ESA’s Year in Review: Speaking, Teaching, and Preaching In 2012, our staff traveled more than 39,000 miles, speaking 27 times in more than a dozen states, and 7 countries. Here are just a few highlights! I spoke at a number of churches, conferences, colleges and seminaries in the US, Canada and Bethlehem. Paul spoke at universities around the country on meat-eating and the environment, racism, economic justice, gender equality, and peacemaking. Our longtime editor of PRISM, Kristyn Komarnicki, spoke at universities and seminaries on the connections between human trafficking and pornography, as well as on sexual justice. In March, Paul presented “Violence and Passivity vs. Jesus’ Third Way” at the Christ at the Checkpoint conference in Bethlehem, Palestine. If you haven’t seen him give this presentation, come to ESA’s conference next summer! It will be well worth the trip. Al Tizon was one of only a handful of non-Latinos invited to speak at CLADE V (Congresso Latin Americano de Evanglicion) held in San Jose, Costa Rica in July. Earlier this month, Al did a workshop with Soong Chan Rah at the Southeast Asian Leadership Summit in Chicago, IL, and throughout the year, he has conducted workshops on Kingdom Mission and Practice, Developing Urban-Suburban Partnerships, and Missional Preaching in dozens of churches from California to Massachusetts. Paul, Al, and I also continue to teach and mentor graduate students in the areas of Christian Faith and Public Policy and Holistic Ministry at Palmer Theological Seminary. We met thousands of folks working for justice and gave out nearly 1,500 copies of PRISM at the Christian Community Development Association conference in Minneapolis. Publications We built a brand new website for the award-winning PRISM Magazine! Check it out at PRISMMagazine.org. PRISM continues to be a vital part of our ministry. This year, we ran 35 features and 74 columns in 6 bi-monthly issues. At the 26th annual Genesis Awards, PRISM snagged the coveted William Wilberforce Award from the Humane Society of the United States for “A Call to Compassion from Our Brothers the Animals” by Kendra Langdon Juskus. PRISM won three Evangelical Press Association Awards: first place for Jan
Johnson’s “Jobs Not Jails” (about gang members who seize the chance to turn their lives around) in the general article category; third place for Bruce Main’s “A Costly Thing to Waste” (about how we can’t afford not to educate ‘at-risk’ youth) in the first-person article category; and third place for Amy Sherman’s “No Such Thing as a Free Loan” (about predatory lending to the poor) in the reporting category. ESA published 11 articles, 6 chapters, and 7 books this year, including Al’s books on Missional Preaching and Honoring the Generations, about how we can learn with and from Asian North American congregations; Paul’s Christ at the Checkpoint and Pentecostals and NonViolence; and my The Early Church on Killing, Just Politics, and Fixing the Moral Deficit. You can buy them all at ESA’s online bookstore. Kristyn wrote our brand-new “Oriented to Love” guide to help Christians host loving dialogue on the issue of sexual diversity in the church. Based on the dialogue she facilitated on behalf of ESA in 2011, the guide offers helpful insights into how to build a listening group and nurture relationships with Christians who are gay. Web and Social Media We dramatically improved our main website (EvangelicalsforSocialAction.org), which has made us able to respond to current events faster than ever before. For instance, when news broke that actor Nicolas Cage was to star in the theologicallyunsound “Left Behind” movie series, we quickly asked supporters to write to ask him to reconsider. As we built the new website, we also added in-depth policy analysis on immigration reform, peace in the Holy Land, and economic justice, along with a robust section full of free resources for group study. Earlier this year, a marketing expert told us reaching 5,000 likes would be a huge win - we’re now at 5,629 likes and counting, an increase of 906%! Our reach on Facebook now regularly exceeds 400,000 people every month. That’s millions of people a year seeing a completely pro-life gospel message! We increased online readership of PRISM by more than 1280% thanks to a vigorous marketing effort, skyrocketing from 50 online subscribers to 690 in just a few short months. We’re selling our first t-shirt! Thanks to a generous donation from a local printing company, we are selling t-shirts with the word “Peace” written on them in Hebrew, English, and Arabic. You can buy your shirt at ESA’s website. Promoting a Biblically Balanced Political Agenda This year has been quite busy, between fights about the budget and a national election. ESA has run a year-long campaign to urge lawmakers to avoid balancing the budget on the backs of the poor, while refraining from adding to our ballooning national debt. We sent our newly-redesigned Can My Vote Be Biblical booklet out far and wide in
advance of the election, to remind voters that Jesus is Lord in the voting booth, too! I did a number of print and radio interviews related to our national campaign and my Fixing the Moral Deficit. Feedback has been outstanding across the board. A truly diverse range of people agree that we should consider cutting the defense budget, retain programs that empower the poor, and ask the wealthy to pay their fair share. Using our new online advocacy system, ESA supporters generated 2,104 petition signatures and letters to lawmakers, decision-makers, and newspapers about biblically-balanced public policies. Paul has been busy promoting peace with justice and nonviolent change throughout the world. He’ll soon be headed to the Society of Christian Ethics to give presentations on white supremacy and racism and the conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. He is also currently serving as president of the Society of Pentecostal Studies. The Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, MO inducted Paul into its Sigma Chi Pi Honor Society. Membership is awarded to alums who satisfy scholastic, character, and leadership qualifications. Nurturing Holistic Ministries Worldwide Al represented INFEMIT at CLADE V. INFEMIT is a global network of holistic ministries and theologians and was the mother of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, one of the premier schools committed to theological scholarship and holistic mission in the world. I was a part of INFEMIT for many years and I’m glad to have passed the reins to Al. As a part of INFEMIT, Al is coordinating a Christian formation curriculum for Asia, in cooperation with World Vision. Al taught church leaders of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the area of mission and ethics in Mekele, Ethiopia, and we organized and funded wellness workshops for area churches in Zambales province in the Philippines, working with Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture and LIGHT Ministries. And closer to home, under Al’s direction, ESA finalized Network!, a community services directory of and for more than 70 churches in Upper Darby, PA. Sider Scholars In 2012, ESA was able to work with 23 Sider scholars. I am happy that even after I retire from ESA, I will still have the opportunity to interact with these fine scholar-activists. Right now, we have eighteen outstanding scholars with us. They ensure that the office runs smoothly, do top-notch research for our books, write ePistle articles, come up with and carry out new marketing ideas, and much much more. Here’s just a sampling of what scholars were able to accomplish this year: While Al was on a much-deserved sabbatical this spring, scholar Marquita served as interim head of our holistic ministry programs, along with successfully planning and executing a workshop on grantwriting for Philadelphia-area congregations. Heather, a scholar who graduated this spring, organized a student trip to the Christ at the Checkpoint conference in the West Bank.
Howard worked with a local church to host a screening of The Interrupters, a film about how one group is stopping gang violence in Chicago. Jacob organized and promoted Election Day Communion here on the Palmer campus, to remind us all that no matter what our political affiliation, we are one in the body of Christ. It was truly a marvelous way to end a contentious election season. After typing the entire manuscript of the book, David wrote a comprehensive study guide for my Fixing the Moral Deficit. Our Outstanding Staff We grew to four full-time staff members this year! Though we said goodbye to Special Projects Director Jerry Clampet, who retired, we are thrilled to have two very talented additions to the team. You’ve probably noticed that our websites are more functional and easy to navigate, PRISM has a modern and polished look, and our resources are professionally designed and consistently branded! That’s because we welcomed the multi-talented Rhian Tomassetti as our full-time Creative Director. Rhian’s creative vision ensures that ESA is putting our best foot forward in print and online. We’re also pleased to have Sarah Withrow King as ESA’s new Deputy Director. Sarah came to ESA as a Sider scholar last year and we quickly realized what an extraordinary asset she was to the organization. With a decade of experience in diverse roles in the non-profit world, Sarah came prepared to wear many hats in her new position overseeing ESA’s operation and carrying out our vision. Looking Ahead As you know, Paul Alexander and Al Tizon have been named as co-Presidents-elect of ESA and will step into their new leadership role when I retire next summer. I am absolutely thrilled at this decision by our board and am eager to see how these two fine scholars and followers of Christ take ESA into the next phase of its ministry. We have some truly exciting plans for next year: Al is leading an exploration of a groundbreaking project that we hope will develop ESA’s first intentional Christian community. Interns and scholars are helping ESA develop and launch a series of workshops for college students on evangelism and social action. Paul and Sarah are beginning plans for ESA to host a conference on peace in the Holy Land. More details on that very soon. Planning for ESA’s 40th anniversary conference (July 12-14, 2013 in Philadelphia) is well underway, with a diverse line up of speakers and workshop leaders coming from all over the country. Learn more at ESA40.com (if you’re keeping track, that’s three websites we’ve built in just the last six months!). Registration is open, and I encourage you to take advantage of the Early Bird rate, which expires on January 1, 2013. We want you to come!