Community 4:12

Feeling the pinch

This is kind of how I've felt lately . . . like we are throwing money down the drain.  Broken appliances, major car repairs, vet bills, a root canal, grocery and gas bills creeping significantly higher.  We certainly feel the pinch, but we are going to be okay.  But I can't say that about all of my neighbors.  To be honest, I really don't know how some of them are managing during these challenging economic times.  It's not really an easy topic to bring up, especially when even simple communication is difficult with the language barrier.  But, I know if we are feeling the hit, and we are a solid 2 income family (granted two "non-profit" level incomes, but non-profit income is far better than Walmart or Taco Bell income), then most of our neighbhors must really be feeling punched down.  I want to believe that economic revival is in store for East Aurora.  But, I am starting to get pretty anxious about the state of our community . . . and actually our country and our world.  It makes me very angry that we as a society have been so gluttonous with God's resources that this is the state we find ourselves in.  I'm sorry, God, for what we have done to your world. 

What Will Evangelicals Do?

I found this article in the Chicago Tribune today very interesting.  Click here to read the whole article, but here's an excerpt,

"The agenda of the evangelical church in America has been two-fold since 1973: It has been sanctity of life and traditional marriage. ... It's almost blasphemous to go beyond those two items," he said. "Now, the Hispanic evangelical comes along and says there are other items that we need to look at. What about alleviating poverty, from a biblical view? What about health care and education? What about speaking against torture? What about human rights?"

But Lynne Hybels insists that the evangelical community has never been a one- or two-issue voting bloc.

"The silence of moderate and progressive Christians has perpetuated a narrow view of evangelicals," she said, breaking her own silence. (In the past, she worried that anything she said might be construed as political and get Willow into hot water.)

"Evangelicals committed to the fight against poverty and injustice, both locally and globally, have been working, volunteering, funding and praying about those issues for decades," she continued. "Finally, their voices have become prominent in the political conversation."

Indeed, Michael Lindsay, author of the book "Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite" said about 70 percent of today's evangelicals simply don't identify with the Religious Right."

Your Vote?

Did you vote today?  If so, I'd love to know who got your vote and why.  I'm an Obama girl--probably no surprise.  I've pretty much come to the (possibly naive) conclusion that the president really doesn't have that much power when it comes to effecting change from a policy standpoint.   But, I do believe the president has incredible power when it comes to impacting the morale of the country and determining how the US is perceived around the world.  Maybe I've given in to idealism, but I see Obama as being a modern day Bobby Kennedy who might just be able to bring some hope and unity to our country and restore some very broken relationships with the rest of the world. What do you think?

Bono Preaches about Poverty

Saw this clip of Bono receiving an award from the NAACP on Jon Ferguson's blog.  There are few people who inspire me the way Bono does.  Click here to hear him preach!  Thanks, Jon, for posting!

Amazing Grace at Warehouse

A few of us from CCC went this morning to visit Warehouse Church in downtown Aurora.  It is a church known for its outreach to the homeless, addicted, impoverished, and otherwise marginalized.  Pastor Randy Schoof has been a real inspiration to me for his tireless commitment to trying to unify God's church in Aurora.

It was a great experience seeing him "in action."  There were the expected differences between Warehouse and CCC--much less structured and much longer service and a different clientele.  But the most surprising thing to me was the message focus.  After the first hour, the kids were dismissed for "Children's Church" (and my own kids shocked me by just jumping up and joining the others to run downstairs!).  Then Randy devoted the next hour to speaking about and showing clips from the movie coming out Feb. 23rd-- Amazing Grace.  It is about anti-slavery pioneer William Wilberforce, whose faith inspired his drive to fight for justice.

With passion and conviction, Randy spoke about our responsibility as Christians to attack the injustices of society today as Wilberforce did in his day.  The topic itself was not surprising.  What struck me was that Randy was giving this talk to a church make up at least in part of poor and oppressed people.  He made it clear that whether we have the resources or not, Jesus calls us ALL to help change the world. 

Randy ended with the challenge from Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." I left Warehouse this morning totally inspired to see the movie . . . and to help change the world!

Poverty Moves to the Suburbs

Read an interesting article in Newsweek this week about the latest poverty trend . . . for the first time in American history,there are more impoverished people living in the suburbs than in cities---1.2 million more.  Click here if you want to read the article.  There was a similar article in the Daily Herald today explaining the increase in poverty rates in the Chicago suburbs.  In DuPage county, there were 39.7% more people living in poverty in 2005 than in 1999.  And in Kane County (includes East Aurora), the increase was 58.6%.  Click here if you want to read that article.  A major point of both articles is that a big problem with suburban poverty is that suburbs aren't equipped to deal with the poor the way cities are.  The suburbs just don't offer the same human services that cities do.  I would say that presents a tremendous opportunity for suburban churches . . . will they step up to the plate?

Bringing Light to the City of Lights

This morning I went with John Ross from First Presbyterian Church in Aurora and Vince Gaddis from New Generation Christian Church (and professor at Benedictine University) to Congressman Dennis Hastert's office.  We met with two of his staff members to encourage the congressman to support HR 508 to bring an end to the Iraq war.  We went not on behalf of our churches, but as Christ-followers who believe Jesus would advocate for peace and non-violence.  Typically a group is given 20 minutes, but we talked for over an hour and had a great dialogue with the staffers.  I was so impressed with Vince and his incredible knowledge about the war and the many issues surrounding it.  I met both Vince and John through a network of Aurora clergy and Christian leaders whose mission is to bring light to the City of Lights (Aurora).  It is an amazing group of people trying to work together to bring the love of Christ to  Aurora.  Vince and I had a great, but brief, conversation about incarnational ministry and it was exciting to hear that he lives in East Aurora and their church meets at O'Donnell Elementary (another school in D131 with Brady and Bardwell).  I look forward to connecting with Vince again soon and am excited to see how God is going to use this network of Christ-followers to transform Aurora!

Jim Wallis & Friends are Blogging!

Some of my favorite writers/speakers/theologians have started blogging!  They have joined forces and begun a blog on which they will take turns writing.  If you are a fan of such Christ-following "community activitists" as Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Ron Sider, and Noel Castellanos, then check out their new blog.