Consumables

Holistic: characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.

Liberation: the act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery, or oppression; release.

My second course with The People’s Seminary is titled Healing and Holistic Liberation: Biblical Foundations and Principles. We began Wednesday evening. The first session was “Identity and Authority in Christ”. Fourteen (or so) professionals from the area gathered to become better equipped in transformational ministry.

The first question: What are the obstacles that keep you from living as an empowered son or daughter of the Father? 

We receive our identity as individuals from many cultural and social sources–primarily from our family, from our parents. What spiritual authority do we place and worship in our lives? What authority do we receive from these sources? If you were as interested in Fight Club (1999) as a high schooler as I was, then you know where I’m going with this.

Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God?

Our individual understanding of our own selves (our self-worth, ability, worth, and value) are wildly affected by the relationship we had and have with our own fathers. So what do we know about them?

• Raphael’s dad was absent his whole life. He sought, denied, and struggled with several father-figures while trying to grow up to be a strong, healthy man.
• Monica’s parents were alcoholics. They divorced when she was seven, and she saw her dad at important events. Her mother remarried to another alcoholic, and she left home at 17.
• Dylan said he only had bad stories about his father.

(Names changed to protect privacy.) 

These are the people seeking to die and be resurrected in Christ. Here’s the specific strategy for ministries that seek to celebrate Christ’s transformative power. We must realize that we turn away from God, seek false authorities, and carry a warped understanding of love, security, and family. Only then are we able to look to Christ to turn our shoulders toward God as our authority, as our model of a loving father, instead of the other way around. We are made whole, we practice forgiveness, and we, the broken and weary, are being equipped to bear witness to God’s lost people.

I am grateful that this ministry seeks to first address the most foundational cracks in our hearts.

No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:12-13

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.
Romans 8:14-16

There is a parable called Upstream Downstream that has guided me in my work as a street nurse. It’s about visiting health care workers in a developing country. Standing by a riverbed they suddenly see bodies floating down the river. Frantically, they start pulling the bodies out and begin resuscitation. When they look up they see a continual flow of bodies down the river. They call for help and keep pulling the bodies onto the riverbank and apply CPR. Finally, one of them asks: “Who or what is upstream pushing the bodies into the river?”

This is an article by Cathy Crowe, written for RABBLE.CA in December of 2014. It is one of few arguments that point out how to think smart(er) about helping people. Crowe helpfully and humbly submits her perspective as a street nurse to illustrate what the 1/3-1/3-1/3 model of effective mobilization might look like to combat homelessness.

The downstream one-third would support the front-line organizations in your community that directly help homeless people. Think homeless shelters, violence against women shelters, drop-in centres and outreach programs…

The upstream one-third would support affordable housing. This involves finding out who is building affordable housing in your community…

The final one-third is also an upstream solution and it involves advocacy. This is the work by individuals and groups that ensure more shelters are opened to meet the need, that cold alerts are called and warming centres opened, and keep the campaign for a national housing program on the national agenda…

Crowe’s writing here exists because of good, compassionate people who live in an unjust world and want to see it transformed. The people who dedicate their careers to understanding how to do so need to be louder. When churches and elementary schools gather mittens and toothbrushes for the local shelter before Christmas vacation, there should be more frank discussions about additional, underlying, systemic, and interwoven injustices.

Living in awe and fear of the Father, the power of His Son, and the example of the Spirit fulfills all three 1/3 parts of effective change in a community.
Tierra Nueva’s highest value is in hosting God’s Presence. We worship with migrant workers, incarcerated individuals, and gang members in many ways.

• collecting and distributing immediate necessities at the Family Support Center
• assisting and advocating on matters of labor, housing, insurance, and legality
• empowering and training members across the world through The People’s Seminary and New Earth Refuge
• holding elected officials and legislators accountable in governing justly and effectively
• partnering with believers of Christ around the world in telling the stories of a broken world that is transforming

I’m wildly grateful to be part of an effort that is holistic and grounded on the redeeming power of Christ.

If you’ve read this far, please offer the convictions in your heart and community, and how they are being addressed. 

In our own Skagit Valley, Shelter from the Cold, Friendship House, Reverie BBQ, Love Inc., and Family Promise provide immediate provisional shelter, sustenance, rest, and security.

Agencies, ministries, and organizations like Community Action, Northwest Youth Services, Catholic Community Services, Brigid Collins, New Earth Recovery, and Love Inc. walks with individuals and families to empower growth and healthy life decisions, often while providing needs such as housing and addiction recovery.

(This is an incomplete list! Hallelujah!)

There’s a new-ish recess game at Immaculate Conception Regional School, which is my current day job. It’s called GAGA BALL. It’s crazy. I love it.
To play Gaga Ball, you put a bunch of kids in an arena-like pit and throw a ball in. It’s so crazy. The object of the game is to hit other players with the ball. It’s the best. So many bloody knuckles and twisted ankles.

• You can only hit it underhand, and can’t hit it twice in a row. (If I hit it, I can’t hit it again until it bounces off the wall or another player hits it.)
• If you hit another kid above the waist, you’re out.
• If you hit it and the ball flies out of the arena, you’re out.
• When one kid gets out, a new kid jumps in.
• Play only stops if the ball gets out of the arena.

The rest of the kids line up on the outside of the arena and jeer, holler, and whoop at the players inside. The next kid in line to go in is the INFALLIBLE UMPIRE. It’s in the rules that you can’t argue with the umpire–it’s incredibly important that this rule is enforced to keep the flow of the game AND to instill a sense of duty and justice in our kids.
I can’t tell you how proud I get when I see a meek, awkward, sweaty 5th grader call out a loud, boisterous 8th grader. It brings tears to my eyes. It’s the best game. It’s one of many things that educators dissect and analyze because we are concerned about childhood development.

I’ve seen 6-year-olds figure out that you can “dribble” against the wall to get better positioning.

3rd graders are coming to school with special gloves.

I saw one girl whose strategy is to NEVER BACK AWAY FROM THE BALL because she’ll (almost) always be able to block her legs with her arms. And if she crouches low the whole time, she’ll get hit on the back or the head. She’s fantastic.

But what often happens, because of humanity, is that the loud, boisterous 8th grader will pretend he didn’t get hit and keep playing. If he gets called out, he’ll argue. If more people call him out, because he’s breaking additional rules, he’ll dawdle SLOWLY out of the arena… and then he’ll go to the next place in line, not the end of the line. I’ve seen this happen, and I hear about it from teary 5th graders. It breaks my heart when the other kids allow this to happen because that means that one kid thinks he is more important than 30+ other kids, many of them younger than he.

It’s an incredibly important game. Many kids have quit playing when certain older kids play, even though they love it. They LOVE Gaga Ball, but they tell me it’s not worth spending all that recess time in line.
(I hesitate to send them back and give the older kids a thrashing, but I HAVE had more than a few all-together reviewing of the rules.)

I was reading THE GOD ASK, and came upon a note on Tony Campolo’s sociological study of people over the age of 95. (The takeaway: take more risks.) Campolo was speaking at the 2006 National Pastors Convention in San Diego, and I am unable to find the transcript of his message. (Please help.) But here’s a short take from Christianity Today.

What is the hard truth we need to be prophetically declaring? Campolo (glasses removed and squinted eyes buried in his skull) rebuked evangelical church leaders for being silent on issues like poverty, education, war, government sponsored torture, and economic injustice.

I love this stuff, and not only because it’s so similar to Bernie Sanders’ platform, but ALSO because it’s so similar to what Gaga Ball teaches the kids at Immaculate Conception. The meek 5th grader summoned up all the courage she had to call out an older kid. If you know kids who are just about to enter high school, you know how nasty they can be, especially when they’re surrounded by their peers.

2016 was a nightmare, and I can see my part in it. I did not meet with people in my community who held differing political worldviews–even people that I regularly speak with on friendly terms! I shook my head at atrocity and continued sitting on the couch. I continue to allow oppression, violence, abuse, and injustice to take place in my community and across the world.

After singing Christmas songs, festooning our homes with lights, and celebrating the incredible strangeness of a Savior in a manger, I believe the appropriate next step is to follow convictions and solve problems.

On the other page, I talk about traveling around the world and seeing the outcome of oppression. It’s a similar outcome to what I hear about and see in the Skagit Valley. Gangs, substance abuse, homelessness, exploitation, and other grotesque realities are a globally present for the same reason that people jump out of burning buildings: they’re desperate to escape. And the role of the government (the people) and the church (God’s people) is to make whole what is broken and live justly. “Come quickly, Lord Jesus,” a million times AND let’s get to work. 

The day after publishing this blog, Senator Bernie Sanders wrote this.