|
Transforming
Theological Education through Experiential Learning in Urban
Context
By Paul Hertig
Excerpts
below - for the entire article
Walter Wink has observed that people who may be
somewhat free of racial prejudice and may have friends with those on
the margins may still unintentionally support unjust structures that
dominate one racial group over another. ...
There is an intersection of
narratives between the learner and community. The fingerprints of
God are found in the story of people in the community.
Therefore, it is a humbling and necessary experience to pause from
our own narratives and immerse ourselves in
the narratives of others. Conversation was a key aspect
of Jesus' ministry. He was often depicted at a meal, coming from a
meal, or going to a meal. Conversation thus
becomes "a model and metaphor for dealing inclusively with
theological
diversity, and a concrete way of doing ministry ...
We must never adopt the accepted patterns of
disengaged truth prevalent in higher education, not the accepted
patterns of disengaged ministry prevalent in the institutionalized
church. Robert Linthicum confirms that "Only a man or
woman who allows his or her heart to be broken
with the pain and the plight of the hurting poor and/or
the hurting powerful of the city belongs in ministry there. . .
.” The typical church or theological
school responds to its community by determining the needs, the
problems, and the solutions of its
neighborhood community. It then implements a new program for the
community--all without listening to the voices of the community.
Such a scheme in all likelihood is
predetermined to fail because the ownership of
the problem, the solution, and the program to implement that
solution lies in the church--not in the people. It is the church’s
program. The people of the community have no
ownership in it. They may attend it and
participate in it, but they will always be spectators and clients,
never participants and goal-owners.
Thus we need to view the community through its own
eyes. Listening to the survival strategy of
the community validates the community members and reminds them that
they have the local understanding, the
abilities, and networking that is valuable and foundational
for the process of community organizing.
The biblical notion of
networking assumes that all people, “however uneducated, exploited,
and beaten down by life, have a greater capacity to understand and
act upon their situation than the most highly
informed or sympathetic outsider. Every human being, no
matter how deprived, is created in the image of God” and is as
capable as the most well educated,
self-motivated person to determine his or her future. ...
Jesus did not journey into the
world with preprogrammed methods. He responded to
people differently according to their unique needs and contexts, as
revealed in his dialogues with Nicodemus, the
Samaritan woman, the expert in the law, the rich ruler, Zacchaeus,
and so forth. However, most ministries in the city “make the same
fateful error of taking a programmatic
approach, over and over again.” Such an approach is arrogant,
insensitive and destructive. But to be a partner in the community
involves the breaking down of barriers of
fear, mistrust, and dominance. The task of neighborhood ministry
is not the task of a hero, but the task of people willing to
sacrifice themselves for others. When outreach
into a community is merely an extension of a church or educational
program, the people of the community will “always be spectators
and clients, never
participants and goal-owners.”
|
CSCO, P.O. Box 60123, Dayton, OH 45406; email: