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Justice Revival! April 18, 2008

Posted by Zack in Ohio , trackback

Wednesday night, I caught the first day of the Social Justice Revival at Vineyard Columbus, which continues through tonight. Here are some pictures:

Close to 100 churches participated, led jointly by Jim Wallis’ Sojourners and pastor Rich Nathan’s Columbus Vineyard church. Jim Wallis is an evangelical lefty progressive with a background in radical politics. Rich Nathan is an evangelical conservative who voted for Bush. The event is a tipping point in the decay of 20th century political categories.

As the church was filling up, a Vineyard church member sitting to my right told me: “They’ve been saying on the [Christian] radio that Jim Wallis is a communist.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked?

“I think…that he’s against…well…capitalism,” she said.

Then another Vineyard member sat down to my left. He’s away in grad school at a Christian university in Florida now.

“Why did you come all the way back for this?” I asked.

“The more I learn, the more I believe our economic system just isn’t sustainable,” he said, “I’ve really begun to question capitalism.”

He has been meeting with a group of other Christians to read about economics and environmentalism. They watch a lot of documentary films too—his favorite was The Corporation.

The vast majority of the audience attending this “Social Justice Revival” were conservative Republicans. Especially after the controversy raised in the local Christian media, people must have had some misgivings about participating. Nevertheless, the massive sanctuary was completely full, with the crowd pouring into two giant overflow spaces as well.

Asking these folks to listen to Jim Wallis with an open mind is a little bit like asking the lefty Take Back America conference to do the same for John Hagee.

But with a little help from Jesus, they did exactly that. Listen here how that works:

Rich Nathan would give Jesus all the credit, but he is doing something incredible with his church and this Justice Revival. He is saying (if I might translate): “Enough of these silly divisions. We stand for justice and there’s nothing wrong with that. Our faith calls us to act for justice in ways that we’re just not doing now. We’re doing a great job of helping people 1-on-1 in our city. Jesus calls us to do that, and it’s also what keeps us honest and in touch with reality. But we can only help so many people 1-on-1. Do we want to limit ourselves to be a little oasis in the desert for a few, or do we want to be leaders in our broader community who use our numbers and our love to change all of society?”

Over a year ago, the first time I talked to Jim Wallis, back when I was just starting to learn about all this stuff, he told me about Rich Nathan’s church. He said, “It’s absolutely incredible all the things they are doing for their community.”

And I asked, “But why won’t any of these amazing churches speak on policy when it comes to economic issues?”

He related the conversation he has about policy with many church leaders about that very question of whether the church is called to be an oasis, or force that salvages the whole desert. Apparently, some of those conversations are bearing fruit.

Here are four more short audio clips to give you a sense of the terms in which this is all unfolding:

I did an interview with one of the Vineyard pastors about the incredible service work they’re doing in Columbus. Hopefully I’ll have that edited down early next week for you to listen to.

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Comments»

1. Lorraine Bieber - April 20, 2008

Fascinating. Thanks Zack for letting us know how this went, and I’m looking forward to hearing the interview with the pastor.

2. Jim Bennett - May 26, 2008

This is late, about 6 weeks late. I appreciate that you came to the Justice Revival. I had hoped to see you there, but as you know, there was quite a crowd. I hope you got to attend the other nights, they were more justice-oriented. For me, one of the highlights of the revival was Tuesday night when Jim gave an altar call for those who committed themselves to making a difference in Columubus, especially for the poor.
The one issue I would take with your comment was that the majority of the audience was conservative evangelicals. I think one of the strengths of the Sojourners’ movement is that it unites conservative and liberals alike. Even though some may not totally agree with all that Sojourners and Jim profess, we are involved because the movement unites our faith and our concerns for justice (and peace, the environment, poverty and other issues). I know that I am far from the only liberal member of the Sojourners community.
I think the case is just the opposite: I think that most were progressive and moderates. I know that in my volunteering that I have to moderate my political views not to alienate some more conservative members.
We are now working on our next steps to discover how to organize and work to eliminate poverty in Columbus.
(Zack, we met at the Roots Camp in January).