Monday through Wednesday of this week was filled with dialogue as I attended,

"Doing Church in the City: an Urban Mission Forum and Theological Symposium"

What I sincerely appreciated about these three days was the commitment to honesty that was addressed in the welcome of the first meeting. As preachers, "spin" is one of the tricks of our trade, there was a challenge to be REAL as you presented your ministry and situation and struggles. It was refreshing. There were times of prayer and worship and times of dialogue where a topic was tabled and you sought to define that topic along with its attributes and shortcomings. Not a "conference" in the sense that there were many meetings, more of a time for conversation. The commonality among the group was a true commitment to the poor and marginalized of society. These were the practitioners. Not necessariy the "leaders." At one point as we were talking about what the next step would be for such a gathering, the proposed idea of bringing in the leaders was presented. And Brendan from Melbourne, Australia said:

"In all honesty, we are the ones doing this. We are already living out these principles with or without the support of the leaders. What would bringing them in really change?"

I nodded in agreement with that point.

Of the papers that were presented, the one that touched me the most dramatically was from Major Suresh Pawar in India, where he wrote about the modern day slavery of human trafficking. This statistic stuck out to me: Human Trafficking has reached such high levels of enslavement, that the numbers are now greater than those of the African slave trade of the 16th and 17th centuries. Take a moment to let that sink in.

The three days removed a veil that had been forming over my eyes as of late. Living incarnationally, taking in the community that surrounds us, the community that surrounded all of us as we met in a facility very close to my home. It was challenging. Living incarnationally is so very little about geography. I can live in my home and still not be incarnational.

Social justice is so little talked about, but as a church, aren't we supposed to be defeating the issues that cripple people? Issues that they are unable to fight themselves? Issues of drug use, violence, prostitution...

I never thought twelve months ago that Christ would lead me down this turn on my journey. It is definitely a detour where the path disappeears from view. I have friends with nice homes and well paying jobs that are committed Christians and are so settled. I love them dearly. But I never want to be settled. I never want to be in a place where the needs of the less fortunate no longer matter to my heart. It never gets easy, wading through sin with people. But do I even ever want it to be easy? I pray that I will never be too far away to hear the cries of those that all of society has forgotten.

posted by Kelly @ 2:32:00 PM