ISBN13: 978-1-63199-511-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018935546
Energion Publications
P. O. Box 841
Gonzalez, FL 32560
850-525-3916
energionpubs.com
Dedication
To the Sheiks of the Shifting Sands,
still spiritual activists after all these years,
and
Chris, my wife and partner
on the journey in creating a better world
Table of Contents
Series Preface vii
Introduction ix
1 Activism and Non-Resistance 1
2 Covenant, Conflict, and the Common Good 11
3 Is Non-Violence the Only Way? 19
4 Diversity: The Key to Resilience 31
5 Dismantling Racism 39
6 Compassion Is an Act of Resistance 51
7 Double Justice 59
8 Courage in the Public Square 65
9 Economic Life 75
10 Pity, Compassion, and Power 85
11 Isolation, Prayer, and Community Wisdom 93
12 Open Faith Communities 103
13 Faith Is a Verb 111
14 The Death of False Hope 119
15 Love: The Connective Current of Life 127
16 Concluding Thoughts 137
Appendices
A What is a Covenant? 139
B A Sample Just Peace Covenant 141
C A Sample Open, Affirming, & Welcoming Covenant 143
D A Sample Racial Justice Covenant 145
E A Non-Violent Communion 147
Bibliography 151
Series Preface
Clergy, having left Seminary, quickly discover that there is much about congregational ministry that they never learned in school. They have touched upon it in a practical ministry class or a preaching class, and an internship may have allowed a person to get their feet wet, but as important as this foundational education is, there is much that must be learned on the job. It is not until one spends actual time in congregational ministry that one’s strengths and weaknesses are revealed. Continuing education is therefore a must. Having collegial relationships is also a must. Who else but other clergy truly understand the demands of this vocation? In addition to ongoing continuing education and collegial relationships, it is helpful to have access to books and articles authored by experienced clergy.
This series of books, the second to be sponsored by the Academy of Parish Clergy, is designed to provide clergy with resources written by practitioners – that is by people who have significant experience with ministry in local congregations. The authors of these books may have spent time teaching at seminaries or as denominational officials, but they also know what it means to serve congregations.
The Academy of Parish Clergy, the sponsor of this book series, was founded in the late 1960s. It emerged at a time when clergy began to see themselves as professionals – on par with physicians and attorneys. As such, they not only welcomed the status that comes with professional identity, but they also embraced the concept of professional standards and training. Not only were clergy to obtain graduate degrees, but they were engage in ongoing continuing education. Following the lead of other professions, the founders of the Academy of Parish Clergy saw this new organization as being the equivalent to the American Medical Association or the American Bar Association. By becoming a member of this organization one would have access to a set of standards, a means of accountability outside denominational auspices, and have access to continuing education opportunities. These ideals remain in place to this day. The Academy stands as a beacon to clergy looking for support and accountability in an age when even the religious vocation is no longer held in high esteem.
In 2012, the Academy launched its first book series in partnership with Energion Publications. This series, entitled Conversations in Ministry, fits closely with an important part of the mission of the Academy – encouraging clergy to gather in groups to support one another and hold each other accountable in their local ministry settings. The books in this first series are brief (under 100 pages), making them useful for igniting conversation.
This second series, Guides to Practical Ministry, features longer books. Like the first series, these books are written by clergy for clergy. They can be used by groups, but because they are lengthier in scope, they can go into greater depth than the books found the first series. Books in this series will cover issues like writing sermons, interim ministry, self-care, clergy ethics, administrative tasks, the use of social media, worship leadership.
On behalf of the Academy of Parish Clergy, the series’ editorial team, and the publisher, I pray the books in this series will be a blessing to all who read them and to all who receive the ministry of these readers.
Robert D. Cornwall, APC
General Editor
Introduction
I am the rest between two notes,
which are somehow always in discord
because death’s note wants to climb over –
but in the dark interval, reconciled,
They stay here trembling.
And the song goes on, beautiful.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke, from Book of Hours
(translated by Robert Bly)
It is hard to imagine the American civil rights movement, or any social progress over the last century, without the involvement of religious groups like African-American churches, the American Jewish community, or Mainline Protestant and Catholic Christian activists. A recent report by the Brookings Institution reminds us of the role of economic justice among faith communities. It says,
Throughout American history, religious voices have been raised, forcefully and often bravely, on behalf of social reform. The movement against slavery was animated by the witness of Americans who were inspired by their faith. In the late 19th Century, young men and women witnessing on behalf of the Gospel’s call for service to the poor entered the nation’s slums and began work in Settlement Houses. Many of them sparked the rise of the Progressive movement.1
Some of us still remember the “Nuns on the Bus” who preached on behalf of the poor and the marginalized and played a central role in the 2012 presidential election, or Moral Mondays organized by Rev. William Barber to protest government voter suppression in North Carolina.
While religious progressives have participated in and led social change and human rights movements, popular understanding of religion in the public arena recalls the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, and Tea Party religious conservatives who have become integral to the Republican Party platform. Many in the religious right have become steadily angrier about what they see as a growing secularism that undermines the Christian roots of American heritage. They think secularism warped Christianity and that the culture-at-large yokes the name of Jesus to ideas, beliefs, and attitudes that would have appalled him. Secularism, in their mind, is an irrational and illogical form of liberal fundamentalism that wants