Wanted: Prophets of Urban Re:development...

I ran across this and thought it expressed exactly what I was trying to articulate last night in our home group, concerning the challenges of living in suburbia and urban environments. These kind of thinkers give me hope and embody Jeremiah 29:7: "Work for the good of the city where I've taken you as captives, and pray to the LORD for that city. When it prospers, you will also prosper."

As a pastor who is involved in the work of planting, cultivating and renewing life; I see many challenges and opportunities to build better lives all around our daily community. That endeavor encompasses many spheres or interconnected parts of the whole: marriage life, family life, education life, work life, food life, recreation life, political life, the arts, business, etc...all interconnected and in need of reform, wisdom and fresh vision on interrelating them in way that bring about order, beauty and prosperity. It's a crucial intersect where our faith has to shape our values and our thinking. Our faith informs and inspires our vision of the present and should frame our plans of the future. We are by nature, created in the image of God and should envision a future reality that is just. A environmentally sound justice that works its way out in the everyday mechanics of American life.

With all the problems facing us as a nation and world...we are in dire need of people who dream dreams and see visions again (Joel 2:28). Dreams and visions of how to live a better and more sustainable (body/soul/spirit) existence for us and our children.