Today in the Mission Yearbook - Matthew 25 workshop speakers promote ‘people power’ as a way to fight poverty

Virtual discussion features those ‘on the ground doing this work’

October 31, 2023

Photo by Hannah Busing via Unsplash

A recent Matthew 25 webinar provided inspiration and information about using effective strategies for eradicating systemic poverty, including banding together to build power.

The online gathering featured three main speakers: the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins of the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness (OPW), the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis of the Poor People’s Campaign, and Denzel Mitchell of Richmonders Involved to Strengthen Our Communities (RISC).

Prior to the event, the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson, who co-hosted the workshop with Jennifer Evans of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, explained the reasoning behind the workshop, “Matthew 25 — Community Organizing, Policy Advocacy and Movement Building.”

“We chose this topic because it is important for us to begin to lift up working models and create opportunities for the church to be conversant with those who are actually on the ground doing this work effectively,” said Johnson, coordinator of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People. “Unfortunately, conversations about addressing systemic poverty stay theoretical; it is important for those who seek to engage this work to both hear and learn from those who are doing this work so that we can actualize it and see it through.”

The Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis

Theoharis, a Presbyterian minister who co-chairs the Poor People’s Campaign and leads the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice housed at Union Theological Seminary, noted that the workshop was taking place on the anniversary of the March on Washington in which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Sixty years later, Theoharis said, the United States still is a place where poor people are being told, “No,” such as, “No, we can’t raise wages.”

But she believes the tide can change if people band together.

“What Dr. King talks about is from the bottom up, led by the people, bringing people together across all the lines that divide into a powerful force to be reckoned with,” she said. “If we come together, if we build alliances together, if we organize in our community together, if we advocate for policies together, then we can build the kind of compelling power to turn those noes into yeses, and we can actually build the kind of society that is needed and that God requires of us, and so I look forward to doing that with you all and us keeping on moving forward together and not one step back, as we say in the Poor People’s Campaign.”

Hawkins highlighted why it’s crucial for churches to be involved in politics and social justice.

“We are called to be advocates, and the work that we do in New York and in D.C. is on behalf of the church so that the church’s voice can speak out for justice,” said Hawkins, who leads the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) advocacy offices: OPW and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.

Denzel Mitchell

“And we know that advocacy plays a major role in addressing and eliminating systemic poverty, especially for communities of color and other underserved families that have been particularly hit hard by economic inequality, even in the best of times,” Hawkins said. “And we know that U.S. poverty would be twice as high, if it had not been for the advocacy of communities of faith, pushing the government to do more.”

Hawkins cited the recent Inflation Reduction Act, which has a focus on climate goals and that he said will help create well-paying jobs.

However, millions of people continue to struggle in the United States and “much more needs to be done,” he said.

Mitchell, an associate organizer for RISC, a grant partner of PHP, talked about harnessing people power and churches working collectively to bring about change. His organization started when a group of congregations came together to do justice work. “What we do is we organize people power in order to bring about justice in our community,” he said. “We’re helping them to organize long-term,” rather than focusing their efforts around one book or one event.

The Presbyterian Hunger Program, the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People, the Office of Public Witness and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations are part of the Compassion, Peace & Justice ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

 Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus: Matthew 25 webinar

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Maria Perry, Manager, Synod of Boriquen (PR), Plan Operations, Board of Pensions
Lisa Pesavento, HR Generalist, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

We know that the secret of bearing fruit is abiding in Christ and he in us. Through communion, servanthood and fellowship, we benefit from Christ’s strength so that we may be able to bear fruit and be a blessing to others. Help us to serve with humility and grace. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - PC(USA)’s Matthew 25 webinar helps congregations and mid councils measure their anti-poverty effectiveness

Workshop features local examples from New York City to Niger

August 25, 2023

Photo by Joshua Lanzarini via Unsplash

Measuring congregational and mid council work to end systemic poverty was the topic of the second in a series of Matthew 25 online workshops offered to help local communities create empowerment, health and wholeness. About 70 people attended.

The speakers were Andrew Kang Bartlett, national associate for the Presbyterian Hunger Program; Margaret Mwale, the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People’s associate for community development and constituent relationships; and Jim McGill, a mission-co-worker serving in Niger.

Kang Bartlett explained a holistic model for assessment developed by the Center for Whole Communities. Measuring the success of local poverty reduction work can be done with help from a spreadsheet. Kang Bartlett created a sample that can be seen at bit.ly/wholemp.

Andrew Kang Bartlett

An evaluation can include five fields of practices for measuring effectiveness: justice and fairness, strong communities, healthy people, sustainable ecosystems and thriving local economies.

“It’s a rich, participatory evaluation,” Kang Bartlett said.

Among the examples Mwale cited for measuring holistic impact was the New York State Youth Leadership Council, a group that works on issues related to being undocumented that’s led by undocumented youth.

Among the organization’s services is its Undocu Academy, a one-year program for undocumented high school seniors in New York City that provides mentoring, one-on-one guidance with college and financial aid applications, workshops and scholarship opportunities.

Margaret Mwale

Mwale touched on ways the council is helping to build the five fields of practices Kang Bartlett talked about, and efforts to measure their impacts. One example: Only 10% or less of undocumented students attend college. But for those supported by the Undocu Academy, 70% enrolled in college. “It’s helped to move the needle helping young people move out of poverty,” Mwale said.

McGill shared some of the Wash, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) development work being done in Malawi, South Sudan and Niger. “We work directly under churches. Their mission statements include holistic ministry to the people,” McGill explained, adding that development, agriculture, health and education “are as important to the church as the spiritual well-being of people.”

Jim McGill

“The biggest issue we work with in holistic ministry is breaking the cycle of poverty,” McGill said. “It’s a big job for the church to do. The question is, how do we measure that progress?”

One way is to announce development targets, such as the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. That can ease the fundraising burden for nongovernmental organizations, McGill said, which can say, “If you give me x-amount of dollars, I’ll put in a well for you.”

While a friend sent McGill an email recently touting results of a three-year project on access to safe drinking water, saying the report on the project demonstrates that getting statistics together is worth the effort, McGill pointed out it’s only a snapshot and doesn’t measure impact over time.

“We need to measure as best we can how the program has impacted people,” McGill said. “People must be able to step up the ladder and out of poverty.”

During a question-and-answer session, Kang Bartlett said that dismantling the worst aspects of the economic system is the way to make the biggest impact, but “that’s a huge endeavor. In the U.S., my read is changing federal policies is difficult. But real change can happen at the local level.”

The next Matthew 25 webinar on eradicating systemic poverty is set for 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Aug. 28. It’ll be on community organizing, policy advocacy and movement building.

 Scheduled presenters are Denzell Mitchell, an associate organizer for the congregation-based community organization Richmonders Involved to Strengthen Our Communities in Richmond, Virginia; the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, director of the Kairos Center at Union Theological Seminary and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign; and the Rev. Jimmie R. Hawkins, who directs advocacy efforts for the PC(USA) in Washington, D.C., and New York City. Register here.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Matthew 25 webinar on eradicating systemic poverty

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Yveshia Klingman, HR Coordinator, Presbyterian Foundation
Mark Koenig, Communications Associate, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Gracious God, whose love is so encompassing that it can heal a world in pain, please mark the path as we walk together to grow Christ’s church. Lead us to hearts that need to know your love and help us to demonstrate in our lives the hope you offer us all. Guide our hands as we reach out to those who are suffering so we can ease their pain as you have eased ours. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - An online Matthew 25 gathering on eradicating systemic poverty draws a crowd of more than 150

Getting at the root of poverty is a key. More webinars are upcoming

July 21, 2023

Photo by Fredrick Lee via Unsplash

Why are people poor in your area? How has poverty touched your life? Your community? Your faith community?

More than 150 people joined a recent Matthew 25 webinar on eradicating systemic poverty, which organizers called “Where Does Jesus Stand? Exploring Five Spiritual Practices to End Poverty.” The webinar explored these and more questions and invited participants to mull them further in small groups near the end of their time together.

Those five spiritual practices, with resources for engaging them, are worship, learn, relate, act and share.

Laura VanDale, hunger action advocate for the Presbytery of the Western Reserve, led those gathered in saying five assertions about systemic poverty:

We repent that Christians have misunderstood or been misled by biblical passages taken out of context or by theological interests that distort the gospel’s original intention.
We repent that the church has used Scripture to uphold systems that perpetuate oppression and poverty.
We do not believe that “the poor will always be with us” indicates that poverty is inevitable or God’s will.
We do not believe in a prosperity gospel where God blesses faithful people with economic riches or condemns unfaithful people to poverty.
Jesus Christ taught us to care for the vulnerable, to be a good neighbor and to provide food to the hungry.

And, from The Confession of 1967, participants agreed that “poverty is not a personal problem but a corporate sin.”

The Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson, coordinator of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People, helped those in attendance look at the root causes of poverty, including the lack of quality and sustainable employment and affordable housing; health-care availability; access to reputable financial products, including loans and credit; and educational disparities. When Johnson was a prison chaplain, an inmate once told him, “I am in prison because I couldn’t read the confession that I signed.”

Papa Pierre Bonkono is a member and deacon 

of the Presbyterian Church of Kinshasa (CPK), 

and spokesperson for the Batwa in Equateur 

Province. (Contributed photo)

When Congress voted to “end welfare as we know it” in the mid-1990s, replacing Aid to Families with Dependent Children with block grants to states under the “welfare to work” reform pushed by then-President Bill Clinton, “it doesn’t mean folks who are poor are receiving the grants in every state,” Johnson said. “If you have spent time trying to get welfare [benefits], you understand it’s not an easy undertaking. Many times, the bureaucracy alone causes people to drop out of the system.”

“Who are the poor among you? Poverty is not about bad choices or bad morality,” Johnson said. “Those are the last things I would say about my mom. I do know she was taking care of a sick husband.”

The Rev. Rebecca Barnes, coordinator of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, helped share three stories. The first was a video from the Poor People’s Campaign, which was co-founded by a Presbyterian pastor, the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis.

A second by mission co-worker Christi Boyd featured the voices of Indigenous Batwa communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Living off their ancestral rainforests, the Batwa are forced to the margins by logging companies condoned by their own government. While structural racism from Bantu neighbors aggravates their hardship, the Batwa also fear that logging activities will disrupt the forest’s peatlands which harbor large amounts of greenhouse gases.

“The government knows very well we survive in the forests,” says a Batwa leader. “This is our heritage. This is what God has blessed us with. We don’t deny the state’s powers, but we are the peatland’s guardians.” Through the Batwa’s accounts, the video illustrated the intersections between the Matthew 25 themes of systemic poverty, structural racism and climate crisis. Watch the video here.

Ellen Sherby, an associate director with World Mission, shared the story of her involvement with the immigrant community in Kentucky and her marriage to an immigrant from Honduras. “The roots are deep and complex, and we have a responsibility to keep learning about how those roots are connected,” Sherby said. “We can also look at people with compassion and realize there are complexities immigrants face. They’re not here because they came on a lark. They’re here to survive.”

More workshops on eradicating systemic poverty are scheduled for Aug. 28 and Oct. 30. A webinar on building congregational vitality will be held in mid-August and one on dismantling structural racism is set for early November. The national Matthew 25 summit is slated for Jan. 16–18, 2024, in Atlanta.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Matthew 25 webinar focusing on eradicating systemic poverty

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Ben Hayden, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Presbyterian Foundation
Sara Hayden, Associate, Apprenticeships & Residencies, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Loving Jesus, lead us to the goodness of ourselves and others that is deeper than any gifts or challenges we embody. Open us to discover our full humanity through mutual dependency and belonging. Amen.