Talking and Walking

I thought our discussion about where we're headed was valuable last night. It's a conversation worth continuing. I think there are probably important activities each one on us are undertaking.

Me? I do what I can find to do to help. But I'm mostly an idea guy. I have ideas, like starting a health clinic in The Colony/Little Elm area. Execution is the problem. I hardly know where to start and have tried contacting numerous folks who should be in the know but haven't had calls or emails returned. Truthfully, I've gotten discouraged and haven't done anything on tht front in the past few months.

But I think it is important that we both talk the talk and walk the walk, whether that is by acting together, or equipping one another to build our own networks of action and keeping one another accountable, in a supportive, non-guilt driven approach.

This post on the EV site from this woman from a non-Christian background seemed to say it all.

What we are saying has meaning for a wide spectrum of people. But that meaning will only last if it is accompanied by action. Love of God is non-existent without love of neighbor.

And I suppose this takes us to attractional church vs. missional church debate.

I don't want to turn this into a dualistic idea, but whatever the church model is, it must emphasize mission.

And if we heed the instruction of Walter Wink and N. T. Wright, mission takes the shape not necessarily of eliminating the powers of the nations but in resisting them inasmuch as they fail to reflect the purpose given them by the Creator by exploiting the weak and the poor and ruling through various forms of domination. It also means resisting ourselves inasmuch as we fail to reflect the image of the Creator.

In the words of Bono, it's not about charity. It's about justice. Or we can put it another way. It's not about dependency. It's about dignity.

I think this sort of collective spirit would put us fully in solidarity with the widow, orphan, and stranger and pull us over the walls we build on our paths. I think, also, we would find that the change needed to embrace such solidarity and the challenge it would present our culture's spirituality (by proclaiming and demonstrating that Jesus, the executed Christ, is Lord of the world) would reveal to us that there is opposition to Jesus, even in America.

These are strong words and this cohort blog is meant to be a dialogue, so please respond.