WORD, DEED & SPIRIT AL TIZON
The Journey Continues I knew I wasn’t “in Kansas anymore” when the two nearest choices for good coffee were a Dunkin’ Donuts on the right and a Dunkin’ Donuts on the left. I miss those funky granola coffee shops where I used to live in Berkeley, Calif. But now home is Philadelphia, the latest stop on my holistic ministry journey. Just over a year ago I joined the ESA staff as well as the faculty of Palmer Theological Seminary. In light of the privilege of becoming a part of this community of reflective practitioners in the City of Brotherly Love, I consider it a small sacrifice to have to work harder to find a two-shot, nonfat, hazelnut latte. By way of personal introduction, as well as inauguration of the new “Word, Deed & Spirit” column, I’d like to share my journey with you, my own circuitous route toward understanding the grand vision of God for the world. I was a promising young fundamentalist back in the early ’80s. Zealous to save desperate souls from the sinking ship called planet Earth, I went off to a Christian college to prepare for the task of getting as many people into the Jesus lifeboat as I could. As far as I knew, this defined the church’s mission. But then I read Ron Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, along with a handful of other prophetic books. Picture here an old Batman episode: Bam! Whack! Pow! Talk about getting beat up—the multi-punch combo of these books knocked me off my feet, and my understanding of mission has never been the same since. I got up from the floor a bit wobbly, but with a strange new clarity about God’s heart for the poor. I staggered like a drunkard, but with a strong resolve not to order my life according to
the false promises of the American Dream. With my understanding of compassion and justice violently realigned, I headed off to complete a graduate course in Central America. Amidst the in-yourface poverty endured by so many people I had the privilege to meet, the God of the poor and oppressed spoke to me in a lifechanging way. I returned home persuaded that if the gospel did not address human need in the here and now, then the good news was no good at all. I refer to that time in my life as my “born again again” experience. I could easily have gone the way of the bleeding-heart activist who advocates for the poor and who sees the ultimate human problem as sociopolitical, but my own personal experience of desperately needing a Savior, then and now, has prevented that. The evil that resides in my own heart, before and after my conversion, reminds me that the gospel is also a profoundly personal thing. It is repentance, confession, and forgiveness. It is falling down and getting up again by the grace of God. Evangelism—to tell the good news in such a way that clearly invites persons to give their hearts to Christ and to join the new community— must not be eclipsed by social action; just as social action must not be eclipsed by evangelism. The good news of the kingdom of God touches every level of our fallen-ness, from the sin of oppressive social structures to the sin of the human heart. If we are faithful to this gospel, then we will bear witness to it by both word and deed. Armed with such a vision, my family and I sold most of our things and moved to my native Philippines for almost a decade, working with and for the poor in community development and evangelistic/pastoral ministries. As we worked alongside our Filipino sisters and brothers in squatter communities in Metro Manila, as well as disaster-stricken communities in Zambales province, the holistic vision bore out. Both individual per-
sons and the communities in which they lived and struggled needed the power of the gospel to transform them. It also bore out in the United States, as we returned here to serve several churches that desired to be good news among the poor in the San Francisco Bay area.Whatever side of the world you live on, individuals and communities need the power of the gospel to bring about genuine transformation. In retrospect, one thing has sustained me in the often treacherous journey of holistic ministry: an ongoing relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. The simplicity of this truth enables me to keep on keepin’ on. That’s why a column such as this, where activism and spirituality meet, is important. I believe life-giving sustaining power can be found at the intersection of word, deed, and spirit. For I’m convinced that if we forget the fact that we are children of God before we are servants of God, if we forget that our chief end in life is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, then our work among the poor, as romantic and glorious as it may be, will eventually leave us unfulfilled and ineffective. So my journey continues here with ESA and Palmer Seminary. I would consider it a privilege to bump into you at some mission conference or peace rally or church service.We can compare notes, encourage one another in our respective holistic ministries, and pray for each other, perhaps over a cup of coffee. Surely there’s a Dunkin’ Donuts around somewhere. ■ Al Tizon is director of ESA’s Word & Deed Network (formerly Network 9:35) and assistant professor of holistic ministry at Palmer Theological Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa. In the next issue he’ll introduce another new column, “Making a Difference,” which will profile noteworthy and creative church-based holistic ministries.
PRISM 2008
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