SVS-sponsored Workshops at the Vineyard Justice Network Conference, October 2014
SVS-sponsored Workshops at the Vineyard Justice Network Conference
The Steering Committee of the Vineyard Justice Network is excited to announce that this year’s VJN gathering at the Anaheim Vineyard in October will feature two Society of Vineyard Scholars-sponsored workshops that bring together deep theological reflection and dialogue with the Justice and Mission of the Kingdom! SVS scholars Joe Gorra and Michael Raburn will be facilitating the workshops…check out the descriptions below. Don’t miss out, for further information about the VJN conference and registration click here: www.2014vjnconference.eventbrite.com
A Theology of Work: A Society of Vineyard Scholars-Sponsored Workshop
with Joe Gorra and Cheryl Pittluck
The Kingdom of God celebrates that all human beings are created to work. Work, as contributing value to others, enables us to enter into collaborative relationships to serve both the needs of others and to recognize the fruits of their labor. How does our view of work shape our service to others and our service with others? How might this interrelating be reshaped to no longer settle for dealing with people in a ‘patron-client’ kind of relationship? This workshop is an exploration of these issues and their implications for mission, justice and our ministries.
Joe Gorra is the founder and director of Veritas Life Center, a 501(c) religious nonprofit devoted to translating and transmitting the Christian tradition as a wisdom tradition. Since 2002, Joseph E. Gorra has helped individual and corporate content creators with their publishing needs as a content manager, developer and strategist, researcher, editor, book marketing developer and publicist, book reviewer, and media coordinator and member of SVS. His enthusiasm is for work that expands the Christian knowledge and wisdom tradition, shows its relevancy to contemporary thought and life, and that prizes the mission and ministry of the local church.
Cheryl Pittluck is on the steering committee for VJN, and runs the Vineyard Anti Slavery Team at Anaheim Vineyard, as well as volunteering in their Compassion Ministry, serving the homeless and those in need of food, clothing, furniture, etc. She has volunteered with the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force for 6 years, working with trafficking survivors, teaching and doing public outreach and education. She also serves on the board of the Global center for Women and Justice at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, CA.
The Wal-Mart Effect and Low Wage Work in America: An SVS-sponsored workshop with Michael Raburn
This workshop begins with a review of Charles Fishman’s research and analysis of Wal-Mart’s impact (both good and bad) on its on its customers, workers, and suppliers, and by extension the global economy and society at large as well as my own research on low-wage work in the retail and service sectors of the American economy. This information will be geared toward generating dialogue on developing strategies targeting both business operators (drawing on the positive aspects of the Wal-Mart effect and management successes in retail and service) and the low wage workers who need help navigating a difficult system.
Dr. Michael 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 and is an active SVS member. 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.