Justice Discussion Series (Part-I): Essays on Community Stewardship

A Letter of Statement -- (Prologue: Communities as “Congregation”) Written by Dr. Johnnie C. Larrie (Esq.)

Growing up in a Pentecostal church, I was taught, the lessons of the Gospels of Jesus were lessons in “individual spiritual preparation for a life beyond this practice of life.” But what of this particular practice of life? How can people think beyond this life, while being bombarded by acts of living? Further, how can they do this outside of communities of environments that encompass and shape their lived experiences? Heavenly living outside of existing circumstances is a tough conceptualization, and not one likely contemplated in the substantive teachings of the Gospels. 

No one person exists outside of environment – nor, with rare exception, outside of community. Moreover, the thought of individual spiritual preparation – without thought to community-in-environment would be an interesting journey. People live in relation to those in their communities – tucked within nested environments. The crucificial journey of Jesus ‘on behalf of others’ speaks to the essence of this rooted “us-ism.” Thus, in Paul’s journey forward, he too recognized in his gentle admonitions to the Ephesians to, “Be ye kind to one another.”  People live in relation to each other constantly, and that constancy cannot be broken by unending focus on the ever after.  People are called to the practice of living kindness now.

This practice of kindness is central to the lived experiences of people in their communities because it calls forth in them to do something “now and always” in this life. The theological underpinnings of “Be ye kind….” roots in many different directions and finds discourse in discussions about race, feminism, and other more traditional socio-political movements. The call to “Be ye kind” in a spatial or environmental sense has a natural proclivity towards theological callings. 

To live continually in a place of building people-in-communities – to touch the ailings of people existing in the tyranny of their lived experiences brought on by political failings – to break the backs of systems that fail to relieve the grip of situational poverty on people, all speak to a theological underpinning to community-focused work. This is evident in the known life of one of the most masterful politicians in life. Jesus was in the very politics of communal living, and spoke boldly about matters of spatial and environmental justice as a theological calling – one that could only be practiced in moments of ‘now-ness.’

I thought back – as a kid – on my own paster talking in sermonic platitudes about “how great heaven would be for those who lived right.” Surely what he was saying in that pulpit could not be reconciled with the fact that my siblings and I went to church hungry every Sunday, and no amount of ‘talking about Heaven’ was going to alleviate that hunger. Although in that setting, we could not give voice to our lived experiences, we knew instinctively, we could not hold heavenly truths outside the materialism that grounded those lived experiences. Imagine the chagrin of my “church Aunties” had I ever had the “girl-guts” to stand up and say in response to one of those many platitudes, “but I am hungry now and my mother’s food stamps ran out yesterday.”

People live materially, and those materialities are shaped by communities and environments that bear down on their very now-existence. How do I eat or feed my children? Where do I sleep? Who will take care of my physical ailments? Where do I find the essence of my living dignity? How do I exist in a community harmed by threatening environmental externalities over which I have little control? These materialities must be addressed in order to convince a people that what is said in the pulpit matters to them and therefore, requires their participation. 

“Fix it Jesus” is an enmeshed mantra in Black communities, but the comedic nature of that saying does not weaken its seriousness. It is an immediate call to address lived afflictions – food insecurity, unaffordable/unstable housing, mental health challenges, inaccessible health insurance, lack of living wages, incohesive family relations, public educational deficiencies, community disinvestment and exploitation. These and other spatial and environmental justice exigencies create cognitive dissonance between what is preached and what is lived. The call is for Jesus to, please fix it now and not when people get to the inevitable ‘Pearly Gates.’ And to walk in the practice of that calling means, there must be an urgency about being within and about communities comprised of people. This is qualitative theology – because it requires consistent journeying into the everyday contours of lives lived in long societal allies.

To experience this theology requires degrees of “getting proximate” – with people living in communities existing on economic peripheries. Jesus walked among the people – that is how he chose his disciples. A woman suffering from years of physical ailment was simply close enough to “touch the hem of his garment” for immediate healing.   A rich man sought face-to-face instruction from Jesus on how to achieve eternal life; Jesus instructed him to focus on the present conditions of people living on the periphery – “go and sell what you have and give to the poor…”  People are creatures of their “nowness.” Jesus’ admonitions for tomorrow were not disconnected from the urgency of today. The call is to “get proximate with, and thereby speak to people’s existing circumstances of social brokenness.” Tomorrow’s community healings are in actions people take today. That is the everyday practice of “communities as congregation.”

What of the theological practice of people living in their communities? We should reconcile “verse-with-practice” because these practices are addressed Biblically and in practical form.  But just as importantly, we should seek reconciliation because, if what gets said in the pulpit and what is stated in written theologies cannot be reconciled with how communities exist, then we should wonder whether the core teachings of the Gospels in the New Testament have truly lost their moorings. 

My approach to exploring this notion of “communities as congregation” takes on a qualitative nature in which I will attempt to leave a written blueprint of my journey, grounded in what I will call “East Winston field practice.” Further, this journey will operate as an intentionally contemplative one in which I will continue exploring four Biblical underpinnings found in the Gospels that “moor me” in the context of my own community development work in East Winston communities:

(1) Natural Environment As a Teacher of Sufficiency

(2) Environmental Justice as Embodied Compassion

(3) A Theology of Justice Tied to Space & Land and

(4) Community-in-Relational-Wealth as a Counter to Consumerism. Lastly, I am undertaking this journey under the aegis of Legacy Bridge NC – a nonprofit grassroots organization doing spatial and environmental justice work on 32-acres of Brownfields on behalf of East Winston (NC) communities. This journey is contextualized in grassroots organizational gathering. Now let us begin these discussions.