In her Leadership Network paper How Externally Focused Churches Minister to Children: The Power of Serving Kids in Your Community, Krista Petty offers stories, practical tips, and wisdom from experienced community practitioners working with children. Here's an excerpt:
Church leaders and volunteers serving children in their communities find it to be one of the most rewarding as well as challenging ways to extend God’s grace beyond the walls of their church. ... Omar Reyes, Community Development Director at NorthWood Church, Keller, TX is passionate about mobilizing the church and its resources to make a transformational impact in the local community, especially in the lives of children. “If children aren’t dancing in the community, then something is wrong,” says Omar.
Download the paper and read about how churches are fathering the fatherless, promoting children's health, addressing the foster care crisis, mentoring children of prisoners, and more. Share it with someone in your church!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
An Updated Look at the Statistics
On August 26, the U.S. Census Bureau will release data on poverty and family income for 2007. In anticipation of these new data, the National Center for Children in Poverty offers the following resources that may be helpful for talking about the numbers:
Ten Important Questions About Child Poverty and Family Economic Hardship
Statement on Establishing a Modern Poverty Measure (submitted for congressional hearing held July 17, 2008)
Demographic State Profiles (check back after Labor Day for the new data!)
We encourage you to check out these resources and use them as a starting point for discussion in your family, community group, small group, or Sunday school class.
Ten Important Questions About Child Poverty and Family Economic Hardship
Statement on Establishing a Modern Poverty Measure (submitted for congressional hearing held July 17, 2008)
Demographic State Profiles (check back after Labor Day for the new data!)
We encourage you to check out these resources and use them as a starting point for discussion in your family, community group, small group, or Sunday school class.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Rewarding Reading in Family and Community Ministries Journal
The Summer 2008 issue of the Family and Community Ministries journal focuses on how people of faith are nurturing the most vulnerable children. You can read several of the articles online, including an excerpt from Hope for Children in Poverty:
What Does the Bible Say about Hope for Children in Poverty?
By Ronald J. Sider and Heidi Unruh
An astounding 210 verses in the New International Version of the Bible use the words "poor" or "oppressed." If our churches featured this theme with the same prevalence and passion as Scripture, how might God use the church to bring new hope to children in poverty?
Read more
'We're Losing Them in the Nursery'
By Susan Cowley
After 12 years of ministry in one deep pocket of multi-generational urban poverty, we'd attended more teenagers' funerals than high school graduations. It was running three to one – gravesides to grads. We simply knew that the Lord had not brought us here to watch these children become drug dealers or mothers by the age of 14, go to prison, and die young. A call was forming as God dreamed into us what could be.
Read more
'Why Do You Care?'
By Michael Kelly
Last winter I sat down with three of the most energizing and dynamic ministerial leaders I've ever met. The conversation took place on Chicago's West Side, a large African-American region of Chicago that has been battered by many years of neglect, poverty and family breakdown. This conversation came about because the group was interested in sharing their ideas for creating caring church communities for young people. I wanted to show how three ministers from a variety of Christian faith traditions could come together to begin healing the youth and families of their communities.
Read more
Living and Teaching the Fruits of the Spirit
By M. LeAnn Gardner
Truth or Consequences, NM has 15,000 residents, 80% of which are considered to be living in poverty or "at risk" of living in poverty. Truth or Consequences' (TorC) Full Gospel Tabernacle opened its doors to the community in 1979 providing a place of worship and community outreach. In 1996, a young, enthusiastic Rebecca Dow arrived in TorC to facilitate a training event for the church nursery staff at Full Gospel. When she saw the need of the community during that training weekend in 1996, she felt called to return to her childhood home to start a child care center.
Read more
If you have come across a good article or resource on ministry with children in poverty, please share the link!
What Does the Bible Say about Hope for Children in Poverty?
By Ronald J. Sider and Heidi Unruh
An astounding 210 verses in the New International Version of the Bible use the words "poor" or "oppressed." If our churches featured this theme with the same prevalence and passion as Scripture, how might God use the church to bring new hope to children in poverty?
Read more
'We're Losing Them in the Nursery'
By Susan Cowley
After 12 years of ministry in one deep pocket of multi-generational urban poverty, we'd attended more teenagers' funerals than high school graduations. It was running three to one – gravesides to grads. We simply knew that the Lord had not brought us here to watch these children become drug dealers or mothers by the age of 14, go to prison, and die young. A call was forming as God dreamed into us what could be.
Read more
'Why Do You Care?'
By Michael Kelly
Last winter I sat down with three of the most energizing and dynamic ministerial leaders I've ever met. The conversation took place on Chicago's West Side, a large African-American region of Chicago that has been battered by many years of neglect, poverty and family breakdown. This conversation came about because the group was interested in sharing their ideas for creating caring church communities for young people. I wanted to show how three ministers from a variety of Christian faith traditions could come together to begin healing the youth and families of their communities.
Read more
Living and Teaching the Fruits of the Spirit
By M. LeAnn Gardner
Truth or Consequences, NM has 15,000 residents, 80% of which are considered to be living in poverty or "at risk" of living in poverty. Truth or Consequences' (TorC) Full Gospel Tabernacle opened its doors to the community in 1979 providing a place of worship and community outreach. In 1996, a young, enthusiastic Rebecca Dow arrived in TorC to facilitate a training event for the church nursery staff at Full Gospel. When she saw the need of the community during that training weekend in 1996, she felt called to return to her childhood home to start a child care center.
Read more
If you have come across a good article or resource on ministry with children in poverty, please share the link!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
What Do Our Presidential Candidates Have to Say About Poverty?
Yesterday, a press release from Associated Baptist Press reported that faith leaders have asked the DNC and RNC to share their anti-poverty plans during their upcoming presidential-nominating conventions:
In a recent letter to presumptive Republican nominee John McCain and likely Democratic contender Barack Obama, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Protestant leaders requested that both use prime-time speaking slots at the conventions to outline their respective plans for combating poverty.
"As people of faith, we believe that it is immoral to ignore our nation's most vulnerable populations," the leaders wrote.
They pointed out that more than 37 million Americans, including almost 13 million children, currently live below the federally defined poverty level. Millions more, they noted, are one crisis away from joining the ranks of the desperately poor.
"As Americans, we believe enduring poverty undermines our country's economic strength and prosperity," the leaders said, pointing out that alleviating poverty requires national effort.
Faith leaders pledged to work together in the lead-up to the general election to "build the political and public will to combat poverty in the United States."
The letter's signers included David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World; Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches; Richard Cizik, vice president for government affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals; Jim Wallis, Sojourners chief executive officer; Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA; Steve Gutow, Jewish Council for Public Affairs executive director; David Saperstein, director and counsel of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Sayyid Syeed, Islamic Society of America secretary general; and Eboo Patel, executive director of Interfaith Youth Core.
To read the letter, click here.
What do you believe the government's role should be in alleviating poverty?
In a recent letter to presumptive Republican nominee John McCain and likely Democratic contender Barack Obama, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Protestant leaders requested that both use prime-time speaking slots at the conventions to outline their respective plans for combating poverty.
"As people of faith, we believe that it is immoral to ignore our nation's most vulnerable populations," the leaders wrote.
They pointed out that more than 37 million Americans, including almost 13 million children, currently live below the federally defined poverty level. Millions more, they noted, are one crisis away from joining the ranks of the desperately poor.
"As Americans, we believe enduring poverty undermines our country's economic strength and prosperity," the leaders said, pointing out that alleviating poverty requires national effort.
Faith leaders pledged to work together in the lead-up to the general election to "build the political and public will to combat poverty in the United States."
The letter's signers included David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World; Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches; Richard Cizik, vice president for government affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals; Jim Wallis, Sojourners chief executive officer; Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA; Steve Gutow, Jewish Council for Public Affairs executive director; David Saperstein, director and counsel of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Sayyid Syeed, Islamic Society of America secretary general; and Eboo Patel, executive director of Interfaith Youth Core.
To read the letter, click here.
What do you believe the government's role should be in alleviating poverty?
Friday, August 8, 2008
Free Hunger Worship Resources from Bread for the World
Bread for the Preacher, a new service for busy ministers, is now available from Bread for the World. This free service comes straight to the e-mail inbox of church leaders who sign up. The resource includes: lectionary-based reflections on hunger and poverty, prayers and other worship resources, bulletin inserts and announcements, and information about additional resources and opportunities. To sign up, visit www.bread.org and enter your e-mail address in the "newsletter sign-up" box on the homepage. You will then be taken to a page to fill out contact information and check the "Bread for the Preacher" box in the online newsletters section.
Monday, August 4, 2008
FACES
When I write the words, "children in poverty," a slideshow of children's faces comes to mind.
One is a beautiful infant with kissably chubby brown cheeks, liquid eyes and a soft fringe of hair. Members of her family are rumored to be drug dealers. She is named after her mother's favorite alcoholic drink. Born to a single mother, granddaughter of a single mother, the statistics governing her destiny are stark, the odds of her escaping another go-round on the descending spiral of fatherless generational poverty all too slim.
Another face belongs to a ruddy, pudgy boy, just having reached the magical birthday when he gets to add "teen" to his age. A placid expression and slow speech denote his borderline IQ. Under heavy medication for ADHD, he alternates unpredictably between hyperactivity and vacant passivity. But when a friend comes within a few feet he springs into action, with a huge bear hug and huger sloppy grin. His father is in prison, his mother recently died of the health complications that often accompany a hard-lived life. According to all research, the path before him leads, statistically speaking, to his father's locked-down doorstep. I can only pray that he finds a detour.
I see the impish face of a first-grader, showing off her new pair of pink shoes from Wal-Mart. She loves candy, furry animals and anything that involves going fast. Her parents are married, employed homeowners who stay home when their childless friends are out partying. But with minimal education, their jobs pay little above minimum wage, with few prospects for advancement. If not for her parents' being savvy about available benefits – EITC, free school lunches, state-sponsored child health care, home repair assistance programs – my little friend's life would be far more of a struggle. For now, being poor doesn't enter her conscious world, except that it means she can't have a pony.
The fourth face looks out at me from a Compassion photo. He lives in Brazil, in a family struggling to keep every mouth fed. He is about the same age as my son, who was delighted to discover that his new Brazilian friend also likes race cars. We will probably never meet, but at least I know that he will get to eat every day, wear clothes that fit and receive an education — gifts that the three other children in my slideshow will probably take for granted.
What faces come to your mind?
How is our response to "children in poverty" conditioned by the faces we see—and by the faces we never see?
If you don't hold the face of a child in poverty in your heart … perhaps one of the first steps you can take on this journey is to get to know a poor child.
In fact, since one out of six children in this country are poor, it's likely that you already know such a child; you just don't know that they are poor. And that's a not a bad thing. Because first and foremost, children in poverty are simply children. The core essence of their life is not their financial status or their risk factors or statistical life outcomes.
The essence of a child looks out at us through those beautiful, God-stamped faces.
One is a beautiful infant with kissably chubby brown cheeks, liquid eyes and a soft fringe of hair. Members of her family are rumored to be drug dealers. She is named after her mother's favorite alcoholic drink. Born to a single mother, granddaughter of a single mother, the statistics governing her destiny are stark, the odds of her escaping another go-round on the descending spiral of fatherless generational poverty all too slim.
Another face belongs to a ruddy, pudgy boy, just having reached the magical birthday when he gets to add "teen" to his age. A placid expression and slow speech denote his borderline IQ. Under heavy medication for ADHD, he alternates unpredictably between hyperactivity and vacant passivity. But when a friend comes within a few feet he springs into action, with a huge bear hug and huger sloppy grin. His father is in prison, his mother recently died of the health complications that often accompany a hard-lived life. According to all research, the path before him leads, statistically speaking, to his father's locked-down doorstep. I can only pray that he finds a detour.
I see the impish face of a first-grader, showing off her new pair of pink shoes from Wal-Mart. She loves candy, furry animals and anything that involves going fast. Her parents are married, employed homeowners who stay home when their childless friends are out partying. But with minimal education, their jobs pay little above minimum wage, with few prospects for advancement. If not for her parents' being savvy about available benefits – EITC, free school lunches, state-sponsored child health care, home repair assistance programs – my little friend's life would be far more of a struggle. For now, being poor doesn't enter her conscious world, except that it means she can't have a pony.
The fourth face looks out at me from a Compassion photo. He lives in Brazil, in a family struggling to keep every mouth fed. He is about the same age as my son, who was delighted to discover that his new Brazilian friend also likes race cars. We will probably never meet, but at least I know that he will get to eat every day, wear clothes that fit and receive an education — gifts that the three other children in my slideshow will probably take for granted.
What faces come to your mind?
How is our response to "children in poverty" conditioned by the faces we see—and by the faces we never see?
If you don't hold the face of a child in poverty in your heart … perhaps one of the first steps you can take on this journey is to get to know a poor child.
In fact, since one out of six children in this country are poor, it's likely that you already know such a child; you just don't know that they are poor. And that's a not a bad thing. Because first and foremost, children in poverty are simply children. The core essence of their life is not their financial status or their risk factors or statistical life outcomes.
The essence of a child looks out at us through those beautiful, God-stamped faces.
Friday, August 1, 2008
THE STORY OF HOPE FOR CHILDREN IN POVERTY
Dr. Ron Sider and I have written a number of books and articles together. So it was not a surprise when he called to ask if I was interested in working with him to edit a book that Judson Press had in mind – a reader on child poverty. The book would complement the Children in Poverty initiative sponsored by National Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA, and it would combine social analysis, theological reflection, and stories of effective ministries. We said yes.
The book grew in scope to include over forty contributors, plus selections of children's art and poetry. We were honored to have Marian Wright Edelman, outspoken children's advocate and founder of the Children's Defense Fund, write the introduction. The list of contributors is a cross-section of the diverse agents in our society taking a stand against poverty: university professors, policy analysts, nonprofit staff, pastors, writers, denominational leaders, professionals, community activists, children. You will, I hope, be hearing from many of these book participants through this blog, as well as new voices.
The book includes appendices with tools to help individuals and churches take steps toward a practical response to child poverty: a list of books and websites for more information, and a guide to planning a ministry program.
It was also Judson's idea to offer a free study guide online. The study guide has been used by hundreds of churches that have studied Hope for Children in Poverty in small groups as part of the ABC Reads initiative.
Due to the wide interest in the book and the critical issues it represents, its status as the ABC Reads selection has been extended through the end of the year. Hope for Children in Poverty has also been recognized as a finalist in the Social Change category of the National Best Books 2007 Awards and as "notable" in the Culture category of the Eric Hoffer 2008 Book Awards.
It has been my great privilege to be part of this project – to learn from the experts in the field, to be inspired by the stories of ministry pioneers, to be entrusted with the work of young poets and artists. I'll be honest: Shepherding this complex book project took a lot of work, a lot of babysitting hours, and a lot of patience (especially on the part of our publisher). But there is no doubt it has been worth it.
One high point of my involvement with Hope for Children in Poverty was an email we received after its publication. It was from a pastor, saying that after reading the book, his church was interested in starting a ministry involving foster children. I can think of no better book review.
Do more with Hope for Children in Poverty:
• Read the Table of Contents and Introduction
• Order a copy of the book from Judson Press (note: 10% of the proceeds from sales of Hope for Children in Poverty will go to the Children in Poverty initiative of National Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA)
• Download the free Study Guide
• Find out more about the editors, Ron Sider and Heidi Unruh
The book grew in scope to include over forty contributors, plus selections of children's art and poetry. We were honored to have Marian Wright Edelman, outspoken children's advocate and founder of the Children's Defense Fund, write the introduction. The list of contributors is a cross-section of the diverse agents in our society taking a stand against poverty: university professors, policy analysts, nonprofit staff, pastors, writers, denominational leaders, professionals, community activists, children. You will, I hope, be hearing from many of these book participants through this blog, as well as new voices.
The book includes appendices with tools to help individuals and churches take steps toward a practical response to child poverty: a list of books and websites for more information, and a guide to planning a ministry program.
It was also Judson's idea to offer a free study guide online. The study guide has been used by hundreds of churches that have studied Hope for Children in Poverty in small groups as part of the ABC Reads initiative.
Due to the wide interest in the book and the critical issues it represents, its status as the ABC Reads selection has been extended through the end of the year. Hope for Children in Poverty has also been recognized as a finalist in the Social Change category of the National Best Books 2007 Awards and as "notable" in the Culture category of the Eric Hoffer 2008 Book Awards.
It has been my great privilege to be part of this project – to learn from the experts in the field, to be inspired by the stories of ministry pioneers, to be entrusted with the work of young poets and artists. I'll be honest: Shepherding this complex book project took a lot of work, a lot of babysitting hours, and a lot of patience (especially on the part of our publisher). But there is no doubt it has been worth it.
One high point of my involvement with Hope for Children in Poverty was an email we received after its publication. It was from a pastor, saying that after reading the book, his church was interested in starting a ministry involving foster children. I can think of no better book review.
Do more with Hope for Children in Poverty:
• Read the Table of Contents and Introduction
• Order a copy of the book from Judson Press (note: 10% of the proceeds from sales of Hope for Children in Poverty will go to the Children in Poverty initiative of National Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA)
• Download the free Study Guide
• Find out more about the editors, Ron Sider and Heidi Unruh
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