1. PROCLAIMING GOOD NEWS. TO THE POOR OF A KINGDOM JUBILEE. Viv Grigg
PROCLAIMING GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR OF A KINGDOM JUBILEE Viv Grigg Urban Leadership Foundation June 2006 (to be edited)
I bring you greetings from the church in the slums of Manila, Kampala, Hyderabad, Chennai, where at times I have been over the last months
Thank-you for your prayers the last two months as I have been travelling.
It has been a time of fruitfulness as we press towards 50,000 cross-cultural workers for the slums.

2. When people heard him, what did they understand?
Jesus came to preach good news of the Kingdom of God to the poor, to set the captives free, to declare the acceptable year of the Lord (– the year of Jubilee) (Luke 4:18, 19).
So what do we train pastors in?
Churchplanting
Holistic churchplanting
Kingdom Economics
I will share some of this with you and make application for you here in the Tab
It begins by affirming the pastors in their central activity of preaching the Kingdom. But what is the Kingdom.
To understand this we look at the social and econnomci and ppoitical aspects of the Kingdom.
This begins in Luke 4:18 It is reasoanable to understand that this acceptable year that Isaiah is refers to refers back to the Jubilee in Exodus.
When people heard him, what did they understand?

3. The Jubilee (Lev 25: 8-55) – proclamation, celebration
8. Count off… 49 years, then have the trumpet sounded everywhere…proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants…The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines…eat only what is taken directly from the fields…
13. In this year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.

4. Jubilee – Economic Redistribution
14. If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him do not take advantage of each other. You are to buy on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. When the years are many, you are to increase the price and when the years are few you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops.

5. Jubilee – Freedom from bondage
23. The land must not be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are but aliens and tenants...
39 If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave. He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you; he is to work until the Year of Jubilee. Then he and his children are to be released…

6. 1. The Jubilee (Lev 25:8-55) Every 50th year A time of equalizing.
I. SLAVES ARE SET FREE
II. DEBTS ARE TO BE CANCELED.
III. CELEBRATION.
IV. REDISTRIBUTION

7. 2. Jesus’ Message of the Jubilee
Jesus describes it as
a proclamation of freedom
a release from oppression
the coming of a special year.
Not a year but an age of Jubilee
The Gospel is liberating
The Gospel is economic
The gospel is one of celebration

8. I. A LIBERATING GOSPEL To be released from oppression is good news.
Did you come this morning oppressed?
financial bondage?

9. II. A CELEBRATING GOSPEL
In the Jubilee, life is a celebration.
Our task is to bring the joy of Christ into situations of darkness, the hope of Christ into situations of despair.
Jesus knew how to enjoy life
At parties with the rich he did his evangelism. For as the proclaimer of Jubilee, he was calling people to celebrate.

10. III. AN ECOLOGICAL GOSPEL
The Jubilee involves the redistribution of the land
Christians work with slum dwellers to gain land rights
In NZ, evangelism last decade hinged on leadership in land rights issues for Maori
This decade it will hinge on Christian leadership of environmental issues
And the fight for young couples to have their own land
Half the world is disposessed
This involves confronting the oppression of the “legal” rich, violence, murder
Raineer Chu – Lawyer who
rescues communities in land conflicts

11. IV. A RECONCILING GOSPEL
Immediately after declaring his mandate in Luke 4:18, Jesus began to talk about ministering to Gentiles.
They tried to throw him of a cliff
The jubilee is reconciling.
That is the basis for a multicultural church.
V. AN ECONOMIC GOSPEL

12. 3. Jubilee Economics in the Acts Community (Acts 2:42-44)
FIRST PRINCIPLE: CELEBRATION
SECOND PRINCIPLE: COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS
THIRD PRINCIPLE: FORSAKING
FOURTH PRINCIPLE: MEETING NEEDS
FIFTH PRINCIPLE: PRIVATE OWNERSHIP WITHOUT POSSESSIVENESS
SIXTH PRINCIPLE: VOLUNTARY GIVING
SEVENTH PRINCIPLE: THE EQUALIZING GOSPEL
AN EQUALIZING GOSPEL
A RANGE OF JUSTICE & EQUALITY

13. 4. Summary of Principles of Kingdom Economics
Genesis/ Jubilee
Gospels & Acts
Epistles
1. Creativity
God the creator
Spirit sets free
2. Cooperative Economics
Let us make
Sharing
Provide for others
4. Productivity
Good outcomes
Labour in gospel
Work with hands (1 Thes 4:11)
3. Rest
God rests
Jubilee come
5. Cooperative Economics
6 Redistribut’n for Equality
Jubilee –return of land Tithing
No needy one
Weekly Giving
Global redist’n (2 Cor 8,9)
Simplicity(1Tim6:6-8)
7. Savings & Debt
Jubilee cancels debts
Debts cancelled
Owe no man
8. Celebration
It was good
Worship daily
9. Ownership / Own home / Forsake all, / Provide family (Levites) yet own home (1 Tim 5:8)

14. Gospel Transformation of Poverty
Upon Conversion
Release from sins of drunkenness, gambling, immorality, bitterness
Release from demons
Stability in work
God answers prayers
Supportive community of faith
New vision, new zeal
A passion for learning
Faithfulness, honesty lead to promotions

15. Gospel Transformation of Poverty II Cooperative Economics: Savings in the Slums
II. Credit Cooperatives
Savings: 10 people contributing $1 per week into a common fund
Given to one person to capitalise a small business
They repay week by week, others keep contributing
Trains people to do basic bookkeeping
III. Microfinance
Only viable after 1-2 years of savings and credit cooperatives, only works with the proven
Too high a level of management for most poor

16. 5. Jubilee and International Redistribution (2 Corinthians 8,9)
The Principles of Jubilee
seen in Jesus community
then in the Acts community
are further extended globally in Paul’s teaching on global redistribution between the churches
If this church is to become a genuine mission supporting church

17. Sacrificial Simple Lifestyles International Redistribution II Cor 8,9

18. I Tim 6:6-10

19. Credit Cooperatives in a Western Church
What would happen if the church cut out the moneylenders (Banks)?
What if twenty families paid in $40 per week to a common fund?
What if the common fund was then used to pay off one mortgage…

20. What to Do Internationally?
Repent, Engage, Go
Sit down with family and determine what to do to simplify lifestyle
Commit to costs of training one pastor ($50)
Seed fund one project, one co-op ($1000)
Buy a church (set a congregation free, $10-20,000)
Work with us in one training program, assist with video, typing CD

21. Be set free Time of symbolic commitment
Or time for reflection with your small group
Leaders can pray with you at front

22. Towards 50,000 Cross-cultural Churchplanters in the Slums
Recent Training in Kampala, Uganda
Hyderabad, India
Time in Uganda saw 45 pastors trained and in India 90 pastors and their wives trained in grassroots churchplanting. They have committed to training another 650 churchplanters. 30 years of pioneering works in the slums has left me with leadership of an alliance of some 50 slum movements from around the world. Part of that is developing the training for leaders of movements around the world. In this last week, I have seen the consolidation of 4 years of work as 3 institutions have committed to deliver an MA in Urban Leadership that I have been designing for some years. This will mean probably 1000 movement leaders significantly trained in the next decades.
Setting up a masters training program with three institutions for slum movement leaders

23. Urban Leadership Foundation
30 years catalysing slum movements
By faith…
Expanding simple base
Need to move from garage to 2 room office for 5 people
Need volunteer bookkeeper, database manager, conference organiser
This we do by faith, trusting God to provide month by month, without any visible means of support. My base for this has been Urban Leadership – operated from my garage.
Dependent on your prayer…
I am in need of couple of offices for four staff, an administrator, a database person, a bookkeeper – all of whom will trust God for their support.
Also need to expand my board
Brochures Books on table
Free? Cheap? ^