Beyond Race and Class Issues In a Consumer Church
This thoughtful reflection piece from Barbara Echo-Hawk provides us a window into the world of segregation which she experienced while growing up in the 1960’s. While reading it, consider ways in which we still face segregation of various forms, and what we can do to expand our horizons and engage redemptively in the process of reconciliation in our own day.
For the last two years I’ve been encouraging churches interested in figuring out how to be postured more intentionally to serve their neighborhoods, through bringing them together with service organizations for a monthly luncheon and ideas exchange. We started doing this after John M. Perkins visited Portland, and it brought many of us together for inspiration toward loving neighbors, ministering to ex-offenders, and seeking justice among the poor. We’ve been calling our group the Christian Community Development Network (CCDN). It has proven to be very beneficial for those of us who have met regularly. Collaborative efforts have taken place and I think most of us have received encouragement to press on in our areas of ministry. Lately though, I’m sensing from the Lord a need to increase the influence of a network like this.I wonder if there would be a way to bring together helping agencies, civic and neighborhood groups, city-minded educators, the business community, city government people, and churches (including a greater racial diversity than city networks typically have) to share their resources for collaboratively enriching our city. Could a larger network such as this create greater awareness of needs, resources, and opportunities to respond, resulting in greater potential for collaborative endeavors and ultimately greater love shown more consistently to Portland?
To do something like that would take buy-in by influential city leaders and opinion influencing church leaders whose involvement would encourage others to come together, too. That’s the piece that needs to be discerned; who would that be? And do they want something like this? Jeff Spry from City Connections in Little Rock Arkansas contacted me recently. He was encouraged to do so by a representative from the Luis Palau Association. He was told I might be interested to know what they are doing. I had shared with no one at that time what I was thinking, but City Connections is close to what I have been trying to conceive in my mind. Might this be an example that we could modify for the Portland context? I wonder if the momentum toward service generated by Season of Service could move closer to “whole-lives of service” through the kind of inspiration, relationship, awareness, and collaboration opportunities a network like this could provide.Take a look at City Connections’ website and watch the intro video. Could something like this be contextualized to Portland? What if there was a simple format of a once-a-month lunch-time gathering at a consistent city-central location. One helping group or issue could be presented in about 20 minutes or so, and the rest of the time people could network, exchange information/opportunities/needs. If we could get the right people to participate, would you be interested? Would you be willing to help get the right people to the table?
I know there are many conversations going on right now about how to perpetuate service beyond a season; loving Portland, caring for those in need, cultivating a generous Church, resourcing Christian ministries that serve the city (and those are just the conversations I know about). I wouldn’t see this as another competing voice but as possibly a simple and doable way to keep the conversation moving toward outcomes. Just get everyone to the table, build relationships, inform others about what helping people/orgs/churches/groups do, who they are, what they have available and need, then see what folks might be inspired to take back to their people. Basically, it would be about setting the table for dialogue, understanding, relationship, and opportunity. That’s all; we would leave the rest to God. What do you all think?
Clark Blakeman,
Executive Director, Second Stories
Here’s a note recently received from Matt Woodley, lead pastor at Three Village Church on Long Island. What do you think of what he talks about?
This issue [of race and class divisions] has been very heavy on my heart lately. We have a little AME church around the corner from us that we have almost no connection with. I met with the pastor and tried to set up some mutual events, but he didn’t seem interested. So I talked with a friend of mine over there and he said, “Well, why should he want to do stuff with your big white church? We always invite your church to our events – MLK, Jr. celebrations, our annual harvest dinner, our annual fish fry, etc. – but you never come. So why should we start coming to your events? Just show up and start getting to know us.” Wow, that was good advice! So that’s what I’ve been doing, and I like it.
Our church joined thousands of other churches this Christmas for an “Advent Conspiracy.” We intentionally went after the topic of consumerism and how it was changing the whole intention and meaning behind Christmas. Consuming Jesus was one of the primary books that helped expose me to the depths and the seriousness of the consumer culture in our church and the need to step forward in changing this trend. I am so grateful for the information of this book and how God used it in our community to spur us on to love and good deeds.
Our community raised just under $40K dollars that will be given away to meet basic needs of shelter, water and food. This does not count several thousand more that families elected to give in their own name towards humanitarian relief somewhere in the world. Thanks Paul, for your work and the effort to couch the issue biblically and convincingly. It was a timely nudge in the hands of the Holy Spirit to move us towards “taking back” OUR HOLIDAY!
Steve Clifford
Lead Pastor, Westgate church
San Jose
Another recording of Drs. Perkins and Metzger speaking at Imago Day Community, in Portland, Oregon.
In Dr. Martin Luther King Junior’s last speech, “Unfulfilled Dreams,” which he delivered the night before his assassination, King talked about how he wanted to be remembered after his death. He talked about wanting to be remembered as a drum major for justice—the leader of the marching band for justice. In this sense, King followed in the footsteps of Jesus, the ultimate drum major for justice. The Lord Jesus led people to the beat of a different drum—to the drumbeat of love, truth, and justice as he journeyed to the cross. He proclaimed the whole gospel of the kingdom in word and deed to make individuals and their communities whole.
Today, there is an urgent need to proclaim the life-changing and society-changing Gospel in word and deed. Dr. John M. Perkins and Dr. Paul Louis Metzger consider themselves drum majors for love, truth, and justice: love because our world is full of hate, and people desperately need to know God’s love through his Son, Jesus Christ, whom God sent to save the world; truth because individual and community life is often built on the shaky foundations of hearsay, fads, and whatever feels good, and people desperately need to build their lives on the authoritative and unshakable teaching of God’s word; and justice because equity is often a commodity that can be bought and sold, and the marginalized desperately need to see that there is justice for all.
As drum majors, Drs. Perkins and Metzger want to inspire people across the nation to pursue a biblical vision of love, truth, and justice where the all-consuming love of Jesus revealed in the Bible consumes those things that divide us, like race and class barriers. They will be speaking in different locations nationally, working with churches and community groups to raise up well-trained and educated Christian leaders who are passionately engaged in proclaiming the whole gospel of the kingdom in word and deed through the church, to the whole person, in the whole community.
They view their roles in this Drum Majors partnership as instruments of inspiration and consultation, helping to mobilize communities to take ownership and address the issues they are facing, impacting their cities and towns. Thus, they are not looking for those who stand by and clap as the band passes, but for those who will join them on their march, playing their parts in the love, truth, and justice band.
Sermon recording of Dr. John M. Perkins, founder of the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation and Development, and Dr. Paul Louis Metzger speaking about their Drum Majors partnership at Imago Dei Community in Portland on February 17, 2008.
Book reading and Q&A from Paul Louis Metzger’s book, Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church reading at Powell’s City of Books on February 13, 2008.
An interview on Trans World Radio with Dr. Paul Louis Metzger on Consuming Jesus.
This blog exists to augment the discussion found in Paul Louis Metzger's book Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church. Discussion will include exploration of the material covered in the book, as well as relevant interviews and theological and cultural essays on this topic.
Related Essays Removing the Blinders of Prejudice in the Church Consuming Jesus Podcast
