Charity Reimagined Event in Columbus

Join us for a luncheon with Bob Lupton, author of Toxic Charity and Charity Detox.

Bob has invested over 40 years of his life in inner-city Atlanta. In response to a call that he first felt while serving in Vietnam, he left a budding business career to work with delinquent urban youth. Bob and his wife Peggy and their two sons sold their suburban home and moved into the inner-city where they have lived and served as neighbors among those in need. Their life’s work has been the rebuilding of urban neighborhoods where families can flourish and children can grow into healthy adults.

Bob is a Christian community developer, an entrepreneur who brings together communities of resource with communities of need. Through FCS, he has developed two mixed income subdivisions, organized a multi-racial congregation, started a number of businesses, created housing for hundreds of families and initiated a wide range of human services in his community.

He is the author of several books including the widely read, Toxic Charity, Theirs is the Kingdom, Renewing the City, and the widely circulated “Urban Perspectives”, a monthly reflection on the Gospel and the poor. Bob released a brand new book in July 2015 titled, Charity Detox which draws on his many decades of experience, and outlines how to structure programs that actually improve the quality of the life of the poor and disenfranchised. Bob has a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Georgia. He serves as speaker, strategist, and inspirer with those throughout the nation who seek to establish God’s Shalom in the city.

For more information or to make reservations, click here.

First Steps, August 20, 2018

I once read that when we fail to forgive, we hold others and ourselves in a pseudo-conscious bondage.  Refusal to forgive holds the other person in the bondage of our own judgment.  In our minds, the other person can never be more than what we conceive of them because of the event that led to our bitterness.

For instance, a person hurts me and I perceive him/her as a rat. He/she will always be a rat because I can’t envision anything else.  Though the person is bound in my consciousness as a rat, the real bondage is NOT the other person—IT IS ME.  Failure to forgive traps me.  Often the other person lives their life free from bitterness trappings; but I’m bound to that singular event which holds me as a captive.  It is not by chance that the Latin word for mercy (Eleison) actually means, “to unbind.”

Perhaps this is why Jesus taught often on the subject of forgiveness. Maybe it is the key to true freedom. I think so. Therefore, pursue forgiveness and in doing so, you pursue freedom.

 

 

 

This week’s reading:

  • Monday – Matthew 23
  • Tuesday – Matthew 24
  • Wednesday – Matthew 25
  • Thursday – Matthew 26
  • ​Friday – Matthew 27

Please Pray for:

  • The United Methodist Church
  • Our families, homes, workplace, church, and community.
    ​Our nation and our leaders.
  • Those grieving the loss of loved ones.
  • ​Ongoing Building Renovations, Modifications, and Phase 3: Construction of New Youth Building and rear parking.
  • Upcoming activities and studies planned for this fall/winter.