June 27, 2009
Written by J. Martin Bailey

Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine, blogger and writer, lecturer, prominent theologian, told an enthusiastic audience at the 27th General Synod, that the election of Barak Obama has put mainline American Protestants in a new place.

"We now have space," he said, to tell people what we are for and not what we are against."

And with an allusion to the economic issues facing the nation and its non-profit institutions, Wallis quoted Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff: "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste."

Speaking on the subject of the church's ministry in the public arena, Wallis insisted that we must do more than provide chaplains in places of power. "More than ever before we need to seize the new moment; we are in a new day, and we need to respond with a new choreography. We need a new kind of prophet. Our new model is not Amos or Isaiah, who spoke the difficult truth to power. Our model needs to be Nehemiah, who spoke to kings in a new way."

Like Nehemiah, he suggested, we will not tear our hair and shout, "When will this crisis end? Rather we will seek to understand how this crisis will change us."

Referring to the familiar Gospel story of the "feeding of 5,000 men (as well as women and children who weren't counted in those days)" Wallis told about the boy with a few loaves and fish. "Jesus didn't need that boy. He could have produced the feast without the boy. But he worked with the kid who shared his lunch."

In hard times, he pointed out, "Our temptation is to hunker down. To conserve what we have. To retreat into our congregations. But we should, instead, look for the little boy whose willingness to share will inspire others.

"We need to rediscover the concept of parish," Wallis said. "We need to acknowledge that our churches are responsible for the front steps—even when we aren't using them. We need to be responsible for the entire parish, and then announce, with John Wesley, that the world is our parish."

Throughout his address, as Jim Wallis moved back and forth across a long platform, the audience smiled with his frequent surprises. His illustrations were filled with new twists and different angles. At one point, however, many in his audience anticipated his conclusion: identifying with Wesley they said with Wallis, "the world is our parish.

United Church of Christ News Service