Guest blog: Five thoughts for making a difference
Guest blog by Kris Bartanen, LAMA Liaison at New Journey Lutheran Church, Fountain Hills
Our Fountain Hills ELCA congregation is small, with summer Sunday worship at 25-30 persons and the winter count topping out at 60 on the best days. Small does not mean quiet, however, as stories of our 2024 projects to-date exemplify.
What makes a difference in our abilities to put faith into action and to raise voices audibly into the public square?
Vision: Officially chartered just ten years ago, New Journey made a conscious choice not to own land or build a building; we are a “storefront church” committed to putting our limited resources into social action.
Partnership: We have begun to work collaboratively, with four partner ELCA churches (Ascension, Christ the Lord, Living Water, New Covenant) in the Northeast Valley Consortium (NEVC). New Journey’s Easter season project to support Casa de la Misericordia y de Todas las Naciones asylum shelter in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico is one example of ongoing collaboration. On June 17, we will launch a 13-week cooperative effort to provide 2600 lunches to Grace in the City’s heat respite program in central Phoenix.
Pastoral voice: New Journey’s advocacy efforts have grown from passive postings, often those highlighted by LAMAz.org, to an in-progress experiment with “5th Sunday” letter-signing (on the U.S. Farm Bill and Arizona supplementary school lunch funding), to a direct ask by Pr. Beth Gallen (on work permits for asylum-seekers) in her Ascension Sunday message: “Jesus ascends and sends us into the world for the love of the world.” A pastor’s voice, grounded in scripture, matters in motivating signatures.
Advance preparation and feedback: When possible, we post ELCA Action Alerts and include advance text of letters in New Journey’s e-News or Facebook postings. Members like to read material before they sign. We always emphasize that signing is optional and have materials available for folks who would like to speak in their own voice and/or with a different perspective. We are open to feedback, e.g., as to whether e-mail or postal addresses are requested with signatures, or what other topics we might address.
Tell the story: Keeping members apprised of advocacy successes (such as the Mesa City Council’s purchase of a hotel to house persons experiencing homelessness, or temporary extension of hunger provisions of the U.S. Farm Bill) are important, as persuasive efforts to achieve systemic change can be long-term. Important, too, is telling your own story in letters of advocacy: Why, for example, did New Journey write to encourage Representative Schweikert to co-sponsor and vote in favor of H.R. 1325 to shorten the period for asylum-seekers to apply for work permits from 120-days to 30- days? Because we have worked directly to prepare apartments for Afghan evacuees resettling here, we have contributed for the temporary home provided by “Casa M” for asylum-seekers, and we have provided on-going support to LSS-SW for immigration and refugee services. We included these details, briefly, in our letter because we believe our credibility as advocates makes a difference in achieving systemic change.
Editor’s note: Our thanks to Kris and the team at New Journey for sharing their thoughts with us. We’d love to hear your story! All are invited and encouraged to share an article or blog with us at the LAMA weekly newsletter.