YNOT 재단이 비영리 법인으로 설립된 지 벌써 8개월이 되었습니다. 그동안 많은 리서치와 사역에 대한 구체적인 방향과 사역들을 정리하였습니다. 하지만 아직 많은 분들께서 오해와 궁금한 점들이 많이 있는 것으로 보입니다. 이번 달 부터는 YNOT에 대한 사역과 설립목적에 관하여 함께 나눠보려고 합니다.
YNOT 재단의 설립 목적은 마태복음 14장16절 “너희가 먹을 것을 주어라”라고 하신 예수님의 말씀에 기초가 됩니다. 설립의 이유는, 더 많은 교회 전문인력들과 봉사자들로 더 많은 지역사회 봉사에 동참할 수 있는 기회를 드리고, 교회 예산 외에 정부나 타 단체의 제정 후원을 받아 더 큰 규모의 커뮤니티 사역을 하는 것, 그리고 법적인 책임과 복잡한 행정적인 문제들을 감당하기 위해 설립되었습니다.
현재 교회부서로 있는 커뮤니티 사역부에서 하는 사역 외에 커뮤니티를 위한 주중 프로그램과 사역들을 확장해 나갈 계획입니다. 커뮤니티 사역에서해 왔던 outreach와 ministry개념에서 YNOT에서는 사회복지와 지역계발에 초점을 두게 됩니다.
지역개발 (Community Development)은 무었인가?
지역개발이란 지역사회에 건축, 직장, 교육, 건강, financial services… 개발등을 통해 지역사회를 발전시키는 것을 뜻 합니다. 교회로서는 일반 지역개발을 넘어 기독교적인 지역개발 (Christian Community Development)에 초첨을 두게 됩니다. 미국에 있는 많은 교회들이 이미 지역개발 사역에 참여하고 있습니다. 정부가 무관심하고 사회가 기피하는 가난과 고통속에 있는 지역들에 교회가 들어가 주님의 사랑으로 지역개발에 힘을 쓰게 되는 것입니다.
왜 정부는 나성영락교회가 있는 Lincoln Heights와 미국의 많은 지역들이 가난하고 범죄가 많은 지역으로 나둘까요? 왜 사람들은 가난한 지역에서 이사하여 더 욱 살기 좋은 곳으로 이사하며 남겨지 지역을 더 욱 더 어둠속에 있도록 나둘 까요? 정부가 힘든 지역에 더욱 많은 계발을 위한 제정을 투자하고 교육과 그 지역의 가정및 건강을 위해 관심을 같는 다면 아주 다른 모습을 볼 수 있을 것입니다. 믿는 우리도 지역을 도피하는 것이 아니라 가난하고 힘든 지역에서 함께 살아가며 좋은 교육을 위해 housing을 위해 health facility를 위해 job을 위해 함께 싸워나간다면 Lincoln Heights 같은 지역은 놀라운 변화가 있을 것입니다.
비록 지금 우리가 할 수 있는 것은 작은 부분이겠지만 하나하나 기도하며 해 나아갈때 귀한 사역들을 펼칠 수 있지 않을까 기대하게 됩니다.
CCDA (Christian Community Development Association)의 John Perkins목사는 기독교 지역개발에 대해 8가지로 간추려 얘기합니다:
1) Relocation: Living Among the People
Living out the gospel means desiring for one’s neighbor and neighbor’s family that which one desires for one’s self and family. Living out the gospel means bettering the quality of other people’s lives spiritually, physically, socially, and emotionally as one betters one’s own. Living out the gospel means sharing in the suffering and pain of others.
How did Jesus love? “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.6 Jesus relocated. He became one of us. He didn’t commute back and forth to heaven. Similarly, the most effective messenger of the gospel to the poor will also live among the poor that God ahs called the person to. A key phrase to understand relocation is incarnational ministry.
By relocating, a person will understand most clearly the real problems facing the poor; and then he or she may begin to look for real solutions. For example, if a person ministering in a poor community has children, one can be sure that person will do whatever possible to ensure that the children of the community get a good education. Relocation transforms “you, them, and theirs” to “we, us, and ours.” Effective ministries plant and build communities of believers that have a personal stake in the development of their neighborhoods.
Relocation is community based in the very essence of the rod. There are three kinds of people who live in the community. First “relocators” are people who, like the project director, were not born in the inner city but moved into the neighborhood. Second, are the “returners.” These are the people born and raised in their community and then left for a better life. Usually they return from college or the military. They are no longer trapped by the surrounding powerty of their neighborhood. Yet, they choose to return and live in the community they once tried to escape. Lastly are the “remainers.” These are the ones that could have fled the problems of the inner city but chose to stay and be part of the solution to the problems surrounding them.
2) Reconciliation
First is from people to God. Reconciliation is at the heart of the gospel. Jesus said that the essence of Christianity could be summed up in two inseparable commandments: Love God, and love they neighbor.7 First, Christian Community Development is concerned with reconciling people to God and bringing them into a church fellowship where they can be disciple in their faith.
Evangelism is very much a part of Christian Community Development. It is recognized that the answer is not just a job or a decent place to live but having a true relationship with Jesus Christ. It is essential that the good news of Jesus Christ is proclaimed and that individuals place their faith in Christ for salvation. Christian discipleship is very much a part of this philosophy also.
The gospel, rightly understood, is wholistic. It responds to people as whole people; it does not single out just spiritual or just physical needs and speak to those. Christian Community Development begins with people transformed by the love of God, who then respond to God's call to share the gospel with others through evangelism, social action, economic development, and justice.
Second is people to people. The most segregated time of the week in our nation is Sunday morning during church services. American churches rarely are integrated and weaken the gospel because of this practice. Christians pray in the model prayer that the Lord taught: "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Mt 6:9 Churches should reflect heaven on earth, and heaven will be the most integrated place in the world. People of every nation and every tongue will worship Christ together. This is the picture of the church Christ presents to his people.
The question is: Can a gospel that reconciles people to God without reconciling people to people be the true gospel of Jesus Christ? A person's love for Christ should break down every racial, ethnic and economic barrier. As Christians come together to solve the problems of their community, the great challenge is to partner and witness together across these barriers. Christian Community Development recognizes that the task of loving the poor is shared by the entire body of Christ, black, white, brown, and yellow; rich and poor; urban and suburban; educated and uneducated. The Bible transcends culture and race, but the church is still having a hard time with these essentials.
Christian Community Development is intentional about reconciliation and works hard to bring people of all races and cultures into the one worshipping body of Christ. This comes not so much through a program but through a commitment to living together in the same neighborhood. This is why relocation is so important and how each of the other principals builds upon it.
3) Redistribution
When the body of Christ is visibly present and living among the poor (relocation), and when people are loving their neighbor and their neighbor's family the way a person loves him or herself and family (reconciliation), the result is redistribution. If God's people with resources are living in the poor community and are a part of it, the skills and resources will be applied to the problems of that community.
Redistribution brings the principles of Justice back to the underserved communities. Justice has left communities of color and lower economic status, leaving an unjust criminal court and prison system, unjust hiring practices, unjust housing development and injustice in the educational institutions. Justice has been available only to people with the economic means to acquire just treatment.
Redistribution brings new skills, new educations, new resources and puts them to work to empower people in a community of need. This is redistribution. Christian Community Development ministries find creative avenues to create jobs, schools, health centers, home ownership, and other enterprises of long-term development. Helping people help themselves, that is redistribution.
4) Leadership Development
The primary goal of redistribution is to restore the stabilizing glue and fill the vacuum of moral, spiritual, and economic leadership that is so prevalent in poor communities. This is most effectively done by raising up Christian leaders from the community of need who will remain in the community. Most Christian Community Development ministries put a strong accent on youth development, winning youth to Christ as early as kindergarten and then following them all the way through college with spiritual and educational nurturing. After that a ministry creates opportunities for leadership upon their return to the community. At the core of the leadership vacuum in inner city communities is an attitude of flight. For many, success is defined as being able to move out of communities, not remaining there. The erroneous goal is to help a few people leave the neighborhood so that they can escape the problems of inner city communities. This core value of escapism has caused a major drain on the community. Success in the world’s eyes is leaving the neighborhood and owning a home in a more affluent community.
Leadership development is possible only when there is longevity of ministry. All too often people are guilty of trying to have quick fixes in poor neighborhoods. Leadership development is of the highest priority in Christian Community Development. Each ministry must have a dynamic youth ministry that is reaching young people with the good news of Jesus Christ and then discipline them in their faith. This will take at least fifteen years to accomplish, so a worker must plan to stay in the neighborhood for at least that long.
5) Felt Need Concept
The great question is: "How do we affirm the dignity of people, motivate them, and help them take responsibility for their own lives?" By beginning with the people's felt needs, it is possible to establish a relationship and a trust, which then enables the minister to move to deeper issues of development. This idea of beginning with people's felt needs is called the felt need concept. There are two major strands of community development that are prevalent today, the first being a needs-based development. This is development based on the needs in poor communities. The other is asset-based community development that focuses on the assets of a community and building upon them.
The felt-need concept of Christian Community Development strives to use the best of both of these philosophies. First, it gathers the community and discovers the wonderful talents, abilities and skills in the community. Every community has assets, but often these are neglected. It then realistically points out, through community meetings and efforts, some of the areas that people in the community would like to see improved. The areas to be focused upon are not looked at from some outside group or some demographic study that is laid upon the community. Instead, it is the community members themselves that decide what area they would like to improve. After a community has decided where they want to focus some of their attention, it is then directed to the means with which they themselves can bring this about. What qualities, talents, and abilities does the community have that can help solve these problems? The focus is on the community members seeing themselves as the solution to the problem, not some government program or outside group that is going to be their salvation.
It is essential for the leadership to help facilitate the community to focus on their strengths and abilities to make a difference. The philosophy of Christian Community Development believes that the people with the problem have the best solutions and opportunities to solve those problems.
One danger of the felt-need concept is a preoccupation with the problems and needs in a community. The felt-need concept is only a tool for the beginning of development to listen to the people and give them hope for life-changing solutions. Quickly, this should then move to seeing the great potential that is in their community.
6) Church-Based
It is the writer's position that nothing other than the community of God's people is capable of affirming the dignity of the poor and enabling them to meet their own needs. It is practically impossible to do effective wholistic ministry apart from the local church. A nurturing community of faith can best provide the thrusts of evangelism, discipleship, spiritual accountability, and relationships by which disciples grow in their walk with God. One problem today has been that the church is not involved in developing its communities. Often, the church has been an unfriendly neighbor in communities across our county. Churches are guilty of being open only on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights and being almost irrelevant to the needs of the people around them. Because of this, many parachurch organizations have started to do the work of loving their neighbor that the church had neglected. Christian Community Development sees the church as taking action towards the development of its community.
It is the responsibility of the church to evangelize, disciple and nurture people in the Kingdom. Yet, from the command of Jesus, it is also the responsibility of the church to love their neighbor and their neighborhood. Churches should be seen as lovers of their community and neighborhoods. It is out of the church body that ideas and programs should emerge.
This concept is certainly not new in the black community. The black church has spawned most of the substantial community efforts in housing and economic development. There have been shopping centers built, senior housing units developed and communities transformed by the church. As natural as these transformations have been for the black church, they continue to be foreign to the traditional white church. Often, opposition to the church's involvement in community development still occurs among many white denominations and church groups, and this includes many of the Asian churches as well.
Lastly, probably the greatest sustaining power of community development is the community building of a local church. Because Christian community is based on relocation and people living in the community, having a local church to worship together is essential. It is the church where people gather to be rejuvenated and have their personal needs met. This is true of staff members and non-staff members. Just imagine how exciting it would be to see doctors at a local health center worshipping and sitting next to their patients on a Sunday morning. This is community building at its best. The church helps people to understand that each person has gifts and talents and all just utilize those for the greater good of the community. A worshipping church breaks down many of the barriers including racial, educational and cultural barriers that often separate people in communities.
7) Wholistic Approach
Oftentimes, many in ministry get passionate and involved in one area of need and think if they solve this particular problem that all else will be resolved. Christians, of course, often focus this area on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Of course, the most essential element to Christian Community Development is evangelism and discipleship. Yet solving problems with lasting solutions is more than evangelism and discipleship.
There is never a simplistic answer to the problems in poor communities. Often, people will say that the problem is spiritual, social or educational. Of course these are problems, but they are only part of the larger problems. Solving the housing problem does not solve the emotional struggles that a person has. Christian Community Development has a wholistic approach to ministry that deals with the spiritual, social, economic, political, cultural, emotional, physical, moral, judicial, educational and familial issues of each person.
Of course, the wholistic approach is difficult because there are so many aspects to a person’s life. That is why there is no better way of helping a person than having him or her committed to a local church. A church that is committed to Christian Community Development sees not only the soul of a person as significant, but also his or her whole of life on earth. It si being completely pro-life for a person, not only eternally, but also as the person lives on this earth.
Therefore, Christian Community Development sees the church must be involved in every aspect of a person’s life. It is important to network with other churches and organizations in communities. In order to accomplish the wholistic aspect of ministry, pastors and leaders must be networkers. Christian Community Development builds coalitions in communities so that they can work together to solve the problems.
8) Empowerment
Empowering people as community developers meet their needs is an important element to Christian Community Development. How does a pastor ensure that people are able to help themselves after they have been helped? Oftentimes, Christian ministry, particularly in poor communities, creates dependency. This is no better than the federal government welfare program. The Bible teaches empowerment, not dependency.
In the Old Testament, empowerment is an important aspect to God’s care for the poor. In Deuteronomy 24 and Leviticus 19, God instituted the gleaning system. The farmers harvested their crops but were only allowed to go through the field one time. What was left behind or dropped on the ground was available for any widow, alien, orphan or poor person to come and harvest. This program was one that empowered people.
Three principles come out of God’s welfare system in the Old Testament. First, there must be opportunity for people to get their needs met. In Deuteronomy and Leviticus, this happened to be a field with food in it. Secondly, the person who had a need must be willing to work for it. The widow, alien, orphan or poor person must go into the field and pick up the crops. This, then, involved work on the part of the poor. This is also found in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 which says, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
Thirdly, when these first two principles are working, a person's dignity is affirmed. All people have inherited dignity by being created in the image of God. Oftentimes, charity demeans a person and strips him or her of dignity. The last principle of empowerment affirms a person's God-given dignity.
