Community development

Review: Bring Back Your People

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Cover image of "Bring Back Your People" by Aaron Scott

Bring Back Your People, Aaron Scott. Broadleaf Books (ISBN: 9781506494555) 2025.

Summary: A blunt discussion of how to reach out to those who have embraced Christian nationalism.

You might know “Randy.” He (or she, in this case Brandy) may be a sibling or relative. Maybe a next door neighbor. Or it could be your auto mechanic, or hair dresser, or a favorite waitstaff at a restaurant you frequent. Randy embraces ideas of American greatness, often coated with an icing of Christianity. As I write, Randy is probably in hog heaven. And you may be dismayed and wondering where do you go from here.

Aaron Scott has worked with a lot of Randys in his ministry. He helped start a church among the rural poor on coastal Washington State, many of whom have been attracted by Christian nationalism. He offers a blunt, plain-spoken ten-step guidebook to talking with the Randys in our lives. He begins by discussing the tenets of Christian nationalism and why they attracted Randy. Often it came down to someone talking to Randy and caring about him and offering a vision and ground game of how his life and community could be better. And sadly, more progressive folk probably never did.

That’s the starting place: talking to Randy and caring about his life. Sometimes, that means getting past the things that get under your skin to see the person and taking time to really listen. Scott also takes a deep dive into American history and how white supremacy, nationalism, and white evangelicalism have sadly walked together. Randy may well be where he is because a church embracing Christian nationalist ideas has taken him in and provided a place of belonging. Many progressive folk have nothing nearly as compelling to offer.

Scott shows how so much of the political rhetoric of both parties tries to recruit the poor while preserving the wealth of a tiny number. He believes the answer is mobilizing a people’s movement that calls both to account. He also recognizes this could be emotionally and physically dangerous. He discusses honestly assessing these to navigate both safely and strategically. He also argues that progressives need a religious strategy. Spirituality matters to Randy, yet progressives often shun it like the plague. All of this so that you can offer Randy a new home, one speaking compellingly into the real-life issues of one’s own community. He argues that we have to stop blaming people and “pledge allegiance to the bottom.”

In sum, Scott seeks to rally the church, not to the cause of American greatness, but to the 140 million poor in our country. He offers a bracing call to get to work. Christian nationalism has succeeded by relentless organizing that has extended into poor communities. Yet they are not delivering for the poor, an opportunity to “bring back” people like Randy. But it means talking to Randy, organizing to reach and serve Randy, and taking Randy seriously rather than dismissively.

As I mentioned, Scott speaks bluntly. His writing is laced with profanity (but that’s often the language Randy uses). While progressive both theologically and politically, he is critical of the abandonment of the rural poor by many progressives. His approach is one that goes beyond the church truly being the church to community and political organizing. It doesn’t strike me as an approach to healing the divides but rather of outdoing the opposition. I’m not sure I agree with that but Scott makes me ask hard questions about how we are caring for the Randys in our lives.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from the publisher through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

Review: Tending Tomorrow

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Cover image of "Tending Tomorrow" by Leah Reesor-Keller

Tending Tomorrow, Leah Reesor-Keller. Herald Press (ISBN: 9781513813356) 2024.

Summary: Facing an uncertain ecological future by drawing on one’s faith and learning from creation, to re-vision how we may live.

Many of us are convinced that our warming earth poses a threat to the flourishing of life on our planet. More deeply troubling is the awareness that our own patterns of consuming earth’s resources are a causative factor. In fact, that influence is so decided that scientists have named our epoch in global natural history the Anthropocene.

I’m a Christian who believes God loves his creation but observes a world responding inadequately to the threat. The question then arises of how then should we live into an uncertain ecological future without giving way to despair. Christians are people of hope. Leah Reesor-Keller wrestles with these questions in Tending Tomorrow. Her response to the uncertain future is to dig into the roots of her faith in five “thematic actions”: redreaming, retelling, renewing, reimagining, and rewilding.

Redreaming involves re-examining one’s religious and cultural roots and is foundational to the author’s project. It means recognizing the things worth embracing and the harmful trajectories it is time to re-direct, all with an eye toward what we would hope for the world in 2100. This leads to looking at our origin stories. The author illustrates with the story of her Mennonite family and how they settled in Canada. She learned that it was a story of colonization. A future might involve acknowledging that Indigenous presence and drawing upon Indigenous wisdom rather than dominionist theology for how one lives on the land.

Then renewing involves reflecting on how one has found hope in past challenges and suffering. One lesson in hope is that we don’t need to see all the steps to the end but just the next ones. Likewise, we nurture hope in community by continuing to show up for each other.

But the “re” word Reesor-Keller gives the greatest attention is reimagining. She begins with reimagining leadership, not as the hero leading the charge, but as an interconnected network of people. This is exemplified in the interconnected character of forests. She recognizes that the flow of power is always a reality of leadership in community. She describes her own leadership and use of Power Mapping to empower marginalized community voices. Then she turns to re-imagining accountability and repairing harm, both within the community, and in the wider Canadian culture with Indigenous people. Finally, she returns to Anabaptist roots to reimagine church communities as people movements rather than institutions.

As she concludes, Reesor-Keller meditates on re-wilding her yard and is reminded that such a project can go in a number of directions. Re-visioning the future has no singular outcome. Rather, we strive to create a flourishing space for many visions while taking the next steps we need to take.

The approach to this book was far more holistic than I expected. The author addresses our origin stories, our blind spots, marginalized people, redemptive community, as well as our care for creation. But in doing so, she shows us her understanding of what it is to be the church in the world. This both addresses our crisis of hope and vision and needs for culture change. She offers no silver bullets. But she offers a vision of how we might live into the uncertain future.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Plundered

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Cover image of 'Plundered" by David W. Swanson

Plundered: The Tangled Roots of Racial and Environmental Injustice, David W. Swanson. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514007747) 2024.

Summary: The tangled roots of racial and environmental injustice. Traces exploitation and oppression of people and land to a common root of greed.

The basic premise of this book is that systemic racism and environmental destruction stem from a common root. Specifically, greed, and its outworking in theft, in the eyes of David T., Swanson, are the sources of what he sees as two intertwined ills. Often, those subject to racial injustice also suffer from depredations on the environment. The point of this book is not to argue what are disputed ideas in some quarters nor to propose policies for society as a whole. Instead, Swanson asks how churches might engage in caretaking of both people who have suffered injustice and the land they inhabit, often in urban settings.

Swanson comes uniquely qualified to address these questions. After training as an outdoor educator, Swanson experienced a call to establish a church on the South Side of Chicago, New Community Covenant Church, where he has lived with his family and worked the past fourteen years. The book reflects his own efforts to love and care for the people and place of the South Side of Chicago, specifically the Bronzeville neighborhood.

Before addressing his key insight, Swanson begins with the gift of creation, weaving biblical narrative and insights of Indigenous Christians into his sabbath day walks by Lake Michigan near the Center of Science and Industry, through the woodlands, canals, and lagoons of what was the site of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. From here, he considers our vocation, which he describes as priestly caretakers. As priests, we both bless the Creator and the creation. As caretakers, we seek the flourishing of all God’s creation, recognizing that our flourishing depends upon it.

Then, Swanson explores what we have actually done. We have so refashioned creation, resulting in mass extinctions and changing weather patterns. Scientists contend we have entered a new era in Earth’s existence, the Anthropocene. We have pursued extractive and exploitative policies not only with the creation but with ethnic minorities, the Black and Brown peoples of our country. As a result, these people often suffer the worst effects of our environmental depredations in what is called environmental racism. As Christians, we have often been complicit. Real healing can only begin with repentance, leading to repair, reconciliation, and renewal.

Part of how this happens, Swanson contends, is through our detachment from our place. We often do not know where our water, food, energy, clothing, and other necessities come from. And so we often can be oblivious to the exploitative and extractive practices implicit in our existence. But there is hope and the last two chapters in part one begin exploring what priestly caretaking under Christ’s redemptive work might look like in our communities, from gardens, to welcome of newcomers, to fighting for the quality of local schools.

All this comes in the first part, under the heading “tangled roots.” The second part is headed ” becoming naturalized.” Instead of detachment, Swanson considers what it means to become indigenous to a place. Swanson urges three practices to nurture our relationship with our place and its people. Instead of detachment, we nurture belonging, listening to and learning about our community. Instead of unceasing exploitation, we sabbath, resting both ourselves and the rest of creation and practicing generosity. Finally, in place of greed, we nurture virtue–prudence, justice, courage, temperance, faith, hope, and love.

Priestly caretaking is not idealistic utopianism. Rather it is a form of “long obedience in the same direction. Swanson writes:

“Caretaking in the ruins of industrialized extraction and exploitation is a generational commitment. Who can say how long it will take for a racialized people centered on Jesus and pursuing repair together to find that creation has re-exerted its formational power over them? How long will it take for a people who’ve been severed from the earth to learn to walk humbly and gently among their creaturely neighbors? There is no program for this, no curriculum or metrics. There is only the good and slow work of learning together how to exist as a blessing and a gift.”

What I appreciate about this book is that it doesn’t try to do too much. It doesn’t propose macro solutions for racism or environmental problems. Swanson does for urban communities what Wendell Berry does for rural farming communities. Both focus on care for people with names and their place. We can’t seek restoration everywhere if we don’t practice it somewhere. Swanson invites us to begin where we are to engage the long, slow work of community caretaking.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Agents of Flourishing

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Agents of Flourishing, Amy L. Sherman. Downers Grove: IVP Praxis, 2022.

Summary: An outline of how Christians may pursue Christ’s redemptive mission in six areas of cultural life, encompassing the whole of life.

Years ago, I listened to Gary Haugen, the founder of the International Justice Mission, an effort responsible for the release of thousands of women and children from human trafficking, discuss the breakthrough insight that led to his efforts. He was wrestling with the question of why God permitted so many injustices in the world when he felt God turning the question around and asking, “why do my people permit so many injustices to continue in the world?”

Amy L. Sherman believes that the redemptive mission of Jesus is intended not simply to bring personal redemption from sin but also bring God’s shalom, God’s flourishing into every dimension of life. And she believes that God’s way of bringing this about is through his people, and in the context of this book, through local congregations working within their own communities.

Sherman follows a model developed by the Thriving Communities Group’s “Human Ecology Framework” that identifies six spheres of cultural life that must be healthy for a community to be healthy. They are:

  • The Good: Flourishing in the Realm of Social Mores and Ethics
  • The True: Flourishing in the Realm of Human Knowledge and Learning
  • The Beautiful: Flourishing in the Realm of Creativity, Aesthetics, and Design
  • The Just and Well-Ordered: Flourishing in the Realm of Political and Civic Life
  • The Prosperous: Flourishing in the Realm of Economic Life
  • The Sustainable: Flourishing in the Realm of Natural and Physical Health

Six of the chapters of this book articulate a basic theology for each of these spheres discussing God’s creational intent, the malformations that the fall has introduced, the ways redemption re-forms this and how Christians have contributed to that re-formation in history and challenges in our current context. For example, under “The True” the creational intent includes our design to be learners, the goal of which is to know God and his purposes in the world, that parents are the first “teachers,” that Jesus affirms education, that God teaches us much beyond religious matters, and that common grace means that God desires all to achieve a broad-ranging knowledge. Sherman discusses the malformations of modernity and post-modernity and educational inequities. She then cites the contribution of Christians to making books in the codex form, to literacy, to scientific inquiry, to establishing schools and the early universities, and in the promotion of secondary and university education in the black community. Two challenges she identifies are the anti-intellectualism in many evangelical quarters, even the suspicion of learning, and the withdrawal of evangelicals from public schools, sadly in some cases, when schools were integrated.

Many books stop here. Sherman goes further in offering case studies of what churches have done in their communities to pursue each of these six initiatives. She discusses instances of churches pursuing the good by strengthening marriages, the truth by partnering with public education, the beautiful by investing in the arts, the just and well-ordered through restorative justice and reconciliation, the prosperous by redeeming business for the community good and using assets to build assets, and the sustainable by fighting environmental health hazards and addressing food desserts.

One of the most inspiring stories for me was that of two churches in a low income area of Los Angeles plagued by petroleum drilling operations that failed to provide health protections that would be standard in richer communities. They prayed, they collected information about health impacts, demonstrated publicly and built media awareness while working with city officials, attending public hearings, resulting in enhanced safety requirements that led the drilling company to decide to cease drilling and clean up the site.

What I love about this book is that it moves beyond a broad and biblically grounded vision to examples of how churches have had a redemptive influence in their communities in each of these area–churches across the country. In the concluding chapter, she outlines the steps church leaders can take for similar engagement in their own communities. The language of flourishing crops up in almost everything I read these days. The difference in the case of this book is that it shows how ordinary believers working together have pursued flourishing in a variety of ways that contribute to healthy communities. This work doesn’t gain the notice that scandals and political alliances do. But it pursues the common good and commends the gospel of the kingdom. In my book that is far better than media prominence!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Thirsting For Living Water

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Thirsting For Living Water, Michael J. Mantel (Foreword by Richard Stearns). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2021.

Summary: How a young executive left a promising position to pursue the adventure in faith of providing both clean drinking water and the living water of Jesus throughout the world.

Michael Mantel thought he had it made. He had married his college sweetheart, found a thriving Christian community, and had risen to a key job in a major company. Then his company awarded a gift to a charitable group digging fresh water wells in Africa, and sent him to observe their work. His life was transformed as he saw the difference access to safe drinking water could make in the life of a village in Senegal.

He agreed with his wife Natalie to walk through a door, taking a leave from his company to work for World Vision in development efforts. After learning the work from funding to community development, he took the position as president and CEO of Living Water International, a ministry that uses an integrated approach of coming alongside people in a country to help with water access, sanitation, and hygiene efforts (WASH) that make a major difference in reducing disease and death from water-borne illnesses and fuel other development efforts. In addition, they are committed to sharing the message of the living water of Christ.

This book narrates a journey from hearing the call to be witnesses, beginning with his Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and reaching the ends of the earth. He describes a downward journey as he loses his father, walks along his wife in fighting cancer, faces tests of faith in growing the business, and goes through Hurricane Harvey and sees God provide for his Houston-based organization amid the pressures of so many needs in his own city.

It’s a story of both understanding his own calling and appreciating the breadth of the church. Through work with a couple Christian academics, he learns about appreciative inquiry, in which one learns how to assess the strengths of a community where development efforts are being undertaken, and how one works with a variety of partners inside and outside a community for its flourishing. Then the work of Living Water International gives him the chance to apply these lessons globally, glimpsing the bigness of God’s vision for the world, learning how God is already at work with churches abroad as well as awakening churches here through engagement in God’s mission. He contend that it is in this work of God’s entire body that the oneness of the church is truly experienced.

The book is filled with inspiring stories, not only of Mike and Natalie, but also of churches both here and around the world. But the aim of the book is to encourage readers to reflect on how God is meeting them in their own story. Each chapter both is a reflection and invites reflection in thought, writing, and discussion with others. It is both an encouraging and dangerous book, particularly if read with a group seeking to discern how they might walk into God’s vision for the world, his great story. Read this one if you dare!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: Loving Your Community

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Loving Your Community

Loving Your Community, Stephen Viars. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2020.

Summary: A pastor whose church has developed a number of community-based outreach ministries, describes their journey into this work, and the variety of ministries that have resulted.

Is the motto of your church “Say no unless you have to say yes” or “Say yes unless you have to say no”? That is a question Stephen Viars poses in the opening pages of this book. Sadly, a number of churches say “no” to community outreach because of possible risks to their facilities. Viars proposes that it comes down to loving our neighbors in the name of Jesus.

This is where the journey began for Faith Church in Lafayette, Indiana. The church was growing and they began to ask what God was calling them to next. They started to realize that one of the best ways to do this was to listen to their neighbors. They surveyed the neighborhood, talked to law enforcement, and out of this discerned that the start was to build a community center instead of a larger sanctuary–a center that supported families, provided good childcare, youth programming, and served veterans and seniors. They are honest when asked why they are doing this, that they want to show love that reflects God’s love in sending his Son, and that they are glad to talk about that if people want to know more.

The second part of the book describes some of the ministries they developed. They offered biblical counseling and equipped counselors. They found ways to make their facilities available for everything from childcare to community forums. They tapped the talents of members to offer instructional classes on an array of subjects from marriage, family, and parenting to computer classes to financial management. They restructured ministries from just being oriented around church members to include the community–youth ministry, community picnics, and other gatherings. They developed outreach activities and collaborated with the community in staging them. At the request of the city, they engaged in neighborhood restoration. They built multiple community centers in different parts of the city, again at the invitation of the city and funders. They created residential treatment programs.

The third part of the book offers advice and answers questions for others considering getting started. They talk about risk management, disclosure, insurance, and legal reorganization (fourteen separate entities in all for this church’s various efforts). An important principle is to separate risks and assets so that “any entity that does ministry has no assets and any entity that has assets does no ministry.” They are committed to not compromising the gospel in any ministry. Viars outlines a twelve step process for others wanting to get started in community-based outreach. The book concludes with stories of two other congregations who worked with Faith Church in the launching of their own, context specific community-based outreaches.

All this may sound a bit overwhelming until one realizes this was a thirty year journey for this church. One of the big takeaways is that a church can listen to the community, work with public officials and outside funders without compromising gospel integrity. The key is a church known for serving its community, that shows up and can be counted on. This is so rare in any city, and people will listen to, or at least tolerate its message when it is accompanied by attentive listening and love in action.

The one thing I miss in this account is how this church collaborated with other churches in the community, particularly as they ministered in neighborhoods distant from their primary location. Sometimes, I’ve seen large congregations simply outshine and overwhelm smaller, under-resourced neighborhood churches rather than partner with and empower them. I don’t know what is the case here.

What is so helpful is the model of a church that keeps saying “yes” to God in terms of serving its community. Viars offers so much in the way of practical accounts of how each ministry developed and the process they went through that may serve to persuade other churches that it is really possible to love one’s community not only aspirationally but in deed as well as word.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions I have expressed are my own.