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MEDITATION:

Written by Timothy Keller, a contemporary pastor and author. This is an excerpt from his book “Generous Justice.”

What does it take to help entire neighborhoods to self-sufficiency? Most of the best answers to that question begin with a look at the life and work of John M. Perkins. Perkins, born in 1930, founded ministries in both rural and urban areas of Mississippi, as well as urban Los Angeles. His work has included a dizzying variety of programs, including daycare, farm co-ops, health centers, adult education centers, low-income housing development, tutoring, job training, youth internships, and college scholarship programs, as well as vigorous evangelism and new church planting. Perkin’s approach at the time was revolutionary because he combined very traditional, evangelical Christian theology and ministry with a holistic vision for both ministry to the whole person and rebuilding entire poor communities.

Charles Marsh, professor at the University of Virginia, makes a strong case that Perkins and his movement have taken up and carried on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision for “the beloved community.” After King’s death, Marsh argues, the Civil Rights Movement lost its “unifying spiritual vision”—its belief that social reform could come through grassroots, local communities of faith. The movement came to rely completely on politics and government. But without denying the importance of public policies such as integration, equal employment opportunity, and welfare, “Perkins…concluded that government programs alone failed to address the deeper sources of hopelessness in black communities.” When Perkins tied social reform, economic development, and vigorous evangelism all together into a seamless whole, he confounded both the secularized liberal civil rights establishment and the conservative churches. Leaders of both sides did not know how to regard him, but many younger Christian leaders were inspired, and in 1989 they formed the Christian Community Development Association, which now includes hundreds of churches and local development corporations.

PRAYER:

This prayer was published by the Great Plains United Methodists Conference, a jurisdiction of the Methodist Church in the Kansas and Nebraska region.

Almighty God, you have created all people and all of creation. We give you thanks for this gift we’re invited to engage with hope, joy, and love as your disciples. Open our hearts and our eyes to see our communities as you would have us to see them. Help us to find the courage to sit and hear others when so often we want to be heard first. You are good and you are gracious, O God. Let us see all people as children of you, who created us all. It is in the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

MUSIC MEDITATION:

In Christ Alone:  Performed by BYU Vocal Point.

This song was a collaborative effort between British songwriters Stuart Townend and Keith Getty. It was written in 2002 with a theme of the implications of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.