It is now day three of our place of honor on the PC(USA) homepage. While I know I should be enjoying our moment in the sun, this humble blog’s great chance to gain the notice of august personages within the church, it tends to make me more nervous than anything else. Alas, it seems easier to write when I think the only person reading this is my mother back in Washington, who would tell me that carving sculptures out of blue cheese showed extraordinary genius on my part.

But I do want to give a shout out to the behind-the-scenes heroine of the blog—Amy Tuttle, our web designer. Not only did she manage to finagle us the great opportunity for this PC(USA) feature, but she also designs all the fantastic layout and graphics on this page and the NNPCW homepage. She deserves extra prayers on her prayer day in the Mission Yearbook, November 30, for putting up with us (see the Sept. 29 post to learn about prayer days).

In several posts, I’ve alluded to our peculiar position here in PresbyLand of being both church and corporation—we’re charged with showing the love of God to everyone while still keeping out of the red in doing it. However, from time to time opportunities do spring out of our conundrum.

Yesterday, I had a chat with my friend over at Interfaith Worker Justice, Emily Harry. Her request of me highlights the ways in which the church, because of its almost constant interactions with the business community, has a real opportunity to put its faith into practice. Emily is currently organizing a campaign on behalf of hotel workers, and she had heard that I would be attending a gathering of meeting planners in the building. Because of the plethora of meetings we schedule here at the Center, we are in a unique position to support workers who are striking for fairer wages when we pick the hotels you stay at. By avoiding hotels in contract disputes, and rewarding those that do engage in fair labor practices with our business, we can play a positive role in supporting workers. She hoped that I would lift this up during the meeting.

Other places where the church puts its money where its mouth is include our policies supporting minority and women-owned purchasing vendors and our Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) committee. Plus, we’ve engaged businesses like Taco Bell, during the recent boycott, in discussions about just labor practices. So when you think the church doesn’t have a voice, doesn’t have relevance to the world, think again.

Of course, this works on the micro level, too. For a long time, I felt like boycotting particularly unethical products and businesses was a nice but ineffectual gesture. I didn’t do it because I was convinced that my actions couldn’t make a difference.

But then, at the last Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women, it dawned on me that it wasn’t even about changing the world with my one act. It is all about my faith, and proclaiming that faith in whatever way I can. If Scripture tells me to “seek justice, [and] rescue the oppressed” (Isaiah 1:17), then it doesn’t really matter if I jump on a huge groundswell for change or if I quietly join a nascent cause with no immediate prospect of success. It doesn’t matter if the change happens next week or a hundred years from now. Because I know that transformation will come, and my faith gives me the strength to live into that when it seems foolishness to others.

Remember that all mass movements started with just a few people—people who committed to doing something about the wrongs they saw, even when everyone else said it was impossible. As people of faith and as the Body of Christ, we’re charged to live into the promise of God’s coming realm. And sometimes that means throwing common sense out the window, and putting our money where our mouth is.

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” --1 Corinthians 1:27

Kelsey

PS—If you’re more interested in the hotel worker campaign, visit Interfaith Worker Justice’s website.

Aw Kelsey...you're so inspirational. :)
Love,
Maisha