Justice Revival! April 18, 2008
Posted by Zack in Ohio | 1 commentWednesday 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:
- It’s not enough to be an oasis in a desert:
- We need to make three great commitments of Jesus:
- #1 Commit to Jesus:
- #2 Commit to each other
- #3 Commit to the cause of Christ…
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.
Tags: Columbus Vineyard, Jim Wallis, Justice Revival, Rich NathanRich Nathan blogs up to the his church’s “Justice Revival” April 15, 2008
Posted by Zack in Ohio | write a comment
I’m going to the “Justice Revival” at Vineyard Columbus tomorrow. This is a really exciting development in the ongoing “Revolution in Jesusland.”
The revival could be a fairly controversial event for pastor Rich Nathan to host at his church. It is amazing how radical churches can become without raising their members’ partisan hackles, so long as they don’t use certain words. As it turns out, “conservative” Americans are just fine with beautiful radicalism as long as you just stay away from certain hot-button signifiers. These churches are rejecting the left-right debate by dealing with substance instead of labels and hollow political terms. Nevertheless, by hosting an event that is dedicated primarily to “justice” instead of personal salvation, Nathan risks setting off a trigger.
Leading up to the event, Nathan is writing a series on Jim Wallis’ blog. Here are his first four posts:
- What doing justice means to my church: It is not enough if my church is known as a great worship center, or a great preaching church. The New Testament demands more.
- Is Social Justice a Distraction from the Gospel? The ultimate goal of the kingdom goes beyond the salvation of us as individuals (wonderful as that is) and involves the restoration and renovation of the entire universe.
- Lifeboat theology vs. Ark theology: God wants to redeem ALL of creation, not just a handful of souls.
- Border-blenders and Corner-dwellers: I look forward to a day when an evangelical church that does a Justice Revival not only doesn’t create any controversy, but hardly raises an eyebrow.
Worlds colliding around Columbus Justice Revival March 31, 2008
Posted by Zack in Ohio | write a commentFound this in the email inbox this morning from someone who works in Ohio progressive politics and saw me speak on the Revolution in Jesusland in Columbus a few months back:
Zack- Thought you might find this interesting: http://www.justicerevival.org A kid at a recent antiwar event gave me a flyer for it (megachurch-sponsored, 3-day event) -- it says "love god? end poverty." Flyer printed w/union label, so I was like, hmmmm...things coming together...fascinating.
Fascinating indeed! I’m really looking forward to this event. I’ve been to the incredible Columbus Vineyard church, have read and listened to a lot of pastor Rich Nathan’s stuff, and can’t wait to see how this event shapes up.
Tags: Justice Revival, Rich Nathan, VineyardMega-Community November 26, 2007
Posted by Zack in Ohio | 3 comments
Yesterday, we were in Columbus, Ohio, and went to one of American’s most dynamic and interesting mega-churches, Vineyard Columbus.
Vineyard Columbus is an example of the mega-church phenomenon at its best. Some say large churches allow people to avoid community because they are so easy to attend anonymously. You can go, and have a powerful experience of worship with the great musicians and preachers that large churches attract, and run home without getting wrapped up in anyone else’s life.
Vineyard Columbus, however, is a pressure cooker of community. As we walked into the sanctuary, where a band and choir were already booming, volunteers handed us a magazine called The Mix that lists literally hundreds of small groups, classes, service opportunities and social activities for adults and children. Before the sermon, two speakers urged people to get involved by tapping into a small group or other activity. All around the church, there were directories of small groups on dozens of topics—so that any individual can make direct contact with a group in their area. The pre-sermon speakers reminded small group members that there were cards in the pews for inviting anyone they met at church to their group. And new comers were asked to raise their hands to receive a special welcome packet that included more information on groups and activities, as well as information about the church and a CD of worship music produced by the church.
That may sound like a lot of hype and marketing, but it wasn’t. It was totally low key. The feeling we had was of a large church that was bursting at the seams with community, and that if we lived in Columbus it would be the easiest thing in the world to become an integral part of it.
(Vineyard Columbus has also become a major social service provider in Columbus. I met senior pastor Rich Nathan at Sojourners Call to Renewal earlier this year and heard about the various programs that the church is running. To do the church’s community work justice, I’d have interview church and city leaders, and unfortunately I’m not able to now.)
As you can see from the pictures, the church is enormous. We entered through the far entrance and walked through two different sections where younger and older children have their worship services. Each was packed. There were plenty of adults around, but kids seemed to be doing a lot of the work of greeting people, distributing info and getting ready for the services. It looked like a great place to be a kid. I wonder what the culture is like among kids at these big churches that are trying so hard to live as radical followers of Jesus. Do the kids still have cliques? Is there a popular group that ignores everyone else? Or do they actually live differently?
The sermon, by Steve Robbins, was exciting and fascinating. I think Vineyard is firmly in the “Kingdom Theology” camp—but I’m not sure if this is true for all Vineyard churches, or just the one’s I’ve visited or listened to online. Robbins’ sermon was all about building the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth now.
The Vineyard is not a denomination, but a family of more than 1,500 churches, that have come together or have been planted as part of the Vineyard movement with a shared culture and set of values. (Many outsiders consider them a denomination.)
Robbins’ sermon focused on the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. He said that every time someone is healed of addiction, every time that broken relationship is put back together, every time that love overcomes violence…that the Kingdom of Heaven comes closer.
And he added to that: “Every time a structural, political evil that oppresses” people is undone, the Kingdom of Heaven comes closer.
He talked about how he grew up in a “suburban, affluent, white…and racist” community, and that the first thing God called him to change when he became a Christian was his racism. The message he got from God was, (paraphrasing) “If you don’t start valuing people as I do…and stop looking down on people who look different from you…then you’re not going to be able to know me.” (When he says “God told me…” he didn’t mean that he heard a voice from God, but that he had a set of experiences, probably involving a lot of Bible study and worship, that led him to that conclusion.)
Going to church at Vineyard Columbus yesterday led me to more thinking and research on several topics: the growing influence of Charismatic Christianity on mainline and traditional Evangelical Christianity, the importance of the (hippy) Jesus Movement on the Evangelical explosion of the 80’s, 90’s and present day and “Transformationalism“. And Steve Robbin’s sermon brought up some really tough issues for me regarding international evangelism. I was on a roll here, about to pack all those topics into one post, but for your sake I’m stopping myself and will hopefully pick up those topics in posts through this week.
(Pict from Vineyard Columbus website)
