Brian McLaren - The Justice Project

THE
JUSTICE
PROJECT

EDITED BY

BRIAN MCLAREN,
ELISA PADILLA,
AND ASHLEY BUNTING SEEBER

2009 by Brian McLaren, Elisa Padilla, and Ashley Bunting Seeber

Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The justice project / edited by Brian D. McLaren, Elisa Padilla, and Ashley Bunting Seeber.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8010-1328-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Christianity and justice. 2. PostmodernismReligious aspectsChristianity.
3. Emerging church movement. I. McLaren, Brian D., 1956 II. Padilla, Elisa. III. Seeber,
Ashley Bunting.
BR115.J8J877 2009
261.8dc22
2009016214

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked Message is taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked TNIV is taken from the Holy Bible, Todays New International Version Copyright 2001 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NRSV is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NET is taken from the NET BIBLE copyright 2003 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. www.netbible.com . All rights reserved.

Song lyrics in chapter 33 are reprinted with the permission of Cory Carlson. Copyright 2007.

Emergent Village resources for communities of faith

mersion is a partnership between Baker Books and Emergent Village, a growing, generative friendship among missional Christians seeking to love our world in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The mersion line is intended for professional and lay leaders like you who are meeting the challenges of a changing culture with vision and hope for the future. These books will encourage you and your community to live into Gods kingdom here and now.

The Justice Project is the second community call in the emersion line. The first was An Emergent Manifest of Hope. These books are written not with a single voice but in concert with many voices. Some topics simply require the contribution of many, and this book is intended to be just thata collective expression of the need for and possibility of justice.

But more importantly it is an invitationan invitation for you and your community to join the project with your own ideas and gifts. This book comes from a community of activists, thinkers, practioners, and dreamers. And, as the emersion line has always done, it is meant encourage, instruct, and, more importantly, invite individuals and communities to join in the hopes, dreams, and aspirations God has for our world.

Emergent Village resources for communities of faith

An Emergent Manifesto of Hope
edited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones

Organic Community
Joseph R. Myers
Signs of Emergence
Kester Brewin
Justice in the Burbs
Will and Lisa Samson
Intuitive Leadership
Tim Keel
The Great Emergence
Phyllis Tickle
Make Poverty Personal
Ash Barker
Free for All
Tim Conder and Daniel Rhodes

www.emersionbooks.com

CONTENTS

by Jim Wallis

Brian D. McLaren

Brian D. McLaren

C. Ren Padilla

Sarah Dylan Breuer

Adam Taylor

Peter Goodwin Heltzel

Jenell Williams Paris

Tony Jones

Richard Twiss

J. Shawn Landres

Jeremy Del Rio

Suba Priya Rabindran

Sylvia C. Keesmaat

Anthony Smith

Randy Woodley

Bart Campolo

Heather Kirk-Davidoff

Joseph Myers

Peggy Campolo

Gabriel Salguero

Ashley Bunting Seeber

Daro Lpez

Pamela Wilhelms

Lyndsay Moseley

Samir Selmanovic

Chad R. Abbott

Jorge Tasn

Will and Lisa Samson

Sarah Ferry

Shauna Niequist

Alise Barrymore

Annemie Bosch

Roy Soto

Ruth Padilla DeBorst

Nathan George and Lynne Hybels

Conclusions

Doug Pagitt

Tomas and Dee Yaccino

Elisa Padilla

FOREWORD

In ominous red and black, an April 2009 cover of Newsweek carried the headline The Decline and Fall of Christian America. The magazines cover story by editor Jon Meacham provoked a wide array of reactions from across the spectrum, from dismay to jubilation. This is not the first time the demise of Christianity and religion in general has been predicted. In 1966, a Time magazine cover asked Is God Dead? and the writers for that issue certainly did not foresee the developments in American public life over the past forty years.

This volume, and the authors it brings together, point not to a decline and fall of Christianity in America but a shift that is reshaping and renewing both the church and its role in the public square. These new kind of Christians are not as easily identified, quantified, or labeled as Christians have been in the past. But their commitment to the mission of the Gospel and the vision of Christ in this world is transforming everything from coffee shops to churches, neighborhoods, and cities. The conversation the authors of this book engage in get to the root of the two greatest hungers in our country and our world today: the hunger for spiritual fulfillment and the hunger for social justice.

We are in the midst of a profound religious shift in this country, the reverberations of which are being felt throughout our society.

This shift is a religious shift, a cultural and racial shift, a generational shift, and a political shift. The leadership and perspective of new and different voicesAfrican-American, Latino, and Asian Christiansalong with a new generation of the faithful in white America are participating in a new conversation. The breadth, depth and effectiveness of this shift have been so pervasive and effective that even those who had avoided its reality and some of the difficult questions it raises are now feeling the pull of its vision.