring him, singing his songs, clapping my hands. When all along he was humoring me. He knew I would leave. His life had been so temporary, why would I be any different? Every morning I walked into Mohau, I wondered if Ernie had remembered me from the day before. He remembered my songs, why wouldn’t he remember me? He used to scream scrambled versions of my name. The cynic in me thinks he was speaking in some mangled version of Sotho but my heart prays he knew my name, my face because I will never be able to forget his.

The day I heard Ernie’s story, of the choice that was to be made, I felt like everything in side of me had evaporated. I was this shell walking around, useless. Incapacitated, how could I help this child? That night my team had a time of prayer and worship. I wept for Ernie. Before that moment, I have never cried for anyone but myself. The LORD grabbed me by the heart and He wrecked me. He gave me a glimpse of His compassion; I knew I was crying His tears for His children.

Charity Is Not Enough

Check out this article by Kate Stevens on relevantmagazine.com...it expresses the tension faced in responding to the needs of the poor in our world today...

Charity is my job these days. So is justice. The majority of my waking hours are spent at the non-profit humanitarian organization where I work as a representative for Northern Ontario. It’s been my home for almost six years now, and I am indebted to the global perspective that I’ve gained over those six years. I leave work each day with a sense that I am contributing to something more than my employer’s paycheck, my company’s growth or my culture’s consumerism.

I know that I’m contributing to charity and justice in a very tangible way, but I sometimes forget the difference and the importance of each in the midst of endless phone calls, meetings, computer problems and angry donors. It’s easy to be numbed to the real issues that are going on in the world and to lose the right perspective in exchange for paperwork.

Even so, as someone who has been concerned about justice since my brother was old enough to take my toys, the story Ronald Stanley tells about the difference between charity and justice is difficult for me to ignore.

Stanley describes a scene where two men are fishing in a river. They begin to enjoy the fish they’ve caught when cries for help get their attention. One by one, they see people being swept away by the river. They jump in, desperate for a chance to save the drowning and, each time, they succeed. Tired after having worked to save several, they hear the cry of another: this time, a child. One of the men rushes away, leaving the other to rescue the child alone. The first man is confused. The second man declares he’s heading upstream to find out why there are so many people being swept away by the river.

I can’t help but laugh a little at Stanley’s story, partly because I can almost imagine the desperation in the conversation between the two men and partly because I can’t believe how effectively it captures the difference between charity and justice: charity is helping on the surface, for the short term, while justice is attacking the source of the problem itself. The first man was doing a great thing by saving the people who were drowning, but the second man went a step further by attempting to figure out from where the problem was originating so that he could do something about it.

Neither charity nor justice can stand alone. On its own, charity has the potential of becoming a band-aid solution, never really getting to or treating the root of the problem. Justice on its own, on the other hand, can be harsh and can ignore the immediate needs of people. Had the first man in Stanley's story given up on his attempts at charity, people would have drowned. However, had the second man not worked just a little bit harder to get to the root of the problem, more people would have drowned. A balance is required.

A quick look at the media makes obvious that charity and justice are popular topics of discussion these days. We see celebrities adopting children from overseas and giving their time, money and endorsement to the charities of their choice. We see global campaigns like Make Poverty History. We see media endorsement for projects involving sending mosquito nets overseas to combat malaria. Numerous charities produce television spots. People give up their vacation time to volunteer overseas. It’s everywhere.

Ever since Dec. 31, 2004, when the undersea earthquake off the coast of Indonesia created tsunami waves that devastated coastal South Asia, Western culture has been inundated with opportunities to give its time and its money. And it’s all for good reason. We are aware that there is a world that needs the resources we are so blessed to have and are willing to invest our resources in something other than ourselves. Yet, despite how amazing this is, it's just charity. And we're not doing enough. Yes, charity’s positive impact is unmistakeable and, yes, charity encompasses elements of justice, but my fear is that while amazing things are being done in the world today because of our charity and generosity charity is just a trend. If our charity is just fashionable, is true justice really being done?

It takes sacrifice to develop a lifestyle that allows us to support charity. We need to watch how we spend our money and watch how we save. We need to respond when we feel any sense of compassion rather than changing the channel. It’s challenging, but even so, it’s still just charity.

Justice, on the other hand, is messy. Those of us who are aiming for fashionable don't usually give it much of a thought. It requires long-term commitment and investment in prayer. It requires blood and sweat and tears and hard work and a fight. It requires that we not only sacrifice things in our lives so that we can give, but that we change our lifestyles entirely or, in many cases, that we live counter-culturally, making choices about our lifestyle based on how we will impact what deserves justice: the environment, AIDS orphans in Uganda, farmers making pennies on coffee farms in South America, 10-year-old sweatshop workers in Asia, 14-year-old girls who have been forced into prostitution in Thailand, street kids in Toronto.

While we are making an incredibly positive difference with our charity and while the Bible is clear that charity is incredibly important, taking the next step to create truly lasting change for our world requires justice. I imagine that God was trying to let us in on that secret when He asked that we "act justly...love mercy...[and] walk humbly with [Him]" (Micah 6:8, TNIV).

The Supremacy of Christ

Here's what I shared with my classes to start the school year...it is the reality that I teach and seek to develop leaders because the world is now broken, not as Christ created and intends it to be, that people's lives are broken without the cross and the salvation brought by Jesus, and that we are called and invited to be part of the restoration of both broken lives and the broken world God created and seeks to have renewed...

This incredible passage from Colossians 1 below is central to my own calling these days as I am overwhelmed and thrilled with what Christ has done and wants to use me to do along with so many others around His world...and N.T. Wright often states it more powerfully than I can as he reflects and unpacks Scripture...

Colossians 1:15-20 (New International Version)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

“There is no sphere of existence over which Jesus is not sovereign, in virtue of his role both in creation (1:16-17) and in reconciliation (1:18-20). There can be no dualistic division between some areas which he rules and others which he does not. ‘There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.’ The task of evangelism is therefore best understood as the proclamation that Jesus is already Lord, that in him God’s new creation has broken into history, and that all people are therefore summoned to submit to him in love, worship, and obedience. The logic of this message requires that those who announce it should be seeking to bring Christ’s Lordship to bear on every area of human and worldly existence. Christians must work to help create conditions in which human beings, and the whole created world, can live as God always intended.”
(N.T. Wright, Colossians and Philemon, Tyndale NT Commentaries, IVP, 1986, p.79-80)

Will You Still Be Part of the Church?

I ran across this article in USA Today...and it definitely reflects my own observations and conversations with my current and former high school students...and yet the church is the hope of the world...oh, that we would see churches be filled and be active in living out and communicating the Gospel in such ways that there would be no place more meaningful or engaging for the thinking and seeking 20 year olds...the future is uncertain, isn't it?? And yet we know God's heart and vision remains beautiful and powerful...

Young adults aren't sticking with church

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY
Protestant churches are losing young adults in "sobering" numbers, a survey finds.
Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30 — both evangelical and mainline — who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23, according to the survey by LifeWay Research. And 34% of those said they had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30. That means about one in four Protestant young people have left the church.

"This is sobering news that the church needs to change the way it does ministry," says Ed Stetzer, director of Nashville-based LifeWay Research, which is affiliated with the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"It seems the teen years are like a free trial on a product. By 18, when it's their choice whether to buy in to church life, many don't feel engaged and welcome," says associate director Scott McConnell.

The statistics are based on a survey of 1,023 Protestants ages 18 to 30 who said they had attended church at least twice a month for at least one year during high school. LifeWay did the survey in April and May. Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Few of those surveyed had kind words for fellow Christians when they reflected on how they saw church life in the four years after high school.

Just over half (51%) of Protestant young people surveyed (both the church dropouts and those who stayed on in church after age 22) saw church members as "caring" or had other positive descriptions, such as "welcoming" (48%) or "authentic" (42%).

Among dropouts, nearly all (97%) cited life changes, such as a move. Most (58%) were unhappy with the people or pastor at church. More than half (52%) had religious, ethical or political reasons for quitting.

Dropouts were more than twice as likely than those who continued attending church to describe church members as judgmental (51% for dropouts, 24% for those who stayed), hypocritical (44% vs. 20%) or insincere (41% vs. 19%)

The news was not all bad: 35% of dropouts said they had resumed attending church regularly by age 30. An additional 30% attended sporadically. Twenty-eight percent said "God was calling me to return to the church."

The survey found that those who stayed with or returned to church grew up with both parents committed to the church, pastors whose sermons were relevant and engaging, and church members who invested in their spiritual development.

"Too many youth groups are holding tanks with pizza. There's no life transformation taking place," Stetzer says. "People are looking for a faith that can change them and to be a part of changing the world."

These findings fit with findings by other experts.

"Unless religious leaders take younger adults more seriously, the future of American religion is in doubt," says Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow in After the Baby Boomers, due in stores in September.

The proportion of young adults identifying with mainline churches, he says, is "about half the size it was a generation ago. Evangelical Protestants have barely held their own."

In research for an upcoming book, unChristian, Barna Research Group director David Kinnaman found that Christians in their 20s are "significantly less likely to believe a person's faith in God is meant to be developed by involvement in a local church. This life stage of spiritual disengagement is not going to fade away."

About 52% of American adults identify themselves as Protestant or other non-Catholic Christian denominations, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey. That's down from 60% in 1990.

AIDS/Poverty/Global Issues Education Resource List

Here's a very informal list of resources that I've gathered to try and become more educated as a global Christ follower...they are worth checking out if you are interested in learning more about the needs of our world and the opportunity we have to change the future for millions, perhaps even billions in this generation...


BOOKS/PERIODICALS

Skeptics Guide to Global AIDS, Dale Hansen Bourke, Authentic Media, 2004

The Awake Project: Uniting Against the African AIDS Crisis, Second Edition, Various Contributions, W. Publishing Group, 2002

The Invisible People: How the U.S. has Slept Through the Global AIDS Pandemic, the Greatest Humanitarian Catastrophe of Our Time, Greg Behrman, Free Press, 2004

The Hope Factor: Engaging the Church in the HIV/AIDS Crisis, Testunao Yamamori, et al, Authentic Media, 2004

Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, Ron Sider, W Publishing Group, 1997

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, Jeffery Sachs, Penguin Press, 2005

The Son of God is Dancing, Adrian and Bridget Plass, Authentic Media, 2005

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty, Muhammad Yunus, Public Affairs, 2003

When God Stood Up: A Christian Response to AIDS in Africa, James Cantelon, Wiley, 2007

On the Move, Bono, Thomas Nelson, 2007

Hope in Troubled Times: A New Vision for Confronting Global Crises, Bob Goudzwaard, Baker Academic, 2007

28: Stories of AIDS in Africa, Stephanie Nolen, Walker & Company, 2007

Vanity Fair, July 2007 Africa Issue

Hope in the Dark, Jena Lee (Contributor), Jeremy Cowart (Photographer), Relevant Books, 2006

The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World, Heather Zydek (editor), Relevant Books, 2006

Good News About Injustice: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World, Gary Haugen, InterVarsity Press, 1999

Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade--and How We Can Fight It, David Bastone, HarperSanFrancisco, 2007

Sojourners Magazine: Christians for Justice and Peace

GET UNCOMFORTABLE: Serve the Poor. Stop Injustice. Change the World…In Jesus’ Name, Todd Phillips, LifeWay Press, 2007


WEB SITES

Acting on AIDS
www.actingonaids.org

One Life Revolution
www.oneliferevolution.org

World Vision
www.worldvision.org

UNAIDS
www.unaids.org

Kaiser Network
www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_hiv.cfm

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
www.avert.org/pepfar.htm

Debt, Trade, AIDS in Africa (DATA)
www.data.org

The ONE Campaign
www.one.org/

Micah Challenge
http://www.micahchallenge.org/global/home/intro.html

Global Issues
http://www.globalissues.org/

International Justice Mission
http://www.globalissues.org/

GLOBAL FUTURE: A World Vision Journal of Human Development
http://www.globalfutureonline.org/

Hunger and World Poverty
http://www.poverty.com/index.html

(RED)
http://www.joinred.com/

TEARFUND
http://www.tearfund.org/

The Christian Vision Project
http://www.christianvisionproject.com/


DOCUMENTARIES /MOVIES

“Dear Francis”…Chronicle Project, 2005…http://www.chronicleproject.org/dearfrancis/film.html

“A Closer Walk”… Worldwide Documentaries, 2003…http://www.acloserwalk.org/

“Invisible Children”…Invisible Children, Inc., 2005…http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php

“The Age of AIDS”…PBS Frontline, 2006…http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/

“The Girl in the Café”…HBO, 2005…http://www.hbo.com/events/girlinthecafe/index.html

“Yesterday”…HBO Films, 2004…http://www.hbo.com/films/yesterday/