What Does Your Justice Ministry Look Like?

 
 

If you are a member of a faith community, you may have seen your congregation working to meet the immediate needs of our neighbors through your Mission or Outreach Ministry. Perhaps your congregation has a food pantry or helps people with emergency financial needs. Or maybe you have a clothing closet or prepare meals for people who have no home. Throughout history, communities of faith have played an important role in meeting immediate needs of vulnerable people in our community – the work of mercy.

However, there is also a clear call from holy scripture for people of faith to address issues of injustice and inequity in our community. This is where justice ministry comes into play. Justice ministry is any faith-based work or organized effort that seeks to make the world look a little more like what God intended creation to be.  

Examples of justice ministry actions:

  • Advocating for laws that protect the vulnerable and make discrimination illegal

  • Advocating for governmental funding that assures adequate public transportation and housing for all South Carolinians

  • Offering educational opportunities for learning about community issues and problems

  • Seeking out and partnering with nonprofits that are already doing excellent justice work

  • Using church assets to invest in the community through impact investing 

The growing shortage of affordable housing, underfunding of public transportation, and other obstacles facing people are working to move out of poverty in Greenville indicate that there is a critical need for justice ministry. However, it can be difficult to identify accessible entry points for this work. Many congregations and individuals are comfortable with the work of mercy - feeding, clothing, and sheltering people, visiting the sick and incarcerated, and giving to charitable organizations. This work is easier to identify and track, and therefore easier to report back to the congregation. 

In seeking to address the policies and structures which produce and perpetuate poverty and economic inequity, justice work can be more difficult to name and measure the success of, and not as easy to report back to the congregation. In addition, when people do not have a firm grounding in the scriptural call to doing justice work or the training for advocacy and dialogue, they can be fearful about engaging in advocacy work. 

This is where Village Engage can help! Our mission is to offer:

  • transformative education - both skill building as well as education about issues of injustice framed through a lens of faith;

  • pathways to engagement through various forums we host as well as connections to other organizations working on advocacy and creating change in Greenville; and

  • purposeful action that includes specific calls to action as well as impact investment opportunities for individuals, congregations and organizations.  

We can provide resources for an individual, mission group, or congregation feeling the tug to join the important work of advocating for justice in our community.

We have developed a survey for you, your community of faith or other group to discern where you are, and where you would like to go on the journey to justice. Based on your responses, Village Engage can suggest ways we might come alongside and support you on your journey. Perhaps the JustFaith small group educational programs we support might make sense for you or your congregation. Maybe it would be helpful for us to speak with leadership at your community of faith or organization about justice ministry - what it is, and why it is an essential part of a congregation’s presence in the community and a nonprofit’s work to advocate for the people it serves. Or we could make a presentation about resources and opportunities to a larger group within your congregation.

 

Justice work is important work, but it can be challenging to identify entry points and the skills to engage.

Village Engage is here to help bridge the gap!