A Common Vision

Communities with economic problems should be able to rely on the local congregation to lead the way to recovery. Renewal and New Hope are the keys to community life. This space is dedicated to helping the local church lead the community into economic recovery and entrepreneurship. The list of misssion work required in the local community includes: 1. The Sense of Creation 2. Vision in Community 3. Capability in Community 4. Commitment in Community 5. Contribution in Community 6. Continuity in Community 7. Collaboration in Community 8. Conscience in Community 9. Personal Mastery 10. Self Esteem 11. Leadership 12. Peace 13. Non-for-profit network 14. Celebration

Karl Evans has forty years' experience in this field. The book links are printed and e-book versions of "Gospel of Hope", the life of Christ.

2. ___/___ Vision in Community

Revelation 21:1-7
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, from God, prepared as a bride for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘See, the house of God is among mortals. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.....’” (RSV)

Christ has shared with us the Divine Vision for our world for the life to come. He has told us what God wants and expects and works to make real. It is also what God knows to be in our best interest.

It is the nature of God to do whatever is in our best interest. Dr. Max Miller, one of my seminary instructors and a great thinker and scholar, had a key statement here. When Moses asked God “Whom shall I say is sending me?”, God answered “Yahweh.”

Dr. Miller says the best translation of the word “Yahweh” is “With my own existence, I will do whatever I can to make your existence as good as possible.” This divine vision is lived out in Jesus. In his mission, Jesus risks everything for the good of humans. If Jesus had not come out of the tomb, the Creation would have collapsed. Since Jesus did come out of the tomb, life for humans gets better and better.

The Book of Revelations is forward-looking nostalgia. The Reverent Eddie Fox of the United Methodist Church General Board of Discipleship calls it “Aiglatson”, nostalgia spelled backwards. Because we look forward to it, we find ourselves drawn to assist in making it happen. It is not just busy work for the Disciples. It is even more than an invitation to share in the Kingdom of the Lord. Just as are the parables of the Kingdom, this vision is active, building us into the kingdom in some sense whether or not we make a conscious decision to enter it.

Part of this vision, as clearly seen in the Gospels, is good, responsible, ethical, successful business. That is good for everyone. Jesus does not reject business. Rather, he calls it to reflect God’s Vision of the world. It seems that the Vision assumes that profitable business is at least acceptable, perhaps even encouraged directly.

Of course, this does not mean that financial profit is the only end of business. It rather says that financial profit can be accomplished along a path that lies within the Kingdom and its vision.

The Book of Revelation takes the Sermon on the Mount and applies it to the future. “And I saw another world, a world not made with hands.” Obviously God will be a willing participant in our creative efforts. Our Savior’s relationship with us will shape our relationships with each other.

If we live by the Sermon on the Mount, what sort of world will we have? The Beatitudes are the new Ten Commandments. They constitute not only a promise of things to come, but also a call to sacred righteousness and effective faithfulness in our dealings with each other. Most specifically, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Would the Beatitudes not make a powerful ethic for a major or minor business operation or Chamber of Commerce mission statement? Yet the world’s business often attempts to compete with everything short of death to the loser.

The concept of the Lord’s Vision for the world, shared with us, is the primary theme of the Book of Revelations. Revelation 7:16ff says “They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat.... and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (NRSV)

The importance of the Gospel to the world is made clear in the Sermon on the Mount. If we all lived that way, it would be the result of walking with God, as if back in the Garden. There would be the paradise on earth that Adam and Eve left behind when they chose not to share Creation Labor with God if there is to be economic well being in the community adopting the vision of god which we know in Jesus is necessary.

The community outwardly and inwardly shares the Vision and promotes it among newcomers and succeeding generations. The values that will lead to the fulfillment of that Vision are taught to and lived by the community as a whole community.

Questions for evaluation: Does our community have a common vision for its own future and the future of the world? If so, is this vision built on sacred perspectives? Does the Church constantly study the community Vision for areas which need restructure and revision? Does the Church practice the Vision of the community and God?

Examples:

A. The Church, at prayer, can regularly thank God for the Vision of the future. Every prayer which includes an element of confession should contain an element of redemption and Vision.

B. The Church can and should actively participate in community planning and election processes. The congregation might invite various speakers to come explain their sense of vision for the community. The congregation might make registration to vote a normal part of church membership. Without some actions of this nature, the church might be seen as entirely other-worldly. This would not be in the call from Christ. The Sacred Vision is not just wishful thinking. It is a call to action by faithful persons.

C. The Church might develop its own vision for the community, then present it to the planning board and the rest of the community for discussion and action. The Church is called to lead the world as well as to follow Christ.

D. The Church might develop its vision for the community, then prepare various plans of action aimed at making this vision come true. This might include very specific detail, especially including actions for which the congregation must and can take responsibility.

E. One outstanding power of sacred vision is seen in the sand paintings of Navajo sacred persons. If a persons is ill, that person or others in the family may call the sacred person to perform the ritual of sandpainting. At the appointed time the sacred person, with the ill person in attendance if possible, and the family and close friends around, begins the work.

Sand of various colors is poured out on the ground in whatever design comes to the healer. While the healer works, the healer tells a story or relates a vision. The work may take a few hours or a few days. At a precise moment the sand painting is announced as satisfactory to the Creator, and thus complete.

Then the witnesses celebrate, the healer is paid, and everyone goes home. Physicians and other healers have long known of the powers of prayer and vision. Most of us also have a keen awareness of the opposition of prayer and vision against self destruction and despair.

Notes:

A. What evidence have you found from your study to support the rating you have given your community?

B. What evidence have you found to support the rating you have given your congregation?

C. What program(s) would work in your church and community?

D. What will be your work in this process?


Yachats Blue Link

The Creation Story of Akkadia

Enuma Elish

When on High


From about the time of Ezekiel
Adapted by Dr. Karl Evans
from the work of
Dr. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testaments

Sometimes we wonder what difference it makes
What religion we follow,
What beliefs we hold.

Does it matter whether we are Methodist,
Or even Christian, or Muslim or Parsi?
Or Shiite Muslim or Sunni Muslim in Iraq or Iran?
Perhaps there is no difference?

Perhaps it makes no difference what we believe.
Perhaps it makes no difference why we are created,
Or what we believe about our creator.
Perhaps it makes no difference,
The state of the mind of the Creator
At the moment of creation.
We say that sometimes.
But I don't know.
I don't know.

Now our nation is locked into a battle with other nations,
Nations from which our forefathers sprang,
Nations that was the birthplace of Abraham,
The bonds-places of Isaiah, and of Ezekiel,
the home of Babylon and its tower.

When Ezekiel and the people were in slavery there,
Two and a half millennia ago
Ezekiel saw the erosion of the faith.
He saw the ritual
That awful ritual,
That defined the lives of the people of Babylon
on the first day of the
New Year on the tower, that awful place,
the ziggurat,
the holy place of the Babylonians.

Thousands of Babylonians sang and chanted
While standing on the steps of the Ziggurat.
Thousands stood waiting, waiting and listening
For the blessing of the Story of Creation,
For the blessing of being Babylonian.

Ezekiel was confounded by what he saw.
He saw that all the youth of Israel were tempted to join the
Babylonians on the slopes of the Ziggurat.
He knew the story that would be told there,
About the creation.

But there would be no Yahweh
No ancient Lord of Israel,
No remembering the faith
of the Wandering Arameans
who left this place fifteen hundred years before.

Ezekiel knew the citizens of Babylon,
And all those who wished to turn their backs
On the faith of their fathers,
the ancient ones,
Would be there to become as one of the Babylonians
By listening to this story.

They would become as one of the Babylonians,
Free to own land,
Free to marry those cute Babylonian girls,
Free to get a loan at the bank,
By going to the Ziggurat on the first day of the New Year,
By listening to the story,
And allowing the drops of ritual blood to fall on them.

When the children of Israel
Stood on the terraces of the Ziggurat,
This is the story they would hear
That would change them from Israelites
To Babylonians.

Let it be its own witness.
Let it reveal to you the truths of Yahweh and the Creation,
Let it reveal by speaking what is not the truth.
Let it speak by its lies and deceits. Hear,
and understand in your heart
the struggle of Ezekiel.

When on High the heavens had not been named,
Before the fog and mist was brought to order,
Before firm ground had been called forth and named,
There were only two--
By name,
Apsu, the sire of all that was to be,
And Mother Tiamat, she who bore all life in her womb.

The fresh waters of Apsu, the begetter,
And the marine waters of Mother Tiamat,
Commingled together as a single body,
There was no separation between them.
There was no firmness anywhere.
There was not so much as marsh land
In the mist that was their being.

Then it happened that the gods were formed within them,
Gods and goddesses were brought forth,
Being named and ordered by Apsu and Mother Tiamat.

The first of them were formed, Anshar and Kishar by name,
Called before all others.
And Anshar and Kishar lived long and well.

Their child was Anu, the equal of Anshar and Kishar,
The equal of all before him.
The Heir-child of Anu was Nudimmud,
Not the equal of his fathers,
But the master of his fathers
And his fathers' fathers.

Nudimmud was one of broad wisdom,
Understanding,
Mighty in strength.
He was mightier by far than his grandfather, Anshar.
Nudimmud had no rival among the other gods, his brothers.

Nudimmud was leader among the gods,
Chief among the pack, chief at the party.
Nudimmud and his brothers ran and shouted back and forth
Among the mists of all that was.
One day they partied and laughed,
On another day they fought and cried the cries of battle.
Every day they were loud,
Strong in their disturbance of Tiamat, the mother god..

By their loudness and their laughter and their youthful cries
They disturbed the mood of Tiamat as they surged
Back and forth, back and forth.

Apsu, the father of their fathers,
Chided them strongly for their loudness.
"Pipe down in there!
Have a little respect for your elders."
Tiamat was beside herself at their ways,
These young gods and goddesses, their seed.
Their actions were loathsome to her.
Unsavory were their ways,
They were overbearing in their manner,
Rebellious children.

Then Apsu called his wizard, saying
"You who makes my spirit sing,
Let us go talk to Tiamat!"
Together they went to the beautiful Tiamat,
The mother of all gods and goddesses.

Apsu spoke words of anger and bitterness.
"I find their ways repugnant and stupid.
There is no relief during the day
And I cannot rest by night.

I will destroy them,
I will wreck their ways
That quiet may be restored.
Let us have rest!" said Apsu.

Hearing this, Tiamat raged at Apsu.
"What is this?
Should we destroy all that we have built?
These are our children!
We will be kind and gentle with them."

Then the wizard spoke to Apsu.
His advice was evil and self-serving.
"Destroy them and their mutinous ways.
Then you will have relief both by day and by night."

And Apsu's face grew red with rage at what he planned
Against his sons and daughters.

Now, whatever Apsu and Tiamat plotted between them
Was repeated to the gods, the children of Apsu and Tiamat.
When the child-gods heard these things,
They became frightened,
Then fell into silence and remained speechless.

But one of the gods, surpassing all others in wisdom,
Experienced in power and in resourcefulness,
His name was Ea,
He saw through their scheme.
Ea designed a master design, bold and daring,
And by his powers set it into the whole scheme of being so That none could set it aside or depart from it.

Ea made Apsu sleep the non-waking sleep,
The sleep of too much wine..
With Apsu asleep, the wizard was unable to stir,
For his being resulted only from the mind of Apsu.
After Ea chained Apsu,
Ea took the crown from the head of Apsu
And placed it on his own head.
He took the cosmic halo
And wrapped it around his own brow.

Having thus bound Apsu,
Ea slew his father's father.

Then there was peace for a time.

Ea and his Bride, Damkina,
Dwelled in peace in the holy house
Built on the rounded belly,
the top of the body of Apsu,
The body on which we stand today.
This body, the Great Height of Babylon.

Now, in this holy house,
The sacred home on the holy hill,
Was created a god,
The most able and wise of the gods.

Marduk was his name.
Nursed by the most becoming of the goddesses,
Marduk was rendered perfect in awesomeness,
Strong in his walk, alluring in his figure,
Sparkling the lift of his eyes.

There was no disfigurement to see or to control him by.
Four were his eyes, four were his ears,
Seeing all things and hearing all things.
When he moved his lips,
Fire blazed forth.

Damkina his mother cried out
"My Son! My Son!
My Son, the Sun of the Heavens!"

The child-gods looked among themselves
For a champion,
A hero to battle the awesome Tiamat, their mother.

And Marduk was named to be King,
Conferred with scepter, throne and robe.
They said to Marduk,
"Go and cut off the life of Tiamat.
Sever her into many pieces!
May the winds bear her parts to places unknown!"

Then Marduk laid his face to disturb Tiamat,
The mother of gods,
To wrest from her the last knot of power.

Marduk called forth the storms to disturb Tiamat,
For the gods have no sleep in the storm.

And the words came to Tiamat,
"Watch what Marduk is doing!
When they slew Apsu, your lover,
You did not aid him but lay still.

Because you lay still, and did not stir,
Your lover Apsu was destroyed.
Now Marduk has brought the mighty storm to disturb you,
And there is no rest.
There is none other. You are left alone.
Let Apsu, your lover, be avenged!"

So Tiamat chose from among her own assembled gods,
Her first-born,
A council for battle, and a leader.
This leader was one Kingu, given all power in council.
"Your command shall be unchangeable,
Your word shall endure."
Tiamat set Kingu up as her son, her heir,
In command of all things.
Kingu began to prepare for battle,
Calling from all the council of Tiamat their advice.

From Mother Hubur, who fashions all things,
Tiamat gathered matchless weapons.
Only Mother Hubur could make them,
These master tools of violence.

Tiamat bore monster-serpents with sharp teeth
And long fangs, filled with venom.
Tiamat clothed roaring dragons with terror,
Making them like gods,
So that all who look upon them will die.
She set up the Viper,
The Dragon,
And the Sphinx.
She called for the Great Lion,
The Mad Dog,
And the Scorpion-man,
The Centaur,
Weapons that spare not.

Thus Tiamat prepared to avenge her lover, Apsu,
To make her own peace by destroying her own children.

And thus it came that the battle to be fought,
Came to be fought between Tiamat, the mother of gods,
And Marduk,
Merodach-bashan, to those who read the Old Testament.
It was a battle long on power and on brutality,
A battle not ever to be matched
among those who survived the first..

Marduk and Tiamat fought with demons and dragons,
Powers and beasts,
With sharp teeth and clashing fang.

With loud roars,
Marduk threw lightning bolts through the skies at Tiamat.
With shrieks of anger,
Tiamat tore at Marduk
With her Scorpion-man
And with her Mad Dog.

Then at last Tiamat opened her mouth with a rage,
To the roots of her legs she shook,
Casting leave of her senses.

Tiamat prepared to consume Marduk,
So wide open was her mouth.

Marduk seized the moment,
The decisive moment of the universe,
Drove the tornado into her mouth
So she could not close it.
Her body was distended by the force of the wind.
He slew her with an arrow formed of the lightning,
A flash of fire, a spear formed of the heat of the sun.

Casting her down.
Marduk slew her there.
Marduk slit her body open as a clamshell,
Half of which he posted as the earth,
Holding the waters of Apsu and Tiamat.
Half the body of Tiamat
Marduk made to be the sky.
Marduk named the years and the days.
Marduk set up the seasons and the constellations.
He set the moon ablaze at night.

And then Marduk announce his grandest plan.
"Blood I will mass, and cause bones to be.
I will establish a savage, Man shall be his name.
He will do the work for the gods,
That the gods will be at ease.
For we are gods, and labor should not be our lot.
But one of the gods must die
That the rest of us might live.

Ea, the father of Marduk, spoke to Marduk,
Pleased by the plan for the relief of the gods.
"Let but one of the gods be handed over.
He alone shall perish that mankind may be fashioned.
Let us call the gods into assembly,
And let the god who is guilty before all be handed over
That the others may endure."

In the assembly, the gods cried out,
“It was not I!
It was Kingu!
It was Kingu who brought the uprising,
Who caused the battle!"

They brought poor Kingu before Ea
Who pronounced the guilt
And the condemnation of Kingu.
They opened his blood vessels
And as his blood fell freely in drops to the earth,
Full of the very passion of the gods,
The vision of the gods for tomorrow,
Full of the power of the gods,
The blood was fashioned into humankind,
By the addition of the ways of death
And uncertain knowledge
And humankind became a reality
For the service of the gods.
For the eternal service of the gods.

And it came to pass that humankind,
To this day,
Is called to serve the gods.

Humankind is named from the blood of Kingu
To plow the fields and irrigate the crops,
To harvest the crops,
To build temples for the glory of the gods,
And to bring to these temples
The best of the produce of the fields
That the gods might be satisfied
And rage and battle no more.

And when the old year and all persons die,
The blood of Kingu will scatter upon the earth,
And you will come again to life
And yet again will the gods be satisfied
By your labors.

And as the priest finished reciting the story of the creation,
He gathered up his container of wine,
Shaking it against the skies,
Letting the drops of blood-red liquid fall among the crowd
Gathered on the slopes of the Tower.
And the drops were brought into new life in the persons on whom they fell,
New life to serve the gods,
The citizenship of the nation,
For the service of the gods.

Let no one assume, now,
That the people of Iraq still share that ancient myth.
Today, even the people of Iraq,
Devout Muslims, many,
Strong in their faith,
Have a creation story that is different--
Quite different--
From the one I have just told you.
They have turned their backs on this old story--
Indeed, most of them abandoned it long ago.

Let us consider the new story they have chosen
To establish the relationship between human beings and god,
The god they know as Allah.

Let me read to you just a bit of this story.

In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth,
And the earth was without form and void, adrift in the mist.
And darkness was upon the face of the deep waters. ......

Sound Familiar? It should.

The Scriptures of Islam and the Scriptures
Of Judaism and Christianity are together
Until we reach the story of Hagar and Ishmael.

Then let me read to you something that is said later.
Coming from the covenant God makes with the People,
Who live out this story of life and covenant.

God loved the people of the world so much
that he gave the life of his only son
That whoever lives and has faith with him
might not perish but have eternal life.

The Sense of Creation

The Sense of Creation

Note: This is the first essay in the series of discussing the ways the Church and other non-profit organizations can and should enhance entrepreneurship and economic development locally.

1. ___/___

Are the individuals, families and organizations able to function with God’s creative activity recognizable in their words, actions and relationships? When someone looks at the life of the community, is it obvious that folks are thankful that God has set them down in this place and time as a gift?

Scripture to think about: Psalm 8: What are the people of your community and congregation that God is mindful of them?

As you read the 8th Psalm, hear the words and their flow as coming from your Creator. You are created as a human being because God wants to have you to love.

What is there in this passage that speaks to your inner self? Read several translations of this passage in order to gain a deeper understanding of the sense of the passage. You might make a list of a half dozen issues of your deepest consciousness. Then consider how this passage speaks to each of these issues.

How are these words passed to you in any way through history? To say it another way, why do you have these words about the thinking of God? You might trace the path of this transmission from the Creation to today. Or just trace them from the ancient Hebrews living in what is now Iraq to yourself. What is there about living where and when you are that is touched by this passage? Use all the space and time you need to trace these feelings of God from then until now.

What impact do these emotions of God have on your sense of who you are? Remember, everyone’s feelings are as important as anyone else’s feelings. While your actions are not as powerful as God’s actions at times, your feelings are just as important. God did not say that Adam and Eve should not feel as they did. Rather, they were just not to take some specific actions.

If your community has a good sense of creation, reality itself is seen in the community as a personal gift from God for the benefit of humankind. It is therefore to be treated with as much respect, gratitude, concern and understanding as can be mustered. God creates the world and humankind, then comes to us bearing the additional gifts of the Spirit and the Christ. Matters of ecology and resources are of intense concern for the whole community as response to Creation itself.

Within the Hopi Nation of Arizona exists a powerful sense of the Creator. Rituals of dance and song and meditation typically focus our senses on living within the dream of the Creator for the world. From the high mesas of the reservation the Hopi can and do survey from now until tomorrow the world around them. In surveying this world spiritually the people accept for themselves both some of the responsibility, some of the possibilities and some of the necessity of careful action within the Creator’s dream for the world.

The Bible tells of the Hebrews struggling with the understanding of themselves in Creation. They knew their call was not to destroy the earth, to use it up. Rather, God wanted them to share the further creative activity with God’s own self. They knew the importance of mimicking God’s intent and action in the Creation. Adam and Eve were ejected from the Garden of Eden then they chose to operate apart from God’s intentions. Walking hand in hand with God is a requirement.

The Bible speaks often of humankind’s role in Creation. We are both Created and co-Creator. We are to name the animals, to civilize the universe and to spread peace and justice everywhere. Our attempts to do this are marks of faithfulness. Our unwillingness to do this work in concert with our loving God is a matter for forgiveness and redemption.

Does our community understand itself as sharing God’s creative work? Does the Church lead the community in learning the possibilities of the creative process? Is the Church able to communicate that responsible entrepreneurship is a legitimate part of sacred creation labor?

Examples of Action that May Help the Sense of Creation

A. Following a lectionary of some sort will nearly always find us using at least one of the Biblical creation stories in worship during the year. Often this celebration comes at the first of the calendar year, but not necessarily.

At some day through the year the congregation will vividly recall the Creation in whatever way it chooses. Usually this will coincide with lectionary processes. There are several creation stories in the scriptures that can be studied and compared. Some of these can readily be presented in poetry, music, technical drama, art, etc. The style is open to creativity.

B. Around 600 B.C. - 480 B.C. the Hebrews were in captivity in Babylon. They were slaves, doing the will of the Babylonians. The real struggle, though, was remembering their own creation story and rejecting the Babylonian creation stories. In the Church, we occasionally serve well if we spend a little time retelling both stories. Then we can understand our own a little better. God texts for this material exist in many local and regional libraries. A well recognized form of the old Babylonian / Akkadian story is the “Enuma Elish”. This title arises from the first words of the text which are best translated: “When on high....” My translation of this work will be included in a later post.

C. There are many possibilities for ecological emphasis during the year. We can study, celebrate, pray, sing or simply read from the vast supply of ecology material which exists today. We can find special speakers or pull together groups for many different emphasis. Simple things such as cleaning up some portion of the environment or celebrating birds singing can add to the understanding and sense of Creation.

D. Almost every community has an annual celebration of some sort. The church has the option of taking a leadership role in these. The Church can move the festivities into a celebration of the gift of life and creation itself. It can do this without becoming obnoxiously evangelistic.

E. Freedom of religious expression and theology is primarily defined as the right to live within one’s own understanding of the Creator’s dream. Using such passages as Psalm, it is easy to present a great variety of self understanding.

What are your own brainstorm and creative thoughts?

1. What evidence have you found to support the rating you have given your own community?

2. What evidence have you found to support the rating you have given your community?

3. What programs might work in your church and community?

4. What will be your work in this process?

5. How will you reveal these thoughts to your church and community?

Getting Started in our Own Community

Faith and Rural Economic Development

Getting Started in our Own Community

Karl Evans



There is a fountain of resources within the Church for economic development in small rural areas. Most of this fountain is untouched. Many people have tried to tell me that the economic development is not a concern of the Church. The claim is often made that the church is for theological matters such as rescue from Hell, teaching prayer, or getting us ready for an eternity in Heaven.

This statement is rarely made by those who stay away from the Church in the lowest income communities. Many of these people agree with this assessment of the mission of the church. However, these issues are not of any major interest at the moment, so they ignore the Church. A lifelong Roman Catholic in Antonito, Colorado told me “When the priest starts talking and making sense about the things that are important to me today, I will be in Mass every day. But most of what the pope says doesn’t interest me at all.”

I am convinced, however, that here is the wide open field for the mission of churches and other charitable non-profits in the U.S. and around the world. People plainly want support in their daily lives.

So the question becomes, how do folks spend their daily lives? It’s an easy answer. People in North America spend most of their lives trying to make a living. Not just surviving, but getting comfortable financially. For most of the world, gathering money is important.

In any community, certain factors which are the clear responsibility of the faith community must be provided if the people are to enjoy the ability to gather money. Without them the community will not make progress in its economic, social, psychological and spiritual levels. Where any of these are not provided, the community effort to gather money falters in some way. The evaluation form which follows is developed from the findings of nearly forty years of professional pastoral, teaching and research ministry.

I have listened and learned about poverty at the feet of people whose whole lives were being rocked by drastic poverty. My parents married and started a family in the depths of the Great Depression. Our neighbors bought or homesteaded land in times when ninety per cent of those who tried in that community eventually gave up. My service and study has taken me into about 150 of the lowest per capita income counties of the U.S.

As I learned, it became obvious that many nonprofit fraternal and service groups of every kind beyond the Church had their responsibilities. While I looked for specific work for the Church, it was easy to translate this to any nonprofit group. Elks, Masonic Orders, Veterans of Foreign Wars, 4-H clubs, Odd Fellows, Grange, hospital auxiliaries, and every other group can find in this study a mission for themselves. Every group has its own words to substitute in the study outcome.

It is also easy to consider the mission of your own family. Almost every family would be pleased if everyone in the family gained the ability to be financially comfortable at some level. The work of economic development for your own family is not just a matter of making a few more dollars each day. Personal economic development is a matter of preparing your own family to better itself economically.

Now as we look at our own home towns, we can pick at a variety of factors that impact economic lives. Each of these is important. Each of these is open to impact from many different sides.

At this moment, India is living with a fantastic spurt of economic growth. The Indian media speaks of the growth as being primarily due to two factors. The monsoon season has brought very good rains, and winds have been light. http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/04/21/india.economy/). Second, U.S. industry is transferring huge quantities of labor needs to Asia. My friend, Murthy Sudhakar, (http://www.indiatogether.org) points out that nearly all of this economic spurt benefits only those already wealthy. His organization is working to enable local low income villages to share in that wealth increase.

This list of important income factors does include the kind of work that is reserved for governments, banks, major industries, or public relations firms. These ‘for profit’ firms and government entities can and should work in most of the areas listed in this series. Every successful private industry and governmental office takes the work seriously. It is a standard function of success. But major responsibilities in these areas are for the church and other nonprofit groups, including families.

At the close of the formal study of the lowest income counties in the U.S. I began to visit more areas. My intent has been to locate and define a major list of factors which of themselves would constitute mission targets for the local congregations and larger Church entities.

Donella and I have been able to talk with people in dozens of rural communities across the U.S. and Canada. Our RV has been through some of the weakest areas of the nation. We have listened, groped for words, asked questions, shared ideas, cried and laughed as the humanity of these areas has been revealed to us.

After all this we have come to a deeper respect for the insights of the people we have met from all walks of life. Pastors, homeless, entrepreneurs, children, educators ... And on and on.

In this light perhaps the most fascinating group we found was making an impact in Tunica, Mississippi. FCCCOT (Former Concerned and Concerned Citizens of Tunica) is a group of individuals who have spent at least part of their lives in Tunica County. Many have moved away from Tunica. But in their hearts, they continue to feel that Tunica County, and particularly the Tunica School System, are in need of their support. They contribute money, leadership, prayers and dream development to the community whether they live in Tunica or in Detroit.

This series consists largely of a tool we have found helpful and relatively easy to use. While we have tried to help, we have first tried to comprehend. This tool has been a labor of love and inquiry as churches and other groups have worked to develop their own mission to their own communities, much like FCCCOT.

My suggestion is that you would gather a number of your congregation or nonprofit group together for evaluation and introduction to the possibilities. Fraternal groups, service clubs, educational fellowships and many other gatherings can adapt this tool. The most significant factor is identifying the group’s own mission in the community regarding entrepreneurship and economic growth.

Following the lead of others who have helped develop this tool, you may wish to score your own community and/or congregation. At some point you may wish to apply the scale to your entire culture.



Defining a Mission of Economic Development

As you work through this study tool, the questions will be both simple and heart wrenching. The words are easy, but the choices you must make will force difficult decisions.

In your community and church, what is your evaluation of each of these areas of life? You, as pastor, officer, citizen, teacher, deacon, elder, student, or member, have the responsibility. You have no leeway to raise the issue of personal poverty without personally looking at potential cures. We also need to remember that God never asks us to take any action God chooses to ignore.

Jesus is portrayed in much of New Testament literature as working with extremely low income people as well as with the wealthy. His work was not limited to healing physical problems. He did not just make the blind see, or the deaf hear, or cleanse the lepers.

Jesus impressed on many their responsibility for the world. “You are the salt of the earth.” “This woman who has given a coin has given much.” “Turn away from your family and neighbors to make the world a righteous place.”

At the head of each section of this little study are two blank spaces separated by a slash. I encourage you to use these spaces to help you understand your own needs and mission as you read each section.

On a scale of zero to ten (0-10), with ten being high, give the community a mark in the first space for the general level of the factor in your community. Take into account all you know about your community, its history and its people. Be as critical and as complete as you wish. No one will call you wrong for your judgement. It is very personal.

Then in the second space, give your congregation and/or your denomination a mark on the same scale for the strength and efficacy of its commitment to build these factors in your community. Ask yourself what would Jesus say or do when faced with the needs of the people in your community today. These needs will be the same for all people whether in the U.S. or other nations. Or perhaps we should ask what Jesus did, according to the Gospels. Then we could judge our own efforts accordingly.

It will be important to sharply limit any generalizations. Be as specific as possible as you work on these questions. Check your perceptions by getting opinions and feelings from a broad spectrum of your community. Especially, check with those who seem to have some overt desire to move ahead economically. Ask them to be very honest in their assessment of the community realities.

Be extremely honest. You are not doing this exercise in order to make yourself or someone else feel good. You are doing it to fit better into the way the Creator works.

Be sure to make many notes. We never know when a random thought will give us necessary insight into our own lives or the lives of others. Brainstorms, ideas and concepts should fill your study pages. Jot down anything you find important to work with later.

The reader should also realize that this discussion will always be incomplete. Every person who studies this material should be comfortable adding to the list of issues and consequences. The same structure can and should be used for any other potential or current affect of ministry.

There are several other keys, of course. Always look to your source of knowledge and understanding for help. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral is a common evaluation tool of sources of understanding and hope. Scripture, history, reason and personal experience provide the base under this scheme.

This series is intended to give you a few handles for fulfilling the needs of the community. Some of it may seem overlapping. Other parts may even seem contradictory. You will probably find a factor or two to add to this list. I do not claim to have found every issue. But in any case, when you struggle with each factor, I believe you will find good help in developing your ministry.

There are fifteen separate areas for evaluation. Be certain to record the scores you give each area of study. As your community congregations and other groups prepare their mission work, they will want to know these scores. If you are honest to your preparation, your priorities for mission will be based on these scores.

The Sense of Community

The Sense of Community
Karl Evans

For humans, the sense of community is perhaps most difficult to comprehend. We have a seemingly normal tendency to understand human relationships in dramatically objective and first person singular terms. Our advertisements on television focus on MY needs. Our sermons seem to focus on MY responsibilities, and MY relationship with Christ. Even our searches for marital partners focus on MY desires, MY hopes, MY dreams.

We talk in very objective ways about percentages of marriages that survive or fail. We note that some given percentage of the population attends church. We begin to panic when we find that we have some number of our population in prison. These numbers are interesting and even sometimes helpful. On the other hand, they entirely miss the point of personal community

In God’s world, community includes three persons or groups of persons. It goes something like this.

Imagine a three-sided conversation, a relationship. These are common in human life. A girl cannot choose between two boys. A father, a mother and a newborn child. A judge, a prosecutor and the accused. In this case, the three persons of the relationship might be named as God, me and you.

In every three-sided relationship several principles are at work. First, the little community includes everyone and everything affected by the actions and thoughts of any. No one or no thing can be cut out of our community on the basis of any notion. John Donne wrote "No man is an island, complete as unto himself."

Second, the relationships portrayed here show the give and take relationships in every direction between the three. Each of these lines is the direct responsibility of the two parties on the ends of that line. This is easy to see. My relationship with God is God’s responsibility and it is my responsibility.

But that relationship is also a responsibility of the third party of the community as well. It is the responsibility of the “other” in the triangle. Sometimes the other can make direct impact on this God-Me relationship by impacting my life somehow. Sometimes the other will speak to God directly, perhaps on my behalf.

This is true all around the community, the faith community as we know it. God has some, but not all, responsibility for my relationship with other humans. And it is a clear statement of most faith groups that God does impact our human relationships with each other in unlimited ways.

Third, that three way relationship is the real definition of faith. The Greek word pistis seems best translated as "personal relationship". We often try to use words like trust, belief, certainty or others. But these words seem to lack something when we read them into the Gospels. Try reading the Gospel and Johannine passages which speak of "faith" by substituting the words "loving personal relationship".

This is core to the effectiveness of this little discussion. Whether or not you have economic health is always both a concern and a responsibility to me and to our Lord. We have the obligation to make your relationships better if we can understand how. This is the mission of Christ, and it is the mission of the Church.

Jesus came among us to make human life as good as possible. Because Jesus makes our own lives that good, our response will include taking that mission on toward each other. Any relationship reflects in some way every other relationship in one’s life. My relationship with you is a function of my relationship with Christ. My relationship with Christ shouts something of my relationship with you.

A very common question in Christian classes opens the door to our task. The question is simple. “Why did Jesus live and die and come out of the tomb?”

The answer is a simple one. “Jesus came to make human life the best possible.” Our task in economic development is precisely that. To do everything possible to make human life as good as it can be, regardless the risk. We can respond to the work of Jesus doing this for us only by doing it for each other.

A Church that Matters

A ringing phone after ten p.m. in a pastor's home is a sure sign that someone is in trouble. They need help fast. It might be a frustrated parent, a frightened spouse, a discouraged police officer; anyone.

This time, though, the voice was a pastor whom I had met several months earlier. While looking at the lowest income rural counties in the U.S., I had visited with him for a few hours about his community. It was perhaps in the bottom ten rural counties in the nation for personal income.

Now several months had gone by. My report to the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church had been turned in. It rested securely and comfortably on a shelf in New York City. It would probably never see the light of day again. But the pastor needed help now.

"What is the Church prepared to do for us? We need help. Our people are starving. We pay in all that money for mission work. That is a part of being United Methodist. Then it goes to either New York or some other overseas place. We are getting tired of that."

What he didn't say was that the community was deciding whether or not to support a casino gambling industry in the county. He may have been primarily looking for some hope of stopping the gambling industry. It is pretty hard to resist the lure of casino industries when the actual common unemployment rate runs above 70%.

When I told him the results of the study, he became terrible depressed and tearful. He mourned the wasted money for the study. I told him I would try to find out what I could. He just hung up the phone without words of goodby.

Since that time I have spent much time revisiting and studying these counties. My wife, Donella, and I have also visited many more counties where the per capita income is less than one third that of the nation as a whole. I have looked for ways the whole Church (not just denominationally) does and should impact the economic well being of the community.

When I visited the other communities in the study, I heard the same song over and over. Often the songs rang with almost the same words. The words were changed only with the variation in faith community practices. United Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Mormon, whatever. Wherever there existed any ecclesiastical structure I heard the same cry. 'We send the money away, but we are among the lowest income people of the world, and no maoney ever comes back.'

One overwhelming desire and need seems to fill these communities. There is a clear sense that the hope of financial stability for the local community, and for the whole world, is in local entrepreneurship. Newspapers and electronic media make headlines with the remote possibilities of mahor industries coming to town. However, this eventuality is more rare than top grade caviar. If nothing else, we can and must be realistic in our approach.

It is clearly true that many folks wish to become business owners and operators. Many have dreams of owning and operating their own business in their own home towns. They would love to go to the bank, borrow the money, purchase equipment, and make things happen. But it is also clearly true that in the lowest income areas, the drive to own and operate a business is tempered with expectations of failure. This attitude pervades both the potential entrepreneurs and the community providers, the bankers and the landlords and the politicians who must support the project if it is to work.

In most of these areas there are adequate funding programs coming from state and federal sources and private programs. But those who could and perhaps should establish business operations in the area just don't. It is in fostering entrepreneurship that the church and other non-profit entities can and should do their strongest work for low income communities.

But it is also in this area that the church often falters. Sometimes the church limits itself to overt evangelism or entertainment. Sometimes the church avoids talking about money or justice. Sometimes the church fosters a distrust of local entrepreneurship. Often the last can be traced in part to inexperienced clergy. One successful farmer in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas left the United Methodist Church after a staffer "came down from New York City and told me that, if I was successful, it was because I was cheating someone."

Honestly, I believe the church can and should look to our founder, Lord and Master, Jesus of Nazareth. He was, among other things, quite an entrepreneur himself. He gathered and held together a small staff of non-experts and changed the world with them. His finances were meager, and his technology was limited. Yet by his personal power he was successful in every way that finally mattered.

The great proof of his success in what he came for is found in the certainty that he did change lives. Nothing more could be asked.

As I have worked through this project I have told hundreds of laity, clergy, denominational leaders, economists, social scientists and everyone else I could find who would listen. As I have finished laying out the project I have been asked a powerful question by most of them.

"What is it you would have us do after we read the book and attend a workshop?" That seems to be a fair question to any person who works in this area.

And the answer is quite simple. As you become accustomed to thinking about economic development, entrepreneurship and mission together, you can focus the mission of your faith group or other non-profit entity on economic development and entrepreneurship needs.

Hopefully, you will make your programs, goals, tactics and strategies align with the needs of your own members and the rest of the community. If the community needs self esteem, for instance, you will program in that direction. And this will be backed by your own efforts and the efforts of others with any other need you can find.

I have great trust in the good faith action of the working people. If folks can respond to their faith with God by doing good toward their fellow human beings, I believe they will do just that. They just need to understand how. That is the point of the project.