Dr. Perkins

Last week I had the privilege of hearing Dr. John Perkins speak on two occasions. I just finished one of his books, "Let Justice Roll Down", and I have heard of a lot of his work in the past year and half, so I was very excited to be able to see him. I don't quite know how to sum him up briefly, but basically he was born in Mississippi in the 40's on a plantation as a sharecropper. He experienced plenty of hardships, including not having a mother or father, watching his brother be killed by the town marshal, and a lot of other racial injustices. He moved to California, was married, had some kids, and then came to know Jesus. After becoming a Christian he returned to his hometown in Mississippi to share the gospel of Christ. He began a movement there that is still rolling today, but far beyond that small town. He is a well known civil rights activist, and has lived out a message of reconciliation and community. I believe he only made it through grade 5 or something, but today holds 9 honorary doctorate degrees. Many call him a prophet. Today he and his daughter run the John M Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation and Development, which contains a lot of different ministries. He is the founder of the CCDA-Christian Community Development Cooperation, whose mission is "to inspire, train, and connect Christians who seek to bear witness to the Kingdom of God by reclaiming and restoring under-resourced communities." The foundation of Urban Homeworks, which is the organization I live in, comes from CCDA.
So he is an influential man to many....
He was delightful to listen too. He has a fire in his bones that cries out-and the passion and conviction that he speaks with is enough to move a crown into action. The basic principles of his community development vision is the three "R"s-Reconciliation, Relocation, and Redistribution. These are the main things I have been learning about this past year and half, and really the reasons I decided to move to North Minneapolis in the first place. So to hear him go more in depth was very affirming for me.
He was casting a sort of new vision to us as Urban Neighbors the first night i heard him speak, which was very interesting. Basically he was talking about the break down of the family has to do with break downs in the community, and a part of that is that there is no wisdom being passed down from elders. For the most part in America, elderly are put in nursing homes or assisted living homes with each other, away from communities. (Because we put so much value on work and accomplishment, what value does a retired person have to society?) He presented a model of homes in the community being reclaimed for more than just young people, the older people of our communities who have so much life and wisdom before them to pass down to the younger generations. He stressed the value of retired folk tutoring and mentoring the younger ones. It really is community coming full circle, and it is an aspect of community that our generation doesn't know much about, if you ask me. I don't have any elderly people in my life personally (besides my grandma who lives in assisted living 45 minutes away) and a lot of people are missing out on the value of having a multi-generational community of people around them. This way we are taking care of those who have giving their all to society their whole lives, and as they impart their wisdom and experience we are taking care of them until the end. It is a beautiful picture.
Another topic he spoke of was young people in prisons, and combating that with tutoring in elementary schools. The way to solve the problems is by starting with the children. This relates back to my last blog a bit, how education really is the answer to, I would say, most of the problems of the world today. I was substitute teaching yesterday at a high school by my house, and we were reading out loud in the class. I would say all but maybe 2 students were reading between a 1st-3rd grade level. These are HIGH SCHOOLERS. How are they supposed to pass any test if they can't read the questions? How can they fill out a college application if they can't comprehend it? And how are they supposed to answer a job application intelligently if they don't understand proper word order? How did they get to high school with this poor of reading skills? I don't know how to deal with these questions, but I can begin to imagine the repercussions this will have in their lives. And in the lives of those around them. Can you imagine if you were 18 and couldn't understand a single thing you read? I would imagine i would feel dumb all the time. And then I wouldn't think I was worth getting a job, and doing anything significant. I would not look to education to give me value-I would find it in my peers and other things, often unhealthy things. It just makes me sad to think that some of those students will graduate without knowing how to read a book.
Lack of education is poverty for sure. Not just not being able to have an education, but not getting the education that you deserve is poverty. Lack of education is oppressive. Over and over again we are commanded in the Bible to set the oppressed free, care for the poor, seek justice. Jesus' life was all about this. God calls us to this, and I don't think it is choice. It becomes more than volunteering at a soup kitchen once a week, joining a pro-life facebook group, or praying for people in prison. It goes so much deeper than that, it demands a life of sacrifice and reconciliation, a life of the love that searches for solutions. It looks beyond surface problems and begins asking why. Why are people in prison? Why is there so much homelessness? Why can't they read? Where do we spend our money? Why does where we live make a difference? What does it truly mean to die so Christ can live?
The list goes on....
I won't settle, I am hopeful, and it's people like Dr. John Perkins who truly inspire me to live a life that is worth Christ dieing for. To live a life that brings the Kingdom.

"[Jesus] has given us the freedom to love everyone. We need to overcome blame, overcome guilt. We need to make this the kind of world we want to live in."
-Dr John Perkins