“The nature of injustice in neighborhoods varies from one place to the next. It is easy to make this about poor neighborhoods and rich neighborhoods, proclaiming that justice is about those classified as rich doing something nice for those classified as poor. As a result, justice becomes about being good deed doers. With this mind-set, groups might think they are following Jesus in righting wrongs by attending the church's monthly outreach night or doing a periodic service project for the community. But facing injustice is not something we can check off our monthly to-do list so that we can feel proud of our good deeds.
“Treating people as a project reinforces the injustice. Instead, we are called to engage people relationally to discover who they are as people. Jesus instructs his people to face injustice personally and to do so by treating those in need as equals.” Missional Small Groups, pages 154-155
<idle musing>
Treating people as people is the beginning of evangelism. Treating them as projects is demeaning and does no one any good.
</idle musing>
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