Something I have explored more and more over the past couple of years is the social-justice component of the Gospel. Thanks to many prophetic voices in the Christian world, the proclamation that all Christians should intentionally care for the “least of these brothers and sisters” has been ringing loudly among many groups of Christians, particularly my own generation, the Millennials.
As a crown to this budding movement of social-justice in Christian circles, renowned publisher Zondervan has teamed up with World Vision—one of the largest Christian humanitarian organizations in the world—to produce a small-group study curriculum called “start>Becoming a Good Samaritan”.
The program, led by Michael Seaton, is designed to help “churches, small groups, and outreach organizations to inform, train, and inspire individuals to start putting their faith into action.” To bring about this transformation, the process uses six dynamic one-hour sessions, each themed around a particular issue. Each session is aided by a Participant’s Guide and is composed of an opening prayer, some personal introspection, the viewing of a forty-minute segment from the program DVD, and finally some discussion.
While the discussion and small-group participatory elements form the foundation for transformation to occur, the core component of the curriculum is the DVD. In what I consider to be a masterpiece, Zondervan and World Vision brought together a veritable “who’s who” of justice-minded Evangelical Christians.
Some of the most well-known participants include Rob Bell (popular pastor and author), Shane Claiborne (ordinary radical and author), Eugene Peterson (author of “The Message” Bible paraphrase), Tony Campolo (Christian teacher, author, and sociology professor), Gary Haugen (President of International Justice Mission), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace prize winner and major opponent of apartheid in South Africa), Chuck Colson (the founder of “Prison Fellowship”), Jim Wallis (founder and editor of “Sojourners Magazine”), Richard Stearns (President of World Vision), John Ortberg (popular pastor and author), Kay Warren (wife of pastor Rick Warren and social activist), Philip Yancey (popular spirituality author), and Ron Sider (author of the seminal justice book “Rich Christian In An Age of Hunger”). Overall there are more than 50 leading social justice voices taking part in the project; click here to read a short biography of each contributor.
These participants each share some words throughout the DVD segments of the curriculum. The DVD segments are formatted in a video-interview format with some of the participants being featured more prominently than others, but each of the participants has at least a couple of minutes of screen time. Also, the whole series is hosted by John Ortberg, who offers a provocative introduction to each session as well as some concluding remarks.
Understanding that the realm of social justice is vast, the program splits up the material into six sessions, each with a particular theme:
“Becoming A Good Samaritan” (Who Is My Neighbor?)
“Caring For the Sick” (How to Fight Global Epidemics and Prevent Diseases)
“Seeking Justice and Reconciliation” (How Fairness Changes People, Communities, and Nations
“Honoring the Poor” (How Best to Serve Those In Need)
“Tending to God’s Creation” (Why Environmental Stewardship Is Biblical and Beneficial)
“Loving the Forsaken” (How to Care for the Disabled, Orphaned, and Incarcerated)
The quality of the DVD segments is fantastic. Put together by the C2 group, the segments are for more than mundane interviews. The clips are deeply experiential due to musical interludes and images relating to each segment’s theme which are sprinkled throughout the duration. The DVD’s style reaches to a generation of young-adults raised on rapidly-moving, evocative media as its main medium of communication.
In its immense scope, “start>Becoming a Good Samaritan” is truly an unprecedented initiative. Aimed at launching a global campaign of love and justice, the program beckons each of us to embrace our individual roles as “good Samaritans” and dares to imagine the impact that more than 77 million American Christians could have on the greater world.
I highly recommend this curriculum for small-group study, but it also has great value for individual study; I made my way through the Participant’s Guide and DVD on my own and still gained much. The only downside I see to the program is its truncated length. I’m not fully convinced that full transformation of the heart can occur through only six one-hour sessions but, as the title suggests, the program is a great start. I think for someone who is already engaged in many of these issues, the program is great fuel for the fire, but for someone being introduced to these matters for the first time, this curriculum should be viewed as a springboard to much more study and activity.
If you want to learn practical ways that you can live out your faith through the love of the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized, I strongly encourage you to listen to the great words of these modern-day prophets of justice and compassion and start becoming a “good Samaritan” today.
(For more information on the program, browse through the "start>" website; there you will find many samples of both the Participant’s Guide and DVD.)
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
– Mother Teresa
(For a similar program aimed at Catholics—a program I would consider a Catholic forerunner to “start>Becoming a Good Samaritan”—check out JustFaith. JustFaith is a small-group, formation program aimed at transforming the hearts and minds of participants into those of Jesus’. I think extremely highly of this program as well, and though it is longer—the JustFaith program lasts 30 weeks—I think the extended time is required for authentic, full transformation. JustFaith also has versions of the program for the greater Christian community which are every bit as powerful as the Catholic version.)
6 comments:
Hi Brandon,
Thanks for your comments and encouragement. I just wanted to alert your readers that there is also a version of JustFaith crafted for the wider Christian community, not just Catholics. You can check it out at www.justfaith.org.
Thanks and blessings,
Jack
Jack, you're absolutely right. And having checked out some of the "ecumenical" materials and processes, they are every bit as transformative as the Catholic version (though without the rich tradition of encyclicals, bishop statements, and Catholic Social Teaching).
Thanks for all that you've done through the JustFaith ministries, Jack. I'm in the midst of my second journey through the process, and it is so very rich.
Your brother,
Brandon
Brandon,
Thanks for posting on this topic Brandon. I'm amazed at how much information you can take in and blog about on a regular basis.
You know I teach the Social Justice Living and Learning Community, but, admittedly I do not even know what someone really means when they say "social justice". Do you have a good working definition? And, how is justice different when you add the adjective "social" in front of it?
There is a book I've been reading by Marvin Olasky called "Renewing American Compassion" which is outstanding. Olasky is the editor of World Magazine (which is a wonderful magazine). I'm somewhat surprised that he was not on that list of people who care about the least of these.
Keep it up!
Doug
Doug,
I think many people mean many things when they say "social justice" just as many people mean many things when they say Christian.
But, as an early-morning short hand definition, I would describe justice by manipulating the words of N.T. Wright: "Justice is the 'putting back to rights' of the world by recognizing the inherent dignity and worth of every person and creation."
Social justice would be a subset of this, one that hones in on justice involving groups of people or creation(social). Personal justice says "I should get what I deserve" or "That person deserves payment for his medical costs" whereas social justice says "Those people should not be oppressed" or "That plane should be taken care of".
Though I don't think the distinction is always made, "social justice" is quite different from "charity"; "charity" would be the hands-on acts of good (feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison, changing a lightbulb) whereas "social justice" tackles structural and societal sins (asking why there are people hungry, questioning a system that sends huge proportions of black men to prison, and wrestle with public policy and incentives that currently rape the earth).
All of this reminds me that I really should call you; I have some things I would love to get your thoughts on. Maybe we can talk in the next couple of weeks.
Hope all is well with you and your wife!
Your brother,
Brandon
Brandon,
Thanks for responding. We should definitely talk soon! I love the inclusion of the Simply Christian quote by NT Wright ---that was a fantastic book and I agree with his central idea of justice. But, can justice not be achieved in many cases by an increase in charity?
If you sum across each person's charitable acts and you have people with resources intentionally seeking people with needs justice can be accomplished.
There are some things that need to be approached from the top down, but, often this overlooks the vast potential for bottom-up transformation.
Mary and I are doing great!
With love,
Doug
Doug,
I think there are many issues of injustice that can be cured by an increase in charity. I've met some homeless men who live in the woods around my part of down down here, and--along with some friends--by giving them basic supplies, an apartment, a car, and a job tip the injustice of their living conditions is slowly being overturned. These were nothing more than simple acts of charity.
Yet still, I think there are many, many issues of social injustice than cannot be solved by an increase in mere charity. I look at the whole situation of Africa, or even with Haiti (pre-earthquake). People give and give and give to these third-world countries but nothing seems to change--and it oftentimes gets worse. That because the root problem--the issue of injustice--is not being tackled; band-aids are applied where surgery is needed.
You can continue to recruit more and more people to rescue kids that keep drowning in a lake, but sooner or later someone needs to ask why nobody puts up a fence.
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