As a missional-minded Christian I find myself thinking about how to reach out to and help those who experience poverty on a daily basis. Over and over again the bible speaks out against systemic poverty. There’s recognition that poverty is a part of the ongoing brokenness of humanity, but there’s also the promise that in God’s Kingdom injustices such as poverty will be overcome. Still, poverty remains a pervasive problem in the world today.

Most of us in the middle class don’t often come face to face with poverty. From time to time we may feel “broke” because we have over-extended our finances and over-stretched our credit. But in my opinion that’s different than being truly poor.

There are a number of personal finance books out these days with titles like You’re Broke Because You Want To Be that remind people of this in very frank ways. And while I think there’s some room for sensitivity in helping people to recognize how their consumerism-driven habits are wreaking havoc on their long-term financial sustainability, these forthright books do have the upside that they bring to light some of the differences between being broke and experiencing “real” poverty. Trent over at The Simple Dollar blog writes on this quite well.

I think that over time we can become disillusioned into thinking that we know what poverty is like, especially during times of “economic turmoil” like we are currently experiencing. But unless we’re put in situations where our lives cross paths with those who are impoverished we can only speculate and pretend we know what it’s like.

This is especially troublesome for Christians. As we try and find ways of participating in God’s work towards the continuing realization of the Kingdom, we are called to reach out to those who are hungry, thirsty, and without shelter. This inevitably includes the poor. Yet how can we reach out to those we don’t even know or ever encounter? How can we provide any sort of real help to those who are poor if we don’t also seek to establish relationships with them?

I’ll be honest in saying that I personally don’t have a lot of experience with those who are truly poor. I’ve helped with service projects, food pantries, and disaster response trips that sought to help those who were deeply in need, but even then there was little opportunity for real relationship. Now, in my work as a pastor, I occasionally come face-to-face with poverty in very real ways, but it’s not very often and it’s rarely because I have taken the initiative to reach out to those who are poor.

If Christians are to engage in working towards God’s Kingdom then at some point we will have to start taking real steps towards alleviating poverty. Groups like Sojourners and the ONE Campaign have been campaigning for a while now to fight poverty and are working to raise poverty-related issues during this year’s election. Next week I’ll be preaching with an eye towards the election and poverty will surely be one of the Kingdom-related issues I’ll encourage people to think about as November 4th draws near.

So what experiences do you have with poverty? In what ways have you been active in helping to alleviate the plight of the poor? How can we as Christians find real and tangible ways of reaching out to those who suffer in poverty in our communities and around the world? Feel free to share any of your thoughts in the comments …

I’ve uploaded a few more photos to my AC Facebook album, sorry Flickr folks I haven’t sent any your way. I’m going to try to get some better (non-camera phone) pics to upload soon. Also, if you’re interested in more general reports of what is happening here at Conference, along with some more pictures, be sure to check out the official Annual Conference news page which is updated every evening.

One part of Annual Conference is the numerous insight sessions that take place on various topics of interest. I enjoyed going to a couple such insight sessions today, titled “Sharing the Good News Within and Beyond our Communities of Faith” and “Engaging our Communities with Jesus.” However one of my favorite events today was an opportunity tonight for those of us who are interested in the emergent church conversation to get together for our own conversation.

This was a special opportunity for me to sit down with people from across the country who are interested in some of the same trains of thought that I am interested in. I read many blogs that deal with the emergent church and I’ve really enjoyed reading the Emergent Brethren blog over the last several months. After tonight I’m going to try much harder to become a regular part of that online community as we work together to see what the emerging church looks like in our various Brethren contexts.

I’ve also purchased a stack of books (many of which are emergent or missionally oriented) and I hope to review some of them here in the coming months. I really do think that the emergent / missional conversation and movement is where the church is headed in order to be relevant and authentic in our society and culture. I see many ways in which the Church of the Brethren, both historically and currently, resonates with this supposedly “new” movement. Expect to hear more from me about this in the future!

One last note about my dining adventures while here in Richmond – last night we ate at the Strawberry Street Cafe and it was wonderful. It’s located in an area of Richmond near Monument Ave. known as “the fan” and has been a favorite eatery there for the last 30 years. Since I normally live quite a bit farther from the sea I took the opportunity to sample some of their crab-based dishes (crab soup, crab quiche, and crab cakes) and they were all splendid. I also got to taste some of their other offerings, all of which were quite good as well. I would definitely recommend it as a nice locally-owned place to check out if you ever happen to find yourself in Richmond, VA!

I’ve read two of his previous books, Preaching Re-Imagined and Church Re-Imagined, so I was excited to hear that he was getting ready to release a new one, titled A Christianity Worth Believing (or ACWB for short.) Here’s a quick “trailer” for the book, from Doug’s blog:

I’m excited about ACWB because it touches on some of the issues that are challenging Christianity and the church as we move into the 21st century and towards postmodernity. There are so many theologies, understandings, and rituals in the church that were created for particular communities in particular times that are no longer necessarily relevant to our time and place. Giving people permission to recognize and name this and the tools to then begin to do something about it is incredibly important to me. I’m hoping that Doug addresses this in this new book.

This fall Doug is going to be trying to host a six-week online book club on ACWB. I’m not sure when it will start, but I’m going to give it a whirl. I guess that means I might have to wait until then to read the book. Either that or I’ll just read it now and then again later. I might also be interested in orchestrating a group reading & conversation series around ACWB as well. This could be either web-based or in person. If you’re interested in doing something like this, speak up and we’ll see what we can put together!

The event I was a part of was not a missional church or emergent conference per se, though there were some very strong missional undercurrents. The jump to emergent is more one of my own. I am drawn towards many of the conversations that are going on that are connected with the larger emergent conversation.

A good friend of mine recently got to be a part of Brian McLaren’s visit to Goshen (IN) and had I not been at my brother’s wedding in Virginia I would have been there too. Just last week I found out about another upcoming opportunity to hear from some of the folks who are at the center of the emergent conversation, the “church basement roadshow.”

I heard about the roadshow from the Emergent Village weblog and was immediately interested. I must admit that much of my interest was generated because of Doug Pagitt‘s being a part of the event. I’ve read a couple of his books (Church Re-Imagined, Preaching Re-Imagined) and have been very impressed.  So to see that he was a part of this tour was an instant endorsement for me.

Whenever I see such an event announced the first thing I do is look for the tour dates and locations. After finding them, I began to get disheartened as I read. First leg: west coast. Far from Richmond, IN. Second leg: the heartland (midwest). I had my hopes up for this one, but the closest they come is Kansas City. Third leg: east coast. My heart continued to drop. Having grown up in Virginia, the east coast I know is far from Indiana. Atlanta, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, all the usuals were there. However at the very bottom of the list, the last stop, there it was … Indianapolis! Now I’m not sure whose map they’re using to consider Indy “east coast” but I don’t mind.

I’m putting it on my calendar now … Monday August 4th I’ll be at Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church in Indianapolis to be a part of the Church Basement Roadshow. Let me know if you want to come along!