Slow Kingdom Coming: Practices for Doing Justice, Loving Mercy and Walking Humbly in the World by Kent Annan

Author:Kent Annan [Annan, Kent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2016-04-27T23:00:00+00:00

practice four

* * *

PARTNERING

With Not For

I always pray with joy because of your partnership

in the gospel from the first day until now.

PHILIPPIANS 1:4-5 NIV

True generosity lies in striving so that these hands—whether

of individuals or entire peoples—need be extended less and

less in supplication, so that more and more they become

human hands which work and, working, transform the world.

PAULO FREIRE, PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED

I sat at a breakfast table in a nice Chicago suburb with a mom, dad and three kids. The dad takes the morning train to work at a downtown bank. Outside, the driveway leads to a small garage with a basketball hoop on it. Inside, we ate cereal, everyone a bit blurry-eyed.

Then Aimee, the mom, pulled a chart off the fridge and the kids prayed for the world with impressive depth and specificity. They had learned together about these situations and places. Chris and Aimee Fritz, who have been good friends of mine for more than twenty years, had both worked in ministries in Europe and locally. They care about the world. As a family they’re figuring out how to care in the midst of busy lives and a consumer culture. Caffeine hadn’t kicked in yet, but I got a jolt seeing them explore what it means to love the world faithfully as a family.

Their “family compassion focus,” as they call it, started when their twins (a boy and a girl) were eight and their youngest daughter was three. The family had a bad Christmas experience: It should have been perfect, there were lots of toys, but the kids were dissatisfied and arguing soon after unwrapping the bounty. So the Fritzes vowed to change. They wanted to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, not use Jesus’ birthday to give themselves gifts.

After Christmas, they read Matthew 25 with their young kids to reorient themselves. That led to a baking adventure in the spring they called “Sprinkles of Hope.” They sold sixteen hundred cupcakes to their neighbors, a baseball team and their school, which led to sending $2,600 to help a nonprofit in Uganda.

The following Christmas, before opening presents, they reviewed a binder that included everything they’d learned about orphans, Uganda and lessons about giving and helping well. Christmas day was joyful and meaningful because their year was oriented differently.

That night at Christmas dinner, their daughter Zoe asked, “So what’s our compassion focus for next year?” Much like Pastor Wevers at Calvary Church, Chris and Aimee were thinking of this as a one-time reset. But the experience shifted their attention and moved them in a new direction.

They did family research for a week, and on New Year’s Day they voted as a family to learn about and help with clean water. They read articles, learned about the issue and partnered with the charity Blood:Water. Through selling homemade crafts and lemonade outside Starbucks (with permission), they raised $20,000 to help others through this charity committed to providing access to water in Africa for long-term community development.

Their adventure has continued for four years. They have fun celebrating because anything Chris is involved with marries the silly with the serious.

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