Starting Points

On this blog I will consider what it means to be an agent of shalom--that most grandiose of bible words ever swooping all into its generous embrace. 

Being that this is as broad an intention as it gets, whatever seems relevant to seeking God's best for everyone everywhere (especially you and right here) will be worth writing about. 

I identify as a community developer. In this profession, we devote ourself to a particular place and its people, asking: "Who are they?" "What is happening?" "What needs to happen for each person to experience peace and justice?" You will find me asking and struggling to answer many forms of these questions in the days to come.

As a community developer called to cities I will pay particular attention to how this goal of shalom might come about in urban places. However, it won't take long to realize that I see everything intimately interrelated with everything else. No place, pursuit or idea exists in isolation from others, so to seek the welfare of the city means to seek the welfare of all geography. To consider economics--for example--is to all pose questions to politics, ecology, social systems, cultural identities and a whole host of other topics. Once we begin to tug at the loose ends dangling from the ball of yarn, we suddenly find the whole tangled mess drawing toward us. In no way do I imagine I can unknot much of it, but I hope to begin exposing bits and pieces of its contours.

If that sounds overly esoteric, let me try to focus by saying this: 

Shalom, I am convinced, is the character of the Kingdom of God. Where Jesus is Lord, there is shalom. Shalom exists when all people equitably experience peace and justice, a comprehensive rightness in the relationship between all things. In his book with the word as its title, Perry Yoder says shalom can refer to a state in which well-being, prosperity, abundance, safety, justice and peace are normative for the community. We are provided examples of shalom through the healing, feeding, reconciling ministry of Jesus, in the sharing and mutually caring life of the early church (Act 2:42), and in the eschatological visions of the New Heaven and the New Earth (Rev 21-22). As beings made in the image of God, every single human is meant to experience this abundance of life in synergistic community with others. It is meant for the whole of creation--plants, animals, cities, mountains, rivers and oceans included. Sadly, in our post-911/Trayvon Martin/Michael Brown/Eric Gardner/record domestic inequalities/immigration debate/(fill in the blank with the most recent injustice here) world, we are excruciatingly aware that many if not most of our neighbors fail to experience shalom. Power differentials, marginalization, exploitation, relational alienation and more all contribute to the disequilibrium in our societies. God's mission (and the mission he has entrusted to his church) is to restore this broken world to the shalom he yearns for it to enjoy. 

So, what would shalom actually look like out there in the real world of buildings, families, workplaces and trees? And how does it come about? What strategies might we employ to help it manifest? 

As a starting point, allow me to offer 12 Non-Exhaustive Principles for Leading to Shalom. These bubbled up for my own use, reminders of the Christ-like posture I desire but tend to forget. I put them out there embracing Henri Nouwen's conviction that “my life belongs to others just as much as it belongs to myself and that what is experienced as most unique often proves to be most solidly embedded in the common condition of being human.” Hopefully something universal can emerge as I unpack thoughts of meaning to my own particularities.

In the weeks ahead, I hope to circle around and through these points, expanding on them, exploring their biblical and theological background rationals, and proposing some related concrete practices. Please offer your perspectives as we go. This can only be a success if it is a community enterprise.

Peace n blessings,

Nathan

12 Non-Exhaustive Principles for Leading to Shalom

1. Seek First the Kingdom

Keep first things first. As leaders our top priority is seeking to comprehend God’s will, then seeking his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Hint: in the Kingdom, shalom is universal.

Verses: Matt 6:33, Luke 12:31

2. Question What Is

Take nothing for granted. Think critically about everything. Ask: Is this how things would be if God were in charge? Who is being neglected, marginalized, excluded, disinherited?

Verses: Acts 17:11, Phil 2:12, Luke 4:18-19

3. Cultivate an Alternative Identity

This is not about forming a superhero alter-ego. Rather is it about 1) Living in the spirit of Christ, and 2) Living on the borders between your culture and that of the ‘other.’

Verses: Gal 2:20, Rom 6:11, 1 Cor 9:22

4. Lead for Others

Jesus was in all things the one who lived for others. To be great become the least. To lead others become their servant. Do not look to your own interests but to the interests of others.

Verses: John 3:17, Mark 10:44, Phil 2:4

5. Empower the Marginalized

Blessings are to be used for blessing. Gifts are a responsibility. Power is not to be grasped, it is to be stewarded for others, equitably shared and used to lift those at the margins.

Verses: Acts 13:1, Eph 4:11

6. Embrace Finitude

People are inadequate for a reason. Through our weakness Jesus’ power is manifested. Live in grace and the freedom of Christ. Live with whimsy--stop take yourself so seriously.

Verses: Gal 4:13, 6:14, 1 Peter 2:4-11, 23-25, 5:5-10, 1 John 1:8-9

7. Live in Dependence and Interdependence

Resist the myth of independence. We were originally designed then freed by the gospel to live in dependence on the power of God and in interdependent community with others.

Verses: Gen 2, Exodus 20:3, John 15:1-11, 1 Cor 12:27

8. Build Three Dimensional Relationships

Connect across society’s three axises: the power spectrum, all forms of diversity and the sectors. Strategically connect disparate people together for the common good.

Verses: Luke 7:36-50, 19:1-10, John 4

9. Celebrate Difference

Life flourishes in diversity! The call to unity is not a call to homogenization. Leaders draw out the uniqueness of the divine image in every human being for the community’s good.

Verses: Rev 7, Acts 11:19-21, Acts 15

10. Welcome Emotion

Our leadership will bring us and into contact with the extreme ugliness and beauty of humanity. Foster an open, hospitable space for emotion--yours and others--to be expressed.

Verses: John 11:35, Matt 23:37-39

11. Expect Mutual Transformation

Maintain a learners posture. Each person--Christian or not--bears a gift we need. God uses our work to transform others as the means of our own journey of discipleship.

Verses: Acts 10, Eph 1:15-16, Phil 1:3-5

12. Model the Way

Leaders are most effective not when they are mandating, but when inspiring others to action through the content of the story their life is telling.

Verses: John 1:1-18, 1 Cor 11:1, Phil 2:1-11