Work for common good depends
on grass-roots efforts, speaker says

By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
Guiding the country toward justice for the common good begins at the grass roots, the featured speaker told the Holy Boldness Urban Ministry Academy Jan. 18.
“We’ve got to have grass-roots people working in their communities on issues that affect their lives to build the common good,” the Rev. Tex Sample told the opening session of the Jan. 18-20 assembly at Travis Park UMC, San Antonio. “And nobody is closer to the grass roots than us.”
Sample, coordinator of the Network for the Study of U.S. Lifestyles and former professor of church and society at UM-related St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo., spoke to more than 100 clergy and laity leaders.
The Jan. 18-20 event was the second session in a two-year training program, which began in September. The academy is designed to show United Methodist leaders ways to transform congregational life in city churches. The Office of New Church Development and Transformation is sponsoring the six-session effort.
During the weekend, Sample focused on justice for the common good and referred to authors and scholars who observed the growing inequality in wealth and income across the United States.
Between 1983 and 1998, Sample said, the bottom 40 percent of the U.S. population (in terms of wealth) had a 76-percent loss in their average household net worth. The top 1 percent of wealth holders showed a 42-percent gain in their household net worth.
In 2004, he said, more people declared bankruptcy than filed for divorce. One in 60 people lost their homes.
What once were seen as good investments—buying a house, having children—are putting families at risk today, Sample said.
Big-ticket items like gasoline and healthcare costs have increased so much that 3- and 4-percent raises every year just don’t keep up, he said.
“This is an excellent example of trickle-down economics,” Sample said. “We’re feeding the horses so the birds can eat—if your fecal imagination is good.”
The economic state affects church ministry and the people to whom the church is opening its doors, Sample said.
“You’re doing urban ministry,” Sample said. “You’re down on the ground, on the streets of your cities. This is not some abstract notion that is unconnected to your lives. People walk through your doors overwhelmed by credit card debt. They’re trying to keep up with a standard of living that’s becoming increasingly out of reach.
“If we don’t use a grass-roots effort for the common good, we’ll see the common good increasingly sacrificed. People at the grass-roots level need to engage in justice for the common good. If they don’t, I don’t see much of this changing in the next decade.”
Sample said the country has seen “times before when these kinds of inequalities were true” and has had “times when change comes.”
Themes for the Holy Boldness second session were:
> Developing and strengthening multicultural relationships.
> Eradicating racism.
> Leadership development.
Holy Boldness covers seven themes in the first year. The first Holy Boldness session was Sept. 28-30. The third session is set for March 28-30. Three more are scheduled for late 2008 and early 2009.
For more information about the academy, visit www. umcswtxprograms.org/holyboldness, or contact the Office of New Church Development and Transformation.