Eight Million Exiles, Christopher M. Hayes (foreword by Robert Chao Romero). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802882394) 2024.
Summary: How theologians, researchers, and local church leaders teamed up to support Columbia’s internally displaced persons.
Eight Million Exiles. That is how many people have fled from one part of Columbia to another as a result of violence throughout the land. They’ve lost loved ones, been assaulted, given up homes, possessions, and assets, and separated from families and communities.
In 2014, Christopher Hayes, who had recently joined the faculty of the Biblical Seminary of Columbia, accepted an invitation to participate in a Faith and Displacement Project, convened by Milton Acosta, and advised by sociologist Laura Cadavid. Acosta eventually recruited disciplinary specialists in a number of fields as well as pastors and other church leaders to join the effort. That effort was to empower and equip local congregations to support internally displaced persons (IDPs) as they sought to rebuild their lives.
They were committed to three core values, rigorous application of the social sciences, strong biblical foundations, and learning through and from experience. This book describes their process, and the results in mobilizing congregations to support IDPs. They began by identifying their approach, Missional Action Research. Through this approach, a variant on Participant Action Research, they combined research rigor with “getting off the balcony.” This approach emphasized learning through action, learning cycles, and returning knowledge to the community. In addition, they form interdisciplinary teams of theologians and disciplinary specialists. These included economists, sociologists, psychologists, teaching specialists, those skilled in public sector work, and missiologists.
The curriculum they developed focused on four areas: trauma informed mental health care, mobilizing unrecognized skills and resources in the community, empowering people to launch microenterprises, and support with spiritual and pastoral care. Then they identified six test sites at which to implement the curriculum.
They found the curriculum was generally well received. Specifically, the inventory that helped churches identify the gifts and resources in their community was incredibly affirming–when the didn’t skip this step. They found the inventory, at twenty pages, was daunting.
The cyclical process incorporated all the feedback and welcomed criticism, a key to building ownership. Discussions of scaling up the Faith and Displacement Project intersected with the COVID pandemic. This created the unexpected opportunity to create an online diploma version of the curriculum, extending the training to more congregations in more locations.
Vignettes after each chapter underscore the impact of the project, softening the research report character of the book. I also appreciated the combination of academic rigor and biblical reflection by the author. The candor with which he admits shortcomings and the realization that the perfect is the enemy of the good is refreshing. Equally, while not perfect in implementation, the determination to integrate theology and disciplinary praxis, and researchers and laity offers a model of what needs to occur in any development effort. Finally, whereas many efforts reflect a “Ready, Fire, Aim!” approach, the rigor and thoroughness, the impact evaluation and revision contributed to the effectiveness of this project.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.