practical dreaming about changing the world

One of my classes this semester is 'Mobilizing for Justice', where we discuss many of the injustices that exist in the world today (not all of them...there's not enough time for that). We talk about the brokenness in the economic, political, social, and even religious systems that exist today. Sounds like a depressing class, doesn't it?

But we also look at how we can transform the world. Yes, we take a close look at the twisted, sick, toxic, unjust aspects of our current reality, but we do not (and cannot) stop there. We start envisioning how those problems and issues can be attacked and rooted out. We study and discuss how transformation has already occurred. We talk about why, as Christians, we need to care about these things. In a society that feeds us these mistruths/deceptions: everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, that goodness, hard work, and virtue will surely result in personal wealth, that charity is always enabling, that sharing resources is communism (heaven forbid), that poor people are poor because they're lazy, that racism has disappeared and has nothing to do with economic inequality today.....we need to take a good hard look at injustices in our society and figure out how to tear them down.

I recently read a book for this class titled Building a People of Power, by Robert Linthicum (2005) and wrote a brief reflection on it. I wanted to share part of that writing here, as the book's theme of empowering people to bring about change struck a deep chord within me. Here's a little of what I wrote:

In a world where it often seems that most of the power is held in the tight fists of the elite, Robert Linthicum’s book is a timely reminder that it does not need to stay that way. His book was written for the church as a praxis manual in which theory – explaining the biblical understanding of power and why we must wield it to bring about the shalom of our communities and cities – meets practice – demonstrating how this can be accomplished through various methods. His central thesis is that in order to truly transform communities into the kingdom-inspired shalom communities that God intended, the church must seek to empower and walk alongside the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized of society.

The concept from Linthicum’s book that stuck with me the most was his Iron Rule and how this plays into his vision for building up powerful people. The Iron Rule states, “never do for others what they can do for themselves,” and it is a key concept for any type of community organizing (regardless of if they use the “Iron Rule” name for the concept). Community organizers understand that in order for a community to be transformed, it must ultimately be the people of the community who take ownership of solving whatever problems they are facing. There are many well-meaning, compassionate, do-gooders who have seriously harmed people and communities by doing things and providing things for people that they simply should not have done. They took the easier, shorter route of directly stepping in and trying to ‘fix’ something quickly, while the best solution was the long-term route of empowering and building up the people themselves. The Iron Rule reminds us to keep in mind the extraordinary capabilities people have for learning, growing, stretching, and rising up to meet the challenges they face. The church is called to walk alongside those struggling people in solidarity and support, helping them cultivate and channel the power they contain within themselves.

However, most churches have yet to move beyond compassion and mercy ministries towards advocacy and justice. Many churchgoers hardly understand the biblical mandates behind social justice and the call to work for the shalom of the city. Churches that are still stuck in engaging in only compassion and mercy ministries must be taught about God’s heart for justice and the commands in his Word to strive for it. This cannot be taught simply from the pulpit or in formal classroom-style lectures or trainings. The need to work for justice should also be taught through dialogue – such as storytelling – and experiential learning in or near their community. Before they learn the definition of ‘Iron Rule’ and other concepts necessary for empowering people, the Iron Rule must be applied to them. The church’s leadership cannot impose the need to seek justice on the congregants; the congregation must take ownership of their call to strive for justice in their communities. As they begin to grasp for themselves the understanding of the injustices that plague our world and our society, then they can begin to learn how to stand up against the powers and principalities. The church itself must be empowered to seek justice and live into that before it can go out to its community and effectively build up the marginalized and the oppressed.