| abstract | Christians and pastors have a distinct approach to ministry, different worldviews, and different expectations in terms of
church/individual involvement, development and transformation. Often the approach is guided by scripture and/or an expressed or unexpressed spiritual, physical,
cultural, financial or emotional need that exists both within the church community or secular community. So, I partnered with five Senior Pastors and their
congregations to converse about how ministries live out the biblical charge found in Matthew 25:34-40. We explored the role of social justice in determining how
the senior pastor and congregation provide ministry to meet community need. The pastors engaged with me in three conversations and a site visit. The
conversations guided the senior pastors in exploring their congregations, their church community, their larger community, their ministry plan and the
challenges and opportunities in serving the larger community. The second conversation also invited group discussion and reflection, which led to post
project collaboration. Based on my bi-vocational experience I have seen a decline in involvement of the church and the senior pastor in addressing social
justice issues and community needs and a rise in the secular nonprofit doing these things. This led me to question the role of the church and the senior
pastor in relation to the biblical mandate of Matthew 25:34-40. During the project, I discovered that all the senior pastors are engaged in addressing
community need and care for social justice issues to some degree. What we see then through conversation is not the impossible task of addressing the
multitude of needs. We see the opportunity to connect with God, the opportunity for the Senior pastor to focus the church on need, the opportunity to
build on a history of ecclesiastical justice work, and an opportunity to be a culturally and socially influential ministry. |
