Seeking goodness:renew2012

Seeking Goodness:
Shaping Congregations For The
Common Good Sean Palmer
twitter: @seanpalmer
www.thepalmerperspective.com

“We’ve Gotta Do Something
About This.”

PRIMARILY A PREACHER
SEEKING GOODNESS: CONGREGATIONS FOR THE COMMON GOOD

IN SEPTEMBER 1954, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. ARRIVED IN
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA, TO ASSUME THE PASTORATE OF
DEXTER AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH. HE BROUGHT WITH HIM A
SMALL CACHE OF SERMONS WHICH HE HAD ALREADY PREACHED
IN HIS FATHER'S CHURCH IN ATLANTA AND IN THE PULPITS OF
BLACK CONGREGATIONS IN THE GREATER BOSTON AREA WHILE A
GRADUATE STUDENT AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY.

IN MONTGOMERY, HE POLISHED THESE SERMONS AND, BY
SEVERAL ACCOUNTS, WORKED VERY HARD AT PRODUCING AND
MEMORIZING NEW MANUSCRIPTS, WHICH HE PREACHED TO AN
APPRECIATIVE IF NOT ENTHUSIASTIC CHURCH THAT WAS
USUALLY ABOUT ONE-HALF TO TWO-THIRDS FILLED. THE WORD
AROUND MONTGOMERY ON THE YOUNG REVEREND KING WAS
THAT HE WAS A "GOOD BUT NOT GREAT" PREACHER

WITHIN A YEAR, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. WAS THE RECOGNIZED LEADER
OF ONE OF THE MOST CREATIVE LOCAL BLACK PROTESTS OF THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY AND WITHIN ANOTHER YEAR AN INTERNATIONAL
CELEBRITY AND THE SUBJECT OF A COVER STORY IN TIME MAGAZINE.
EVERYTHING IN HIS LIFE HAD CHANGED DRAMATICALLY SAVE ONE THING:
HE CONTINUED TO PREACH IN LOCAL CHURCHES. THE SERMONS THAT
ORIGINATED IN HIS OWN PULPIT HE REPEATED HUNDREDS OF TIMES IN
CHURCHES ALL OVER THE LAND.

MUCH OF THE MATERIAL IN HIS SERMONS HE TRANSPOSED TO ADDRESSES
AND MASS-MEETING SPEECHES, WHICH HE CONSIDERED AN EXTENSION OF
HIS PULPIT MINISTRY. KING WAS A PARISH PASTOR WHO, LIKE ALL
PREACHERS, WORRIED ABOUT WHERE HIS NEXT SERMON WAS COMING
FROM AS HE SOUGHT TO EVANGELIZE THE MEMBERS OF HIS OWN
CONGREGATION; AND HE WAS A PREACHER TO THE NATION, WHOSE ONE
UNCEASING, PERIPATETIC SERMON REAWAKENED A PEOPLE TO ITS OWN
IDENTITY AND ULTIMATELY TRANSFORMED THE CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE
SOCIO-POLITICAL STRUCTURES OF AMERICA.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. WAS A PRODUCT OF THE BLACK CHURCH AND
MAINTAINED A PASTORATE THROUGHOUT HIS ADULT LIFE. HE INCREASINGLY
CAME TO EXPLAIN HIS PUBLIC POSITIONS AND ACTIONS AS THOSE OF A
"BAPTIST PREACHER IN THE BLACK CHURCH."
-- RICHARD LISCHER, DUKE DIVINITY SCHOOL

A PREACHER
SEEKING GOODNESS: CONGREGATIONS FOR THE COMMON GOOD

Preacher-To-Preacher
“...I am in Birmingham because
injustice is here. Just as the prophets of
the eighth century B.C. left their
villages and carried their "thus saith the
Lord" far beyond the boundaries of
their home towns, and just as the
Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus
and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to
the far corners of the Greco Roman
world, so am I compelled to carry the
gospel of freedom beyond my own
home town. Like Paul, I must
constantly respond to the Macedonian
call for aid.” - Letter From A Birmingham Jail, MLK, Jr.

CHURCHES &
CHURCH LEADERS
NO LONGER SEE
THEMSELVES &
THEIR CHURCHES
AS
CIVIC LEADERS

SEEKING GOODNESS:
SHAPING CONGREGATIONS FOR THE COMMON GOOD

Merging the Horizons
Church & Community Together

Traditional Reaction #1
Criticize

Copy

Control

Consume

Create & Care

Caring As Exiles
Christianity is the only religion that exist for the
sake of its non-adherents. - Dallas Willard

A Word to Exiles

This is what the Lord
Almighty, the God of Israel,
says to all those I carried
into exile from Jerusalem to
Babylon: "Build houses and
settle down; plant gardens
and eat what they produce.

A Word to Exiles

Marry and have sons and
daughters; ﬁnd wives for
your sons and give your
daughters in marriage, so
that they too may have
sons and daughters.
Increase in number there;
do not decrease.

A Word to Exiles

Also, seek the peace and
prosperity of the city to
which I have carried you
into exile. Pray to the Lord
for it, because if it prospers,
you too will prosper.
- Jeremiah 29. 4-7

Psalm 122
I rejoiced with those who Jerusalem is built like a
said to me, city
"Let us go to the house of that is closely compacted
the Lord." together.
Our feet are standing That is where the tribes
in your gates, Jerusalem. go up—
the tribes of the Lord—
to praise the name of the
Lord

Psalm 122
There stand the thrones May there be peace within
for judgment, your walls
the thrones of the house and security within your
of David. citadels."
Pray for the peace of For the sake of my family
Jerusalem: and friends,
"May those who love you I will say, "Peace be within
be secure. you."

“...IF THE CITY PROSPERS, YOU PROSPER.”
SEEKING THE GOODNESS OF THE CITY

A Framework For Civic
Engagement

The Question You Want Answered:

The Question You Want Answered:
If you were to go to church somewhere, which
church would it be?

Congregations For The
Common Good - How?

Common Good - How?
Unabashedly Seek
Intellectuals &
Creatives
“He was a preacher
who could hoop
Kierkegaard.” - Rev.
Joseph Lowery on
Martin Luther King,
Jr.

Common Good - How?

Unleash & Untether
Creating “Society
Rooms” to care
about what
congregants care
about.

Common Good - How?
Unlimited Partnerships

Common Good - How?
• Peninsula Clergy Network

Common Good - How?
✦ Suicide Prevention

Common Good - How?
✦ Healthy Eating

Common Good - How?
✦ Healthy Eating
✦ Disaster
Preparedness

Common Good - How?
✦ Healthy Eating
✦ Disaster
Preparedness
✦ Education

Common Good - How?
• Street Church, RWC
✦ Weekly Street
Feeding
✦ Clothing & Blankets
✦ Job Skills & Search
✦ Connection &
Leverage w/ Gov’t

Unabashedly Seek Intellectuals & Creatives

Unleash & Untether Congregants


"Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by
nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit
separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect,
or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is
not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men.
Unlike some other people, they champion no purely
human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner
of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city
they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives.
They live in their own countries as though they were only
passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but
labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can
be their homeland, but for them their homeland,
wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they
marry and have children, but they do not expose them.
They share their meals, but not their wives.

They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of
heaven.

-- Letter to Diognetus

SEEKING GOODNESS
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Seeking goodness:renew2012

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