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The Biblical Basis for Our Vision
6 "With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" 8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:6-8 (NRSV)
The Lord requires us “to do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God (faithfulness).” (Micah 6:8)
Our congregations remind us to be faithful: We gather at least 52 times yearly to worship and do other faithfulness ministries that encourage our “humble walk” with God. Many of our congregations do an excellent job of showing mercy by providing services like tutoring to the victims of injustice. Unfortunately, our congregations don’t “do justice” very well. Biblically, justice holds the King and officials accountable for the fair treatment of all people, especially the poor, the widows, and orphans.
We follow the biblical example by bringing together the Mayor, City Council, business leaders, and other officials to hear our solutions for community problems. It takes a lot of “people-power” to get listened to by political and economic systems in our communities.
How do we "do justice?"
We learn from Nehemiah’s calling of a great assembly of people to bring charges against the unfair money lenders and how we can do justice successfully. (Nehemiah 5:1-13)
While in Jerusalem, Nehemiah heard of the economic exploitation of the people by public officials – who charged unfair interest rates to make money off the poor and vulnerable people of the land. Nehemiah was a powerful man in his own right – a cupbearer to the King. Still, he did not have enough power to confront the unjust economic system displacing people from their properties. Nehemiah could have set up some mercy ministries, like clothes closets or food pantries, but decided to do justice by getting the money lenders to act fairly. Nehemiah called it a “Great Assembly.” The whole community asked the public officials to return the land, children, crops, and interest (money) to the people immediately.
The nobles and officials agreed and did what they promised.
One congregation doesn't have enough people-power to do justice. Therefore, we build our power by joining congregations across the county, bringing together thousands of people to a big Nehemiah Action to win needed changes. FAST is a tool that allows each congregation to work with other congregations to live out God’s call to “do justice” effectively.
Each Congregation’s Vision
Each congregation’s vision is to turn out our average worship attendance (AWA) once a year to “do justice” at that great Nehemiah Action! 52 times a year, congregations come together to worship, praise God, and deepen our “faithfulness” and “humble walk” with God. We can certainly turn out that same number of people for justice at least once a year!
To reach that vision, we organize people into justice ministry networks.
Justice Ministry Network members commit to the following:
Attend the Nehemiah Action in the Spring and bring three people along.
AND
Attend three other Assemblies yearly to prepare us for the Nehemiah Action and build self-sufficiency.
Annual Assembly in the Fall to start a new year of justice ministry work.
FAST Rally early in the new year.
Joshua Assembly to celebrate our accomplishments as we wrap up our year.
Our Big Holy Audacious Goal (BHAG)
FAST congregations have a Big Holy Audacious Goal (BHAG) of eventually bringing together 10,000 people to the Nehemiah Action! We believe this is the power we need to bring about meaningful changes in our community, so we are working diligently to make this goal a reality. Together, we can bring justice to Pinellas County!