Watch: What does a “justice” disciple look like in public?
In this week’s video podcast, watch Session 3: “Developing the Hands” from the 2015 VJN Forum on “Jesus, the Kingdom, and the Poor.”
What does a justice disciple look like in public? A session led by Dr. Michael Raburn on reaching and serving your community through a grassroots, advocacy approach. Raburn helps unpack and define key terms from Session 1: Dr. Turner’s talk on the Holy Spirit and community action.
Response Panel: Hugh Hollowell Love Wins Ministries, Liz Theoharis Kairos Center/Poverty Initiative, Stephen Hamilton Vineyard Justice Network, Charity Havercroft Iverness Vineyard
Link to Session 1: The Holy Spirit, Justice, and Community Action
Link to Session 2: The Justice of Disciple-Making
Dr. Michael Raburn Pastor, Vineyard North | Wake Forest, NC
Dr. Raburn grew up in Plant City, FL in a family deeply embedded in the Pentecostal movement. The son of a general contractor, Michael worked his way through college and graduate school in an array of blue and white collar jobs, all of which influenced his research and/or personal development in unintended (and sometimes surprising) ways. With over 20 years of ministry experience, Michael serves as lead pastor of Vineyard North in Wake Forest, NC. He earned a Ph.D. in theological ethics and public policy in 2013 at Duke University with a dissertation that focused on the ethical commitments that attended the birth and decline of the Pentecostal movement and has two books forthcoming: After Satisfaction: Explaining Atonement in a Post-Evangelical World and Ding Dong the Witch is Dead: A Eulogy to the Evangelical Movement. Michael and his wife Amy have seven children ranging in age from 22 to 2.
Hugh Hollowell Executive Director, Love Wins | Raleigh, NC
Hugh Hollowell is the founder and executive director of Love Wins Ministries, where they believe the opposite of homelessness isn’t housing, but that the opposite of homelessness is community. In addition to his duties there, he is a sought after writer and speaker about issues of faith and homelessness, having been published in Sojourners, The Christian Century, and has appeared on both Fox News and NPR. Hugh lives in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife, where they co-parent two cats and four chickens. He stays pretty busy, but still manages to read over 100 books a year. With apologies to Counting Crows, grey really is his favorite color, and he loves peanut M&Ms.
Liz Theoharis Co-Director, Kairos Center | Founder & Coordinator, Poverty Initiative | NYC
The Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis is the Co-Director of the Kairos Center and a Founder and the Coordinator of the Poverty Initiative. She has spent the past two decades organizing amongst the poor in the United States, working with and advising grassroots organizations with significant victories including the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Vermont Workers Center, Domestic Workers United, the United Workers Association, the National Union of the Homeless and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. She has led hundreds of trainings, Bible studies, and leadership development workshops; spoken at dozens of conferences and keynote presentations across the US and globally; and published several articles and book chapters sharing her vision that poverty can be ended and that the poor can be agents of social change. Liz received her BA in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania; her M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in 2004 where she was the first William Sloane Coffin Scholar; and her PhD from Union in New Testament and Christian Origins. The title of her dissertation was “Will the Poor Be with You Always’: Towards a Methodological Approach of Reading the Bible with the Poor.” Liz is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Charity Havercroft compassion minister, Iverness Vineyard
Charity oversees ministries to the poor, orphans and Human Trafficking Prevention. In 2014 she spearheaded the creation of PRICELESS, a human trafficking prevention program for foster children.
Charity also works for Vineyard Family Services, a faith-based agency dedicated to decreasing the crushing effects of father absence by feeding kids in need, promoting responsible fatherhood & aiding families in crisis. She currently facilitates the Understanding Dad program in an Alabama Department of Corrections Facility and manages the agency’s grants. She holds an MSW and has worked in Child Welfare.