Uncompromising hope

Armybarmy REMIX: 2 essentials for God’s Kingdom Come….

Great little post by Danielle Strickland - we heard her at Forge “Grassroots” this year and she’s an amazing person. But I loved her reflections here on hearing Jackie Pullinger:

“on this last note she mentioned that the natural impatience of working with the poor (for God’s kingdom to come) can lead us two ways: one is to the Kingdom (to be willing to look foolish and hold out for transforming power) or the other is to create another theology that allows us to accept things as they are (I couldn’t help but think about harm reduction here…).”

This matched up pretty directly with some thinking that Bec discussed in her (seriously good) post: “Mission is not for pansies“, where she’s relating back on spending a morning with Bev Kumasi:

“She is entirely legitimate. She talks about the Kingdom of God as if it runs through her blood. She seeks out people to love and to share Jesus with and her home. She expresses her frustration at churches who sit singing and never go and ‘do the work of the gospel’.

This is courage and makes the rest of us looks like pansies.

Mission is not for pansies. Yet sometimes that’s all we’ve got to work with - ourselves. Let us at least be willing.”

Beverley Kumasi - Definitely not a "pansy"

One of the most impacting things I’ve heard in a long time was hearing Bev talk about working with prostitutes around the Solomon Islands. As a result of her work with these girls, UNICEF had approached her with an offer to work for them, with the expectation that she would give these girls condoms. But the no-compromise approach, the refusal to take on a theology that accepts things as they are, had Bev telling these people to take their condoms to hell. It’s a tough call, but hearing her say that had me understand that Bev was determined never to be a part of the things that is tearing these girls apart.