intersections

This Is My Father's World (International Journal of Public Theology)

I recently had a very short essay published in the International Journal of Public Theology (Brill: 6, 2012). It's entitled "This Is My Father's World" and deals with the challenge of eschatology for faith-based community organizing. It appears together with three other essays by my esteemed colleagues: Patty Daley (IAF), Anthony Banout (formerly of Gamaliel, now with the Interfaith Youth Core), and Jonathan Curie (International Worker Justice).

Leaders In Faith-Based Organizing Networks

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The terms of the copyright permit me to post this here on my own personal website. Please enjoy for your own personal reading but do not duplicate or distrubite without permission from the Brill.

My speech from yesterday's Prop 30 Press Conference

Pastor Bell Explains to Local College Students Why He Supports Prop 30

Los Angeles City College | October 11, 2012

Good morning. My name is Ryan Bell. I am the pastor of the Hollywood Adventist Church and a clergy leader with LA Voice—a local affiliate of PICO California and the PICO National Network. Here in Los Angeles we represent 20 congregations working together for social justice in our communities. 

As a pastor, I know that one of the most important obligations we have is to the most vulnerable members of our community. PICO and LA Voice have a history of standing with our community’s children when others would forget them or brush them aside. In my faith tradition we have a story of Jesus’ closest followers shooing away the children—assuming, I suppose, that Jesus wouldn’t want to be bothered. Jesus rebukes them and says, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Click here to read the whole thing...

2011 Year in Review

I can't believe another year has passed into history. It's been an incredibly busy twelve months, full of milestones and new ventures, for me and my family. This brief update will give you a little idea in words and images, what we've been up to this year.

Family

Urban life is a little insane. There is always too much happening in too little time and space, but we can never complain of boredom. Elysabeth made an enormously courageous decision to start a new career this year. She is currently enrolled in the Vidal Sassoon Academy in Santa Monica. She began the one year program in  September and is looking forward to putting her considerable artistic ability to work styling hair. In February she also had a solo exhibit of her new paintings in Silver Lake. You can see her paintings here, and even purchase one!

Zoe started 6th grade this year in a new school - Renaissance Arts Academy - where in addition to her regular studies she is studying modern dance. On June 4th I had the amazing privilege of baptizing Zoe!

Sophie started 3rd grade this year at Franklin Elementary where she's been since Kindergarden and excelling in all her subjects! After school she continues to learn the piano.

Ministry

My ministry at the Hollywood Adventist Church is as rewarding as ever. This year we had the remarkable experience of partnering with a dozen or more Muslims from the nearby Islamic Center of Southern California and having some inspiring conversations about our respective faiths. On the 10^th Anniversary of September 11 we had the privilege of hosting Imam Jihad Turk, from the Islamic Center, to speak about peacemaking in our world.

Needed: Prophetic Voices for a Just Economy

Last week I spent three days in Washington, D.C. with clergy from the PICO National Network. PICO is a congregation-based community organization that is working for justice in our communities. The clergy work toether, locally and nationally, to give a prophetic tone to our voice as we speak and act for justice. Yesterday I posted some reflections at The Huffington Post about my time spent with these faith leaders as we think about where we're at as a nation. You can read a portion below or click here to read the whole thing at the Huffington Post.

"How do you respond when you see this chart?"

That was the question Scott Reed, Executive Director of the PICO National Network, asked a room of about 25 pastors and rabbis who had gathered in Washington, D.C. for the first meeting of the new National Clergy Leadership Council.

"How does it feel to be faith leaders during such a time?" he asked.

A few people had seen this already during a presentation by Josh Bivens, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute and author of the recent book, Failure by Design: The Story Behind America's Broken Economy, but it was brand new to me. It took me, and others, a few minutes to digest what we were seeing here. One by one we commented about what we thought caused this. We tried to explain it, justify it, and rationalize it. Then Scott said something that stopped me cold in my tracks. <keep reading>

 

Also, if you haven't checked The Hillhurst Review in a while (or ever) I have posted several reviews there in the past couple of months. Stay tuned for new reviews in the coming days including a new book by Miroslav Volf called Allah and a helpful book for faith leaders in multicultural settings, Churches, Cultures and Leadership, by Mark Lau Branson and Juan Martinez.

Sojourners on Faith-Based Community Organizing

I was interviewed back in June for this Sojourners article by Daniel Duncan Collum, "Why Does Glenn Beck Hate Community Organizers?" (a question that the article never attempts to answer, except in the tagline.).

I appreciated the opportunity to share how community organizing has invigorated our ministry in Hollywood. Hope you enjoy it!

Why Does Glenn Beck Hate Community Organizers?

The Main Reason: They upend the power structure to give people at the bottom a better chance.

By Danny Duncan Collum

When Ryan Bell took over as pastor of Hollywood Adventist Church in California, it was a withering congregation with only about 50 active members. And, he says, “We had a homeless ministry we couldn’t afford and a debt that was about to kill the church.” Bell reluctantly closed the feeding program for the homeless but resolved to find a more practical way to address the issue.

Soon he discovered LA Voice, a congregation-based community organizing federation affiliated with the PICO (People Improving Communities through Organizing) National Network that was working to have the city create permanent supportive housing for the homeless in Hollywood.

The Adventist congregation threw itself into that effort, which succeeded against intense local opposition. After that experience, Bell told Sojourners, he went to the Voice organizer and said, ‘Where do we sign up to join?’” But the organizer told him that there had to be a committee of lay leaders involved. “I just groaned,” Bell remembers. “I thought, ‘That’ll never happen.’” But Hollywood Adventist is now an integral part of the LA Voice federation working for affordable housing.

Read the rest here

LA Voice on the cover of the LA Times

Prayer Rally for Health Care Reform tomorrow!

Tomorrow I have the privilege to speak at a prayer rally in Hollywood in support of health care reform. This event is being put on by LA Voice and our 25 member congregations. I and a few other clergy will pray and speak to the issue from a moral/faith perspective.

Members of our congregations will tell their personal health care stories and then two of our elected officials will speak: Congressman Xavier Becerra and Congresswoman Diane Watson. Ms. Watson represents the area when I live and where the Hollywood Adventist Church is located.

If you live in the area and are available at 10:00 am, please come to:

Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church
6657 Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, CA 90028

If you want to learn more about PICO's work on behalf of health care reform visit: www.coverallfamilies.org

Also check out this short piece at NPR's news blog.

PICO: Economic Recovery Summit in Washington, D.C.

Last week I participated in the Faith and Families Economic Recovery Summit along with nearly 300 other leaders from PICO affiliates around the country. I traveled to Washington, DC with our executive director, one organizer and two other leaders from LA Voice.

The PICO National Network is made up of 53 affiliate organizations in 17 states around the country, representing over 1 million American families. Our national work achieved a major victory when, on February 4, President Obama signed the expanded S-CHIP legislation into law, effectly opening the way to provide heath care coverage to 4.1 million additional children (read more).

Now the PICO Network is turning their attention to two primary issues at the national level: universal health coverage and an end to unnecessary home foreclosures. Below are several videos that will give you a little taste of what our week was like.

Click here to read a report of this most recent PICO event in Washington, DC.

We FINALLY get S-CHIP passed

I don't have time to create links to all the posts I've written about S-CHIP over the last two years, but I traveled to Washington, D.C. with people from the PICO Network three times to fight for this bill, which expands health insurance coverage to millions of children who are currently without it.

Today, the Senate passed a strong bill with bi-partisan support. The change just keeps coming! This victory was a bit belated (with two vetos by former President George W. Bush), but, as they say, it's better late than never.

Read more here.

Explaining Community Organizing

My friend, and PICO National Staff member, Gordon Whitman, sent this statement to the network this morning. I found it so powerful and compelling I wanted to share it here. Here are a couple of excerpts. Read the entire statement after the jump.

Americans have been organizing to build community and hold government accountable since our nation was formed, but last week there was more talk in the national media about modern community organizing than at any time in recent history.

When speakers at the Republican National Convention repeatedly mocked Senator Obama's work as a community organizer many of us witnessed not just another political attack, but mean-spirited disrespect for people who give of themselves to improve communities and expand opportunities for families.

As Bishop Roy Dixon, former president of the PICO board of directors, said, "As a life-long Republican, the comments I heard last night about community organizing crossed the line. It is one thing to question someone's experience, another to demean the work of millions of hard working Americans who take time to get involved in their communities. When people come together in my church hall to improve our community, they're building the Kingdom of God in San Diego. We see the fruits of community organizing in safer streets, new parks, and new affordable housing. It's the spirit of democracy for people to have a say and we need more of it."

Fr. John Baumann, who founded PICO 35 years ago, said in an Associated Press story that ran in papers across the country that "If people in office were doing their jobs, perhaps we wouldn't need community organizers."

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For PICO, every aspect about the work of community organizing – from taking the time to listen to people, to researching solutions to problems, to bringing people together across race, religion and party affiliation – is engineered to develop the skills and leadership of ordinary people.  PICO teaches that devoting yourself to developing the leadership skills of others is what a true leader does.

In PICO we don't ask whether someone is a Republican or Democrat, but whether they are doing their job.  We reject any suggestion on the right or the left that community organizing belongs to any one political party.  All across the United States both Republican and Democratic elected officials have worked with PICO organizations and other organizing groups to reduce crime through community policing, build public will for schools reform, revitalize neighborhoods and create affordable housing.

There are always those in power who dismiss people who want to get involved. That arrogance is folly.  Those who understand the history of the United States, those who hear the call to witness God's love in the world, realize that mayors and governors and presidents alone cannot solve the problems we face as a nation.  Only when people get involved, only when people have the power to hold the powers that be accountable can we create a world that respects each of us in God's image.