Last Saturday night I attended the fundraising dessert for Fresno Institute for Urban Leadership. The guest speaker was John Perkins who spoke on being the righteous who effect change in the community. I have heard him many times in the past 30 years, and he is still a very powerful speaker. But then I looked around the room to the listeners and there were just as powerful people, who have responded to his messages over the years, and are doing the very thing that he started back in the early 70's. People who relocated into the high crime, high poverty areas of Fresno to be light to neighbors. People who started after-school reading and homework programs in their homes. In their homes, not in their church buildings. Phil and Ricci Skei, put a basketball court and playground in their backyard so the neighbors could have a place to play. Nancy Donat, is a parish nurse, who relocated into this neighborhood who has kids all over her home and has turned rooms into studyroom.
A woman, who's table I was sitting at brought her 4 daughters to hear Perkins speak just because her pastor told the congregation this was a good thing and he was a good speaker. She had never heard him before. Exposing her daughters to righteous speakers instead of taking them to another movie.
I was told the other day that I am a "the glass is half empty" kind of guy, and he and another pastor were "the glass is half full" kind of guys. Sitting in this room with "full glass people" filled me up again to see the power of a full gospel.
2 comments:
I'm going to link to this one. Some of my friends and I have been talking about presence and economics lately. This is so on point towards that end.
Joe White and I were really good friends in college. He was one of the only guys in the religious studies dept. that didn't treat me like something was wrong with me for having some ideas that weren't typical of the dept. culture. He's also one of the only guys into the urban ministry who didn't make it sound condescending or as if he was talking about stray cats.
John Perkins is a great speaker, and has become a role model of mine. Getting to listen to him speak multiple times in the past two years has really shaped my views on ministry and church planting, and just hearing his story of what God has done in his life is pretty awe inspiring.
Glad you're familiar with him Tony!
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