VineyardUSA launches Justice Response

our Vineyard Anti-Slavery Team has been working for the last year on a resource website to empower and equip people to join the fight against modern-day slavery. well, we are ready to go, and VineyardUSA has launched Justice Response.

we are hoping this site has easy on ramps for people , as well as being easy to navigate with real resources that can empower and equip us to follow the Father and join the fight against modern-day slavery.

Below is the press release that Kathy Maskell of the Elm City Vineyard wrote:

Association of Vineyard Churches Launches Justice Response Website, Targets Human Trafficking

January 18, 2010— The Association of Vineyard Churches (www.vineyardusa.org) proudly announces the launch of “Justice Response,” a new website designed to equip pastors and lay leaders to address international and domestic human trafficking. Developed by the Vineyard Anti-Slavery Team (VAST), the website provides an approachable introduction to the complex dimensions of human trafficking, along with practical resources pastors can use to engage their congregations. The “Justice Response” website provides an overview of human trafficking, from child soldiers to sex slaves to bonded labor. Specific resources include sermon ideas, small group resources, guides to mapping hotspots for human trafficking in your community, and guides to fair-trade products. The site will be expanded in the future to include a variety of resources for worship leaders and Christian workers overseas.

Comprised of over 500 churches in the United States, and hundreds more worldwide, the Vineyard movement has a consistent history of challenging its members to care for the poor and the marginalized. In the wake of the growing movement among many Christian communities to reclaim a legacy of abolitionism, VAST aims to link the Vineyard into the existing stream of modern-day abolitionists and anti-slavery organizations. VAST member Cheryl Pittluck hopes that “future generations will be able look back and say that when the Christian Church saw the need, she rose to the cause in the fight to end Human Trafficking….That the Vineyard, and all of the other members of God’s family, took seriously the command to fight for justice on behalf of those who cannot fight for themselves. This website will hopefully be a valuable tool in arming and preparing our churches for that fight.”

Many Vineyard churches have already begun the work of uncovering human trafficking within their own cities. VAST member Steven Hamilton, assistant pastor at the Central Maryland Vineyard, encountered the issue of human trafficking when they discovered with horror that girls from the orphanages their church supported in Ukraine were being trafficked into the US. They began to understand that trafficking was not just an international phenomenon that happens ‘out there’ somewhere. The church is a founding member of the Maryland Human Trafficking Taskforce and provides awareness and local assistance to law enforcement with anti-trafficking raids. “My hope is that the vision and resources of Justice Response will empower and equip Vineyard churches to join what God is doing to fight against modern-day slavery all over the world and in our own backyards,” Hamilton shares.

Love146 U.S. Advocacy Director Kathy Maskell hails the website as a milestone in the anti-slavery movement. “Sharing resources and creating bridges between faith communities and activist communities is exactly the kind of collaborative spirit that will enable us to end modern-day slavery in our lifetime.” The website officially launches today and is accessible to all at www.vineyardusa.org/justice-response.
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update: theology and the vineyard

as i previously mentioned, the Vineyard has created space for engaging in theological reflection and interaction.  currently, there are two burgeoning communities:

• the Society of Vineyard Scholars: i’m really excitied about the society of vineyard scholars; my paper submission – Signs and Wonders: Wisdom and the Kingdom of God – was selected to be presented at the  upcoming SVS conference  February 11-13, 2010 in Sugarland, Texas;  the SVS conference program looks really great, with plenary session with Don Williams and Ron Sider, as well as two days of 6 panels session (i will be presenting in Panel #1: Bible!); here is a look at the panels:

 

•  
  • Panel #1: Bible
    • Matt Croasmun, Yale University / Elm City Vineyard, USA
      “The Cross, Eucharist, and Imitation in the Gospel of John”
    • Addie Pearson, Greater Boston Vineyard, USA
      “Original Death: A Biblical Alternative To Original Sin”
    • Steven Hamilton, Baltimore Hebrew University / Central Maryland Vineyard, USA
      “Signs and Wonders: Wisdom and the Reign of God”
    • Respondent: Todd Kennedy, Union Theological Seminary / Elm City Vineyard, USA

 

•  
  • Panel #2: Culture
    • Jason Clark, King’s College London / Sutton Vineyard, UK
      “Consumerism, Social Imagination, and Ecclesiology”
    • Jason Coker, Fuller Theological Seminary / Ikon Community, USA
      “The Begging Bowl: Towards a Kingdom Economy of Gifts, Power, and Justice”
    • Elisa Berry, University of Minnesota / Mercy Vineyard, USA
      “Beauty and the Practice of the Kingdom of God”
    • Respondent: Ron Sider, Palmer Seminary

 

•  
  • Panel #3: Theology
    • Jared Boyd, Central Vineyard, Columbus, USA “Naming Injustice: Doing Theology That Does Something” 
    • Orion Edgar, University of Nottingham “Justice and the Kingdom of God: Atonement and New Creation”
    • Ryan McAnally-­‐Linz, Yale University / Elm City Vineyard, USA
      “The Problem of the Contested Center”
    • Respondent: Steve Robbins, Vineyard Leadership Institute / Vineyard Columbus

 

•  
  • Panel #4: Religion and Science
    • Naomi Forrester, University of Texas, Galveston
      “Science vs. Christianity: A Battle To Be Won or Lost?”
    • Jonathan Rutz, University of Utah / Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, USA
      “The Case for Creation Care as a Defining Paradigm for the Vineyard Movement”
    • Sarah Parker, Drew Theological School / North Jersey Vineyard, USA
      “Farmville: Longing for the Kingdom and the Persistent Problems of the Garden”
    • Respondent: TBA

 

•  
  • Panel #5: Mission 
    • Cathy Zellmer, George Fox Evangelical Seminary / Vineyard Boise, USA
      “The Divine Perichoretic Mission of Love”
    • Steve Burnhope, London School of Theology / North Thames Vineyard, UK
      “Culture, Worldview, and the Cross: Penal Substitutionary Atonement and 21st Century Mission”
    • Rick Love, VineyardUSA Blessing Muslims Initiative
      “‘Teaching them to obey all that I commanded you’: A holistic and integrated approach to training Kingdom disciples”
    • Respondent: Amy Coffin, Evanston Vineyard / Vineyard Discipleship School, Delhi

 

•  
  • Panel #6: Concerning the Vineyard
    • Jon Bialecki, University of California, San Diego
      Jamie Wilson, Coast Vineyard, La Jolla, USA
      “Surprise, Return, and Futurity: Social Science Analysis of the Vineyard’s Temporal Imaginary of the Kingdom, and a Theological Rejoinder”
    • Steven Schenk, Buffalo Vineyard, USA
      “Power and Purpose in a Cross-­Shaped Community: Examining the Contradictions Between Theology and Praxis”
    • Doug Erickson, Marquette University / Vineyard Bible Institute
      “Advice to Vineyard Theologians (and Philosophers, and Scholars…)”
    • Respondent: Ron Sider, Palmer Seminary

 

• the vineyard theological consultants: this seems to be Facebook-centric, but it is an initiative of Vineyard Bible Institute, which is an exclusive service to participating leaders who want to be theologically informed and kept up to date with recent research, trends and important or influential publications. this monthly membership will include a two hour webinar with Derek Morphew as well as a monthly book review.

the recovery of lament

“It is in the recovery of lament that I believe the Church has its greatest capacity to speak forcefully again into the culture around us. It is in our ability to weep, to moan, to wail in worship that we recover the peripheries of human existence, and find that God is there as well. No trite phrases or contrived ambivalence will do – we must face our sufferings, and those of our people, head on.”

- dan wilt, artisan

good discussions re: the Vineyard

just FYI…

there are two threads on Jason Coker’s blog – pastoralia - that are going on which are really good discussions…check them out:

• Did Tony Jones Kill the Vineyard?
• Vineyard Churches at the Crossroads

 

peace

godless yet closer to God?

I have been reading a book I received as a Christmas present for a few weeks: Religionless Christianity: Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Troubled Times by Jeffrey Pugh.

…it is really great so far, but I have been pondering a quote from bonhoeffer in his ‘prison letters’, so I wrote a blog post about it, and it is my guest post at the not-the-religious-type blog today…

check it out: godless yet closer to God?

updates on blogging

as i mentioned before, i am stepping in to help manage and contribute to several other blogs:

• the sustainable faith blog (content managing and contributing)
• the central maryland vineyard blog (managing and contributing)
• the deep church blog (not managing, merely as an irregular contributor)
• the maryland human trafficking task force blog
• the vineyard bible study blog
• verve&verse blog (managing, contributing…in wordpress)

be sure to regularly check out the sustainable faith blog, as I have two recent posts and every friday we have a ‘Lectio’ post based on the Gospel portion from the Revised Common Lectionary.

my two recent posts are:

• what can we learn from the latest climate “scandal”?
• the aggravation of a profound isolation

peace

in the end – a new beginning

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~T.S. Eliot

a murder beheld

wordcraft for the feast of St. Thomas á Becket:

wounded head yet heart withheld
such gruesome blows, knights hand upheld
Thomas á Becket, a murder beheld
Canterbury’s son betrayed and felled

a life they sought to extinguish and quelle
yet beloved martyr did they propel
marked by history and grace doth knell
Thomas á Becket, archbishop excelled

day of the wren

wordcraft for the feast of st. stephen:

a-hunting, a-hunting, what a day to begin
clouds tell us where can we find the great wren?
fleeing his catch the betraying bird shudders
O how to escape the celebration of mummers?

they hunt me for treachery not of my own
they hunt me, O why can’t they leave me alone?
the wild-eyed strawboys a-hunting the wren
garish colours of scarecrows their gaze turns within

how blind can you be to your own treachery?
given over as they are to innermost lechery
yet continue they do as always they will
pursue me with violence that can by no means fill

he who was martyred by an intimate betrayal
the celebration of new bread dipped in a grail
the wrenboys mourn for poor saint stephen
still hunting the wren like all the other heathen

just like our man judas who died in trespass
the kiss of betrayal, his blood in the grass
festive parade for my death – O how are they lost
how far have they wandered away from the cross

chasing me still they all flutter by
can they help but be captured in tradition but why?
why do they hunt me, hateful words do they utter
and how it began with this weary mutter:

‘the wren, the wren – the king of all birds
on staint stephens day was caught in the furze
up with the kettle and down with the pan
give us some money to bury the wren’

if I yield to their catch O what will they do
can they kill me and remain blind to virtue
I call to the ground and my God in the sky
witness my death yet forgive them thereby

and rain on my funeral O God in the sky
please make it a mess, don’t let them get by
with hunting and killing for Your Name sake
open their eyes that they see their mistake

take them back to remember years ago on a tree
Your very Son suffered and died even for me
for all of creation does groan with the weight
for the curse to be lifted when Your Kingdom dilates

then the wrenboys and I can at last end our feud
and sit down in laughter to lighten the mood
at Your great wedding feast for many to attend
the wren and the mummers at last to be friends

come forth fresh

resting Son
of the Ancient One

come forth fresh
from chosen flesh

beyond our imagination
is He, the Incarnation

Life turned toward
a people adored

enmeshed in our circumstance
threshed in His glorious dance

with Love does He chase
until eternity to embrace

all bundled in this cloth
this newborn doth

hold the future and past
light and fire to cast

upon a people hallow
sitting in dark shadow

hoping for this very One
and a curse to be undone