Below are a few questions for you all to ponder before we meet on Thursday. Please provide your insights as comments to this post. You will learn a lot from one another by sharing. We have such a short amount of time during our sessions, please take advantage of this opportunity to learn from one another.
Have you personally experienced the truth of Perkins claim that “the love of God is most fully expressed where there is pain and suffering” ?” (p. 60)
How comfortable are you allowing God to teach you, encourage you, and reveal his love to you anew through the people you want to serve? (p. 63)
Perkins says “But because of God’s special concern for the poor and oppressed, our closeness to them is a reliable test of our authenticity.” (p64) What do you think of this statement? Is this idea of a “Preferential Option for the Poor”, an idea that is new to you? If so, read “Preferential Option for the Poor” on this site and let us know what you think of this idea.
Perkins writes “The prosperity movement is heavily accepted among the poor but has done very little in terms of real community development at the grass roots level. It takes people’s attention away from the problem, and if those people succeed it encourages them to remove themselves from the very people they ought to be identifying with and working among.” (p 71) Are you familiar with the “Prosperity Gospel”? What do you think of this teaching? What impact do you think this theology has on impoverished communities?
Perkins writes “The key is in developing people – leaders. I believe that developing creative leaders is both the most essential and the most difficult part of Christian community development. It was the heart of Jesus’ strategy. It must be the center of our strategy, too.” (p 75) What do you think is the most effective means of developing leaders in an urban setting? How did Jesus develop leaders? What gifts, calling, or experience do you have related to developing urban leaders?
In addition to our readings in Perkins for the week, I have emailed Charles story and his insights into addiction. Please leave your comments related to this story on this post.
Filed under: Reflection Questions
The question, “How comfortable am I in allowing God to teach me, encourage me, and reveal his love from the people we want to serve” really hit home for me. I think we all learn and adapt to new situations, circumstances and in perils. Each person is special before God and to each other. I think in my growing years I am becoming more comfortable , but sometimes hurt more by opening myself up. There is a deeper level we reach in a relationship if we allow ourselves to open up and be “vulnerble”. I think others can assist us in seeing things in each of us that we could never see on our own. The experiences of those we are trying to serve help us just open us up a whole lot more.
For the most part everything in the book had resonated with me and really is how i feel. I am from a social work background and so many of the things I learned in school were from the perspective of helping someone so they can help themselves. Life is such a learning process. I know through my own trials and tribulations that finally figuring out I could rely on God was such a burden off my shoulders. I know personally that pain and suffering is really the only way we grow. I am doing a Beth Moore study right now and so much of that is related to what we are talking about. It is great to be doing the study along with Unity Works,it solidifies it all for me. The thought of seeing and feeling God’s love through serving is very exciting to me. I have enjoyed the book so much and listening to Charles and Rudy’s stories is so hopeful. I think what I like best is you can’t fix people they must in some way do it for themselves but if I can be a catalyst for that that is what would be so rewarding.